Christians are never known to renounce their faith on their death bed, but atheists often convert at that time

Question

In this question, someone made that good point. Have atheists ever really thought about this fact?

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Answer 1

My dad says he's gone into combat with athiests... but he never came out with any! I think the old way to say it is "there are no athiests in a fox hole".

Answer 2

With regard to death bed conversion, I believe truth is clearly known but refused in preference to another way. However, confronted with death that truth is finally acknowledged and repentence is truly felt on the death bed.

All people react to truth or what they believe is truth.
Some love it and do all they can to further it. Some hate it and/or fear it, and try to change it. Regardless of whether or not it is real Truth or a deception disguised as truth and being accepted as the real thing, the love or the hate attitude toward truth reveals the heart condition of the individual to God. An example is Apostle Paul. God knew he would change and serve Him if he knew the Truth; and, of course, he did just that. The source of Absolute Truth for a Christian is the Bible in its entirety. The Bible is the Word of God and God cannot lie. It has been the sole responsibility of the Church to establish the infallibility of the Scriptures in the world. Instead of doing that, the Churches have added this, subtracted that, and changed the other to the point that their flocks have no more idea of what the Bible really teaches than the proverbial hog has about Sunday. Catholic and Protestant are guilty as charged. The atheists comes along and realizes this and complicates it worse. He denys God, refuses to listen, thinks he's smarter than most, believes men who are so confused they don't know what end of Science is up and ends up converting on his death bed.

Answer 3

Old people are far more set in their ways as they come from a more ignorant time when we knew less. The majority of people who are on "death beds" are older people as the risk of dying goes up with age. If a young person dies, it is usually from a quick accident and they don't have time to renounce anything. The majority of older folks are Christians as that was THE religion and the majority of people were too stupid to think for themselves as the newer generation will do. And since older people always think they're right, there's no need to "renounce" their faiths on their deathbeds or anywhere else.

Answer 4

A person converting to christianity from Atheism on his deathbed is, in fact, reaffirming his commitment to rationality. He has lived his life embracing the rational path, yet, there is a 1 in a billion chance the christians are right, so, why not sacrifice your last 30 seconds to potentially buy yourself eternity. It doesn't mean he really believes in it, it's just a reasonable precaution. He's only accepting your mysticism for the absolute minimum time necessary to complete the contract with your "god". This illustrates how repugnant your beliefs are to a rational person.

Personally, I don't think I'll bother sullying my last 30 seconds in that manner, but I can see why a reasoning person might.

Anyway: SHOW US THE NUMBERS!!! You can't support your statement with stats, anyway, so it doesn't matter.

Answer 5

Another fact supported by no evidence. If you were raised as a Muslims would you turn into an atheist just a second before death? That makes no sense. Of course you would stay. Sorry even IF some Atheist says I believe in God right before he dies still does not make God real. Or mean that its your God.


PS: Most people die in their sleep without knowing they will die that night.

Answer 6

Because once on your death bed, you are afraid of what is to come. Religion offers eternal life and happiness. Atheism offers... nothing. Therefore you would rather have the happiness than find out you're wrong and burn in hell. I think that is stupid and if you have a belief you should stand by it until proven wrong. Not give in when its convenient for you. I am atheist and I plan not to do a death bed conversion.

Answer 7

People choose to be an atheist not because there is no evidence for God but to live a sinful life without guilt so they choose to renounce their faith on atheism in their death bed. The struggle of atheists is not intellectual but moral

Answer 8

"Christians are never known to renounce their faith on their death bed"

I find that very, very, very hard to believe. There are Christians here who have lost their faith just from coming to this site for a couple months.

Answer 9

I doubt that that is actually the case. You would have to present some kind of empirical study and statistics for me to even begin to consider that.

I highly doubt hardly any atheists have ever converted on their death bed. What would be the point?

Please do not present assumptions as facts.

Answer 10

Maybe Christians don't renounce their faith, but I've known some who are terrified to meet their diety. Have you ever thought that you might not be up to snuff in your god's estimation? Is that the sort of doubt you want to have at such a moment?

Answer 11

Every christian who tries to escape the path of a speeding bullet with fear in his eye is an example of a "foxhole conversion" to atheism and proves they don't really believe in a heavenly paradise in the hereafter. There are a hell of a lot more of those conversions than there are of atheists to christians.