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I think one issue is even if it does occur it may not mean much. I do not believe in the Pledge of Allegiance, but I found myself saying it during a memorial for 9-11 victims. Did this mean I'd had a real change of heart on nationalism? No, not really. My main loyalty is still to God and Humanity, it can't/mustn't be contained within the bounds of some ephemeral nation. Especially one created by Masons, Deists, and Anti-Catholics. Still it really upset me at first that I'd done it as it seemed a breach of principle. I decided it was more about solidarity to the victims and a kind of conformity you feel in a group situation.
So if an atheist is in with a bunch of doomed soldiers I think it probably is likely he/she would pray if the others pray. However I think that might simply be the bond among soldiers or a sense of solidarity. The atheist I knew best would pray with my Mom on occasion. Not all atheists are obsessed with their atheism 24-7. I think he felt that praying with my Mom was comforting for her and he was being a good friend. (I think he might have been going through an agnostic phase at that point, but I've heard of atheists who see prayer as harmless if pointless. Lots of people will do "harmless if pointless" things on special occasions to make someone happy.)
Even if an atheist prayed alone when they felt they were in certain doom they could just decide afterward it was a kind of temporary insanity. Soldiers will cry out for their Moms even if there Mom is dead. So an atheist could say it was simply an irrational moment where regressed into childhood and I don't know if I could say otherwise. Although this means it might vary depending on whether the person was raised atheist or became atheist after childhood.
I really do find your posts thoughtful. Yes. There is a very strong feeling (perhaps out of respect)to go with the flow, even if it goes against your personal convictions.
However, to get to the OP again, as to atheists in foxholes, there is a considerable argument that not every atheist by any means in a life or death situation would start praying, at least with any sincerity. I recall a poster making the interesting point that the survival reaction would probably be to concentrate on working out how to survive.
However, even if atheists did predominately pray for deliverance in life - threatening situations, that would not do one darn thing to prove a God existed, only the strength of the instinct to invent one when one feels that one's own resources may not be enough.
The correct wording is: "There are no atheist in a foxhole." I personally I think this is more true of 5th grade algebra exams, that was the last time I prayed. It didn't work.
An atheist doesn't pray in a foxhole, but sure as hell wishes that fool beside him would unclasp his hands, open his eyes, pick-up his rifle and start shooting back.
It ranges from a dumb quote from a horrible movie, to a post of somebody describing how they kindly told everybody in their hospital room to get the f*** out, to someone whose grandma forced atheism on them after an unsuccessful plea to God in a concentration camp, to another who seems to have wasted 20 years of their life trying to decide whether to believe or not before realizing it is not logical nor rational to believe, to others either boasting of being in near-death experiences, or plain making stories up to celebrate their exceptional poise and stoicism.
Also, for good measure, another poster who thinks the original quote was one with an airplane about to crash. Really? So the airplane came first, then the foxhole. Brilliant!
Back on-topic: the quote is for a person with no earthly means for survival. Total desperation, total despair, nothing they themselves or anybody around them can physically do to save them.
The message is, that God is natural to all of us, He is in our nature, our very being. And even those who reject Him for a lifetime, invariably come back to Him when their time is up.
The message is, that God is natural to all of us, He is in our nature, our very being. And even those who reject Him for a lifetime, invariably come back to Him when their time is up.
What makes you so sure? Counterexamples abound.
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