During the Hawaiian False Alarm, Atheists Didnt Suddenly Find God

[NeoGreen]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/01/14/during-the-hawaiian-false-alarm-atheists-didnt-suddenly-find-god/

During the Hawaiian False Alarm, Atheists Didn’t Suddenly Find God
January 14, 2018 by Hemant Mehta

After a text message alert informed Hawaiians yesterday that they were under threat of a missile attack, it took 38 minutes before the alert was officially declared a false alarm.

That’s a lot of time to rethink your life decisions. That’s also a lot of time to rethink how confident you may be about the afterlife.

We’ve all heard the old (despicable) saying about how “there are no atheists in foxholes.” The idea is that, in the middle of a war zone, when your life is in danger, even atheists ask God to keep them safe. That’s not true, of course. There are plenty of atheists in the military and they don’t lose their ability to think rationally just because they end up in dangerous situations.

So yesterday raised an interesting test of that theory: After getting that text alert and before realizing it was a false alarm, did any atheists rethink their non-belief in God?

[Croney]

1. I dont believe in the Easter Bunny.

But if a missile warning comes on Easter Sunday, I’m going to scurry around the house looking for hidden baskets of candy.

[Brainstormy]

2. Nope. and not surprised.

Not surprised that there weren't a lot of conversions (reversions?) in Hawaii, but surprised generally by other reactions. Everyone over a certain age knows that the correct response to a nuclear missile is to get under your desk! This is the right position from which to kiss your ass goodby.

[Act_of_Reparation]

3. I can't speak for anyone else...

...but when shit goes sideways, I get tunnel vision. I think about what I need to do to get through this as unharmed as humanly possible. There's no time to ponder metaphysics.

So, I've always found this "atheists find god in disaster" trope absurd.

[Freelancer]

4. Disasters and false alarms also make atheists

A lot of people know in their guts that there's no invisible hand coming to swat a missile out of the sky. An event like what just happened can crystallize that knowledge.

It isn't personal. It's only physics.

[demigoddess]

5. If I were in Hawaii that day, I might have said "Oh, God!" but I

would not have meant it literally.

[RussBLib]

6. no, and neither did any believers suddenly find God

pray or no pray, same result

he still ain't there

I'd much more likely be cursing Trump than seeking god

[trotsky]

7. "No atheists in foxholes" is a trope believed only by insecure religionists.

If I ever found myself in a situation like that, my immediate thoughts would be 1) is there any way to improve my chances of survival, and 2) do I have the ability to send a message to my loved ones letting them know how much I care about them?

Otherwise that's not a bad way to go. Nuclear weapon, close range? Instant vaporization. I'd be OK with that.

[RussBLib]

8. same here

I really don't want to hang around after "the big one", scrapping for food and fending off the armed hordes of tatooed maniacs intent on raping my wife and me.

[SCantiGOP]

9. re the "No atheists in a foxhole" idea

I always saw that as a argument against religious belief. Someone doesn't believe, but at a time of extreme emotional distress, and facing the end of their existence, they suddenly embrace a deity. That would seem to me to indicate that religious belief is a profoundly emotional response rather than something that could be analyzed and justified by reason and careful consideration.

[trotsky]

10. That's a very good point. n/t

[lindysalsagal]

11. You know, even if they did, it would just be a temporary lower-brain survival mechanism

and to me, that doesn't constitute true belief, anyway.

I think you have to measure someone's degree of faith over many years: Especially in good times.

For instance, I don't personally believe in evil, even when I'm with nasty, dangerous people. I still see them as broken and afraid, not consumed by some dark force.

I still think some people need to be locked up where they can't hurt anyone else, but that's not because of an evil force: We're animals and some of us are just destructive.