Synaesthesia

Jamie,
I certainly agree that prayer does provide real succor. I have no moral qualms about praying with a dying person, although I would be irritated if a priest started praying at me while I was close to death.

Foxhole Atheist

Well, I’ve been in the proverbial foxhole. And that’s exactly where I left “God”.

To begin with, I found that I didn’t need him. I needed to focus more on the situation at hand and use my intellect to keep me alive.

Secondly, if “God” had anything to do with what was going on around me, then he was some sick, perverted bastard that I wanted nothing to do with.

Scotty

I have brushed the crumbs off of Death's cloak before.
But I never thought of "God" at the time.

Your question about what you would say to "God", I have to say it all depends. The fact is, is that I couldn't even imagine the Christian God existing at all, ever, not even a tiny bit. So, if a "God" came and talked with me, it would be a logical discussion and I would go, "That's cool"...end of conversation. Nothing would change, because it would all make sense.

-Scott

free12thinker

Fair enough. I think it's fair to say a large portion of people who post to these forums know that a God does not exist. Still, I always come up with hypotheticals, and the only thing I would have to say to him would be:

You really screwed everything up you selfish bastard.

The Resistance

Has anyone been in a near death experience? I have. A couple of years I was in a car accident with my mother. I know I didn't pray to God, but then again I didn't do much of anything. I just braced myself as the car spun around 360 degrees.

I suppose it'd be different, if I saw it coming from farther away.

Has anyone been in a proverbial "foxhole." Did you think of God? I'd imagine that most of us would be trembling in fear and concentrating on a way to save our own asses.

Edited to add: After reading some replies it seems that atheists have indeed found themselves in foxholes and not found God there.

[ April 29, 2002: Message edited by: The Resistance ]</p>

Megatron

"The instinct of survival bows before no God." - Me, 1997, when my weak atheism became tempered steel.

The day before I made that statement I was caught in the middle of a crossfire in gang land, and a bullet actually grazed my arm. I still have the scar, and I still remember every moment of running for my life before I blacked out.

As another member so excellently stated (after having a similar experience), "Fuck the xians, there are atheists in foxholes."

[ April 29, 2002: Message edited by: Archangel ]</p>

David Gould

Primo Levi, an atheist Jew, was in a concentration camp for some years.

One day, he nearly weakened and thought about praying to God for his survival. However, he rejected the temptation.

Of course, the temptation was to pray to the Jewish God and not the Christian one.

If there are no atheists in foxholes, how does this validate the Christian God? Surely it is a sign that Vishnu is real!

zamboniavenger

I don't have any near death experiences of my own(and I'm doing just fine w/o them, thank you), so I'll post this article from the <a href="http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/philip_paulson/foxhole.html" target="_blank">library</a> instead. The other part of the question was more interesting to me. I'm not going to bullshit you, IF in theory, the xtian god came down in golden chariot to save my life I doubt I'd be asking any hard-hitting philosophical questions or anything like that. That would do the trick. Just about anything short of that happening isn't going to cut it though.

Technos

When I was 19 I found myself trapped in the upper floor of a burning apartment. I had never crawled around on my hands and knees saying "oh f$%#" for a longer 15 minutes. I used allot of profanity before I found the fire escape, but I didn't even say the word 'god' much less pray to one. Looking back I do remember hoping that everyone else got out ok, but that doesn't count as prayer.

Samhain

Like George Carlin, I pray to Joe Pesci when I want things to get done.