Testing the strength of your Atheism

[robvalue]

They used to have those "test your strength" arcade machines. Maybe they could have a "test your atheism" one, where the machine grabs you and squeezes you near to death to see if you start praying.

[Simon Moon]

Say you were in building in an earthquake zone and a large earthquake struck.
You were buried and in great pain as concrete trapped your legs and arms.
The hours went by and you heard some activity outside.

As days then passed without any rescue would you then decide to pray
to be rescued as a kinda last resort as the pain increased even more?

I've been somewhat similar life and death situations, and not once did I ever feel the need or want to pray or call out to any god.

I contracted an infection in the tropics while on a surf trip. I was in the hospital for 3 weeks. It was touch and go several times. I entered the hospital at 164 lbs, left at 130. I had plenty of time to contemplate my mortality while lying there.

I've also come close to drowning a couple of times.

The thought of praying never entered my mind.

[robvalue]

Praying would be about as high on my priorities as counting from 300 to 405 in French backwards missing out every third number, just in case that was the secret to magically getting out of my predicament.

[Norman Humann]

Praying would be about as high on my priorities as counting from 300 to 405 in French backwards missing out every third number, just in case that was the secret to magically getting out of my predicament.

You know, it could work. It's actually more probable than praying and makes just about as much sense. But it has numbers in it.

[Natachan]

I can tell you what I have done. When my fiancé got cancer, I didn't pray. I worried, and thought about the surgery and put my trust in the doctors. When my friend got diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer I cried. I didn't pray.

Fiancé is fine, btw, they caught his melanoma early and he is certified cancer free.

[abaris]

Come to think of it, I never was a theist. I never did the praying part. When my parents died, I was on the verge between deist and atheist. But since my god conception was of a neutral force not caring one way or another, I didn't pray back then either.

[downbeatplumb]

Say you were in building in an earthquake zone and a large earthquake struck.
You were buried and in great pain as concrete trapped your legs and arms.
The hours went by and you heard some activity outside.

As days then passed without any rescue would you then decide to pray
to be rescued as a kinda last resort as the pain increased even more?

This seems to be there are no atheists in fox holes argument.
I don't agree with this, it would be like asking santa to help you.
Would you really do that?

[Jenny A]

I would like to think that even in extremity, I wouldn't lose my mind and begin believing in wishes. I might wish none the less.

[Regina]

The energy spent clasping your hands together can probably be better spent, maybe on on shouting your lungs out for real people to come help.

That's assuming your lungs haven't collapsed of course.

[Davka]

Every once in a while, I'll toss off a prayer along the lines of "OK, one more time, if there's anyone or anything like a god who listens to prayers, please demonstrate your existence in an unambiguous way."

I don't expect an answer, because (after all) I don't believe in gods. But I like to think that keeping the door open to the infinitesimally-small chance that there might be some sort of god-thing helps keep me honest.

In a life-and-death situation I doubt I'd have time for such foolishness.