How do you explain the myth "there are no atheists in foxholes"?

Question

The “no Atheists in foxholes” cliche marginalizes and insults millions of Americans who profess “no religion” (American Religious Identification Survey), including those who are serving – or have served – with honor, patriotism and distinction in our nation’s armed forces.

Answer 1

Some religious people can't accept the fact that not everyone believes so they make up things like that. They falsely assume that, in fear for their lives, Atheists would suddenly believe.

Answer 2

People are afraid to confront with reason beliefs different from their own and far more afraid to confront lack of religiousity in life threatening situations. So they simply deny that such a thing is possible. Moral cowardice to be sure, but it's human nature.

After 911 the bigotry toward atheists and agnostics grew worse. At the same time, many persons in my country believed anyone who questioned the current administration to be unpatriotic. That is scary!

I wish more persons, especially young ones, would read Sam Harris's Letters to a Christian Nation.

I've met veterans, especially of WWII, at conventions and on the internet who were atheists in foxholes. They deserve the same respect as other veterans who've fought for their country. One especially I remember. He lost both legs at age 19. (after saving two comrades, he stepped on a land mine) He was not pleased with having his patriotism questioned.

An American citizen who mocks and insult ANY of those who fought and suffered the hell of combat for the securities and liberties s/he now enjoys....

How....admirable. How...patriotic.


There is a monument to atheists in foxholes. (see 2 links below)

Answer 3

How do you know that this is a myth?

I would suggest some western civ. remedial courses for you, emphasizing WW One and Two..or rent and watch Tom Hanks in Private Ryan..esp the first 10 minutes.

Imagine being 18 years of age and it's 1917 and you're in a big trench and across a span of say 500 yards; there are enemy troops (who have high powered machine guns)...In the summer the trench is hot and full of rats and stinks, in the winter, it has lots of puddles of cold water and ice and rats and stinks.

Now, add general haig...who decides that "we aren't getting anywhere"..."I know...I'll order the boys 'over the top' (into the mine field, the barbed wire and the hail of machine gun bullets) and on the first day - thousands of young men were slaughtered. So, the brilliant general decided that that was not a good plan and cancelled it !!!! No Waaaaayyyy, he ordered 'the boys' over the top for 4 long months and almost half a million were murdered.

I suspect that in that trench there was not much mockery of God and not too much alternative religions.

Meanwhile, then and after the great war...the intelligensia, the artists and the bohemians got 'thinking'. And decided that this world is hostile and absurd; and a whole flock of them went to their room and shot themselves. This was the advent of existentialism, by the way.

You see, the satan was thrown to earth right about 1917; and showed its true colors in the 'great war' and subsequently.

I can hear someone whining that God should have stopped it; but, that is not what He does, He is going to let us make our choices and live (or die) with the consequences thereof.

Answer 4

... About 17 years ago I knew this young man who was an atheist, but you wouldn't have known it because he wasn't all that concerned about 'proselytizing' it, - as so many militant atheists of today seem to be fond of doing.

In fact,...
... unless you happened to get into a discussion of religion with him (something he avoided like the plague), you would never have guessed he was an atheist at all,..
...as the only evident clue to that might lead one to such a conclusion is that, - right under his name, social security number and blood type, - the letters 'No Pref' were stamped into his dog tags;...
...and who, save a medic or a chaplain, would have reason to get that close to a man's dog tags...:-))

Early one morning, after an evening filled many loud and angry noises and flashes of light, this young man happened to see another man who was a relatively non-descript fellow.
In fact, the young man may would not have noticed him at all...
... if it weren't that he was sitting in a pool of his own blood.

As the young man approached him he was a little shocked to find that the other man was still clinging to life, so the young man yelled out for help as he made his way to the dying man.

Once the young man had made it to the side of the dying man he noticed that the man seemed to be saying something.
The young man knelt down in the pool of blood, grabbed the man's hand, and put his ear close to the man's mouth, so as to hear what he was saying.
The dying man was saying only one word, over and over and over: ..."Amen"...
After about another twenty or so "Amen"s, the man expired.

When the medical specialists arrived shortly thereafter the young man helped them move the body onto a litter.
One of the specialists retrieved the dead man's dog tags and, curious,... the young man asked to see them and there, - right under his name, social security number and blood type,...
the letters 'No Pref' were stamped into his dog tags.

From that day forward,... the young man was an agnostic.

Now, does this story prove the existence of God?
Not at all...
Does it diminish the integrity of those who would argue against the existence of a god or gods?
Of course not...

But one young man found that the only way to test the phrase "there are no atheists in foxholes" is to find an atheist who is dying in one.

For the record,... I'm agnostic.

---[I apologize if this post has offended anyone,--- as well as for its verbosity]---
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Answer 5

That statement is more of a proverb or a truism. It describes a general and not an immutable truth. Many people who make no claim to believe in God call out to Him in times of sudden distress. It isn't meant to insult people.

Answer 6

It something a christian made up to make himself feel better, I've been at war once and been shot at as a paramedic working in big cities and I always have been, and always will be an atheist.

Answer 7

The statement "There are no Atheists in foxholes" is nothing more than a lie. The correct statement is
There ARE Atheists in foxholes

Answer 8

It is just one of those catchy sayings that someone came up with. I have been there and looked it in the face. There are many who have not and it is they, I expect, who originated the myth.

aen

Answer 9

People who tout that particular myth are usually the same ones who make statements like 'atheists are immoral because they don't have anyone standing over them making them behave'.
That's what you call pure logic right there. BLAH

Answer 10

The statement implies that atheists really believe in God deep down, and that in times of extreme stress or fear (like danger of death) they start looking for God and christians.