Please only answer if you are atheists. Is martyrdom possible for you personally? For example, if someone said "bow down to God or we will kill you" would you give up your life for your disbelief? Or would your choice not matter since you are not accountable to God....or since you do not believe in an afterlife? Thanks. Just curious.
2007-04-02 01:34:19 · 25 answers · asked by Veritas 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I want to live.
I'd bow down and fake it.
2007-04-02 01:37:13 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 0⤋
Who says atheists have no cause or belief?
I will not bow down to any self righteous hypocrite. I have no belief in afterlife like a religious person, but I do think the world became a better place because people stood up for what they believed. And they are called martyrs which is not a word reserved for religious people only.
2007-04-02 01:49:15 · answer #2 · answered by ShanShui 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I would bow down to God, as since he doesn't exist and I do, it would just be lip-service.
However, there are non-religious martyrs both on the good and bad side. you don't have to look much further than the Tamil Tigers for examples of the latter.
EDIT: Further to the example of a lie detector test, I guess I would fail it and die then. You cannot make someone believe in God at the point of a gun.
2007-04-02 01:38:02 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
While I am not an atheist, I would imagine a profound atheist, like a profound theist would be willing to die for his belief.
While atheists have no faith in the existence of God, many have faith in the truth. They struggle, just as theists do for a quest for the truth, and many have allegedly found an essential truth in atheism. In atheism the only super-human entity is truth, it is the only thing that serves as an objective purpose in life. To save your life and sacrifice the truth would degrade the purpose of life to mere biological functions. A profound atheist would not only be willing, but glad to uphold the truth.
-Kerplunk!
2007-04-02 10:03:00 · answer #4 · answered by Kerplunk! 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Bowing down to an non-existent sky fairy would be pretty easy to save my life (the only one I've got anyway).
Easier to be a martyr if you're religious and believe in an afterlife. Why do you think all the Islamic suicide bombers?
2007-04-02 01:46:49 · answer #5 · answered by Brendan G 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If someone holds a gun to your head and asks you to disavow God or they will kill you, I'm sure you'll give in. Point is, you really wouldn't have in your mind. You're trying to get people to convert at the point of a gun which believe me, Xtian and other religious types have been doing for hundreds if not thousands of years. And golly gee, there are STILL atheists and non-xtians abound. You can't control someone's thoughts by trying to scare them.
2007-04-02 02:16:39 · answer #6 · answered by theoryparker 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I know I have a really strong survival instinct - long story - so I shouldn't hesitate for a second to tell the heinous religio-nut whatever they wanted to hear. So far I've not found any cause I would (knowingly) martyr myself for, but I don't rule out the possibility that one exists; but before all you soul sniffers get excited, it's extremely unlikely, and it certainly wouldn't be in the name of any god.
2007-04-02 02:11:27 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think it is pretty damn stupid to give up your life for the belief/disbelief in imaginary gods. So given the god or death option, I would pretend and go along to save my skin, then work against that oppression from within.
2007-04-02 01:46:11 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Why would I care? I mean I am hardly a pacifist and I would be a tough one to get into that position given my military background. I personally would rather fight it out than be captured. But to save my life it wouldn't matter to me. It isn't like me saying that would offend anyone. I couldn't actually change my mind even if I wanted to.
2007-04-02 01:50:35 · answer #9 · answered by Alex 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'd give up life for my anti-belief.... definitely.
Life is as effectively worthless as anything else to me... and my dedication to resolution of my existence is all I live for.
I most certainly wouldn't throw away all I stand for because some retard wanted me to brown-nose his old-testament god. I am not a liar either.
Given the chance, I would resist to the death at the very least. I wouldn't just stand there and take a beating... but actively attack them and force them to kill me...
2007-04-02 01:46:00 · answer #10 · answered by Nihilist Templar 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
All atheists simply don't believe in god - some of us, however, believe in other things we hold equally important.
Why do you assume that all atheists do not believe in an after-life? You really should do some research before asking a question like this.
.
2007-04-02 01:41:23 · answer #11 · answered by abetterfate 7 · 3⤊ 1⤋