Atheists and religious believers: would you give your life for your beliefs?

Question

Religious believers: could you cope if you could not pray, attend church, or openly express your religion etc. because you would be killed?

Atheists/agnostics: If you had to choose between pretending to be a believer your entire life or being killed, what would you choose?

No offence meant to anyone, I'm just curious how strongly all the R&S users feel about their beliefs. Thank you!

Deke- I refer you to the answer above yours!

and below...

Answer 1

This question is getting tiresome. Atheist in a way have had to live like that for a long time as it has not been socially acceptable to be atheist.

Many people from many different cultures die for their beliefs, but this question is asking are you willing to die, or be persecuted, for a fact or knowledge (which has also been done, look at Galileo).

Christianity has an inherent persecution complex, i.e. it is part of the belief and Jesus' teachings that they will be persecuted for their beliefs. This basically implies that if you're not persecuted, you are not believing correctly. Atheists on the other hand have no such built in teaching.

What I am willing to die for is that humans should be free, and I volunteered for and served willingly in the Army so that you can continue to ask questions and worship in the way you see fit.

Edit:
There are other issues to consider, if you die for your beliefs, who is left to continue supporting them or who is left to work for a change in the government. In many ways, it is harder to live for your belief than to take the easy way out.

Answer 2

I would continue to practice Buddhism as I don't really have official services I must attend. I would hold myself to treating others with compassion and openheartedness as this requires only a good intention. I can meditate as meditation can be anything even if it's sweeping the floor mindfully. I love the altars I have around the house but they are just symbols in the end. It is what I hold in my heart that matters most.

There are many situations all over the world where this is occurring. It is really very sad. I think atheists, however, are always in some sort of danger. In the U.S., it is really not culturally or socially acceptable to be an atheist so I think there are probably large groups of atheists who just go along with things depending on the community they live in and the ramifications for work and family. The religious are just accepted as a norm. However, I recognize that this flips entirely in other countries and that people have lost their lives in order to practice what they believe.

Would I give my life? If I am practicing ahimsa (nonviolence) and someone wishes to take my life for what I believe then that is their choice. I am not choosing to die for my beliefs but I cannot truly control the actions of the majority if this was what I had to face. Just my thoughts.

Answer 3

I'm atheist, I would prefer to pretend to be a believer (I have thought about this before, but not a whole life scenario, just getting out of being killed by an extremist). Pretending to believe wouldn't change who I was, except for the fact that I would still be alive. I wouldn't have to fear Hell etc etc like a religious person pretending not to be.

Answer 4

I believe this is an important question for all of us to ask ourselves, but an impossible one to answer unless forced to. We would all like to say we would, but the only true indication is if we are willing to stand up for our beliefs in lesser attacks. If I am not willing to voice my opinion just because it is unpopular, I will not keep that opinion in a martyrdom situation.

Usually, the strongest believers are those who live in countries where it is illegal and dangerous to pray, attend church or openly express their beliefs. They learn to truly rely on God, even for the wisdom to know how and when to express their beliefs to others.

Answer 5

I'm an atheist and yes, I'd pretend to be a believer to stay alive.

It's the fate of many thousands (maybe millions) of educated men and women in the middle east.

If the punishment were less severe, say 20 lashes and a year in jail... hmm then I'd think about it. People have to speak out for religious freedom - and more often these days - freedom from religion.

Answer 6

I do not know what I would do. First, I am a weak person; second, if I was "doing my job" at that point I myself would be getting out of the way and letting God work in and through me. So if I did see it through all the way to martyrdom, it would not be "me" that was steadfast but God in me. I alone can do nothing except make myself available for God to work in and through. There are a variety of possible misunderstandings of that statement that I can't address in this short space; anyone who wants to pursue the question should contact me directly or post a question and notify me about it. Here is one relevant citation: "But when they arrest you and deliver you up, do not worry beforehand, or premeditate what you will speak,. But whatever is given to you in that hour, speak that; for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit." (Mark 13:11 NKJV)

Christians are not allowed to seek martyrdom. I know there are saint stories that contradict this. I first learned this principle before I became a Christian, in high school reading the play "Murder in the Cathedral" by T.S. Eliot. There was a movement or phenomenon in (I think) the late 2nd and early 3rd centuries of people actively seeking martyrdom by provoking the authorities into action; a church council then forbade the practice. So we can accept martyrdom but we can't seek it.

Now at last here is the real reason I chose to answer your question. One of the reasons I chose to become Eastern Orthodox was because of the tens of thousands of recent (18th-20th centuries) Eastern Orthodox martyrs under the Communists and the Ottomans. (See links in "sources" for examples.) I just could not see folks in the Protestant denomination I was in at the time being martyrs if crunch time came; the Orthodox, however, had in recent history "walked the talk" literally tens of thousands of times, and that was one reason I signed up with them.

So my answer is I don't know what I would do; if I was "doing my job" what I did would be God acting, not me.

Blessings upon you for your question.

Answer 7

Yes. There are some things more precious and more profoundly a part of me than taking the next breath or seeing the next sunrise. But Grim Jack has a point. Living your beliefs is far more challenging.

Answer 8

Good question............

As a Christian, it wouldn't be so much about dying for my beliefs as dying for the cause of Christ. Holding Him in higher regard than my own life............

I could cope without church but how could you make it a law not to pray? Who's gonna know?

I would share my faith even if it were against the law............I hope.

Answer 9

DEKE: "Anyone who says they wouldn't do the same is a liar or clinically insane"
a cynical and callous young man, aren't you?

St M. Kolbe (a Catholic priest) gave his life without hesitation to save a Jew (I believe he passed away recently) in Auschwitz. His belief told him it was the right thing to do.That makes him a liar and clinically insane. Maybe the world needs more clinically insane people. I can give dozens of examples where liars and clinically insane gave their lives for others.
I do not know if I had the courage he did, probably not.

Answer 10

i'm an athiest and i would never pretend hiding it is hard i did it for a while for the sake of my family. Your beliefs make you who you are from what you believe in to what you don't believe in, and i would die for my belief's life isnt worth living if your living a lie anyway