Ed's BLOG

The whole world has gone mad. People you don’t know are trying to kill you. Their government gave them a gun and trained them on how to use it for this express purpose. Now, it’s the middle of the night, in a muddy field in, let’s say, France, and the bullets are flying. Also mortars and grenades. It rained, so the foxhole you dug the day before is now ankle-deep with grimy water. Still, you daren’t leave because of the afore mentioned enemy soldiers, trying to blow your head off. You weren’t always a soldier. Neither were they. This killing free-for-all is a temporary state of affairs while the leaders debate. Once that’s settled, you can go back to being accountants, booksellers, and poets who know killing is wrong. For now, however, it’s kill or be killed. Flash bangs light up the sky. The foxhole offers your best defense, but that’s not much against a falling bomb. Plus, you can’t stay here forever. Every time you look up, there’s a chance someone will take your head off. Will it ever end? Or will you? You’re terrified. You don’t want to die. What even is death? You’re eighteen-years-old for Christ’s sake! You shouldn’t be thinking about this. Not in any immediate sense, anyway. You never really believed in God, but the idea of not existing makes death even more bleak. KA-BOOOM! You’re showered with mud and… is that a bone? Please God, don’t let me die, you think.

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It is said that there are no atheists in foxholes. No one knows who first coined the phrase, but it became popular in World War II. Perhaps, it was drawn from real-life observation. It is easy to believe that someone, in the raw madness of war, looking down a barrel at death, would grasp for any straw for hope. He would pray that God would keep him safe or, failing that, pray that there’s a Heaven to go to afterwards. It is an aphorism that is often stated with a kind of self-satisfaction. You see? You non-believers cave when faced with oblivion. Your doubt is weak! Atheism is an intellectual pursuit of the comfortable and safe.

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That is true.

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It is also true that people dying of cancer turn to homeopathy, but that doesn’t make it medicine. When modern science says it can do no more, it seems reasonable to look elsewhere. Many traditional medicines and non-Western practices have been shown to be efficacious, with provable benefits. This is simply not the case for homeopathy. This multi-billion dollar swindle industry is built from sugar pills and made-up nonsense. No reputable study has shown any benefit beyond placebo.

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Still, people dying of cancer sometimes turn to it. Some of those people may have spent their lives believing in science but, when faced with death abandon it. Does that make the science wrong (and homeopathy right?). 

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No, because people who are dying can made stupid decisions.

All foxhole conversions prove is that scared people will try anything.

Author James K. Morrow wrote, “That maxim, 'There are no atheists in foxholes,' it's not an argument against atheism — it's an argument against foxholes."

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Of course, not every atheist facing death finds God. Even when they do, which God? The one they were raised with? If lapsed Muslims find Allah, what does that say about the Christian God? And vice versa.

And of course, there are some atheists who simply do not bend to fear. They will stand by their non-beliefs right up to the gates of Hell itself (if it exists). David Hume’s last words were purportedly “I am in flames!” Which is somewhat unnerving for the doubtful doubter.

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Still, whatever one’s belief, It is easy to understand this. Belief, true belief, cannot be brought about by fear. The question is not what do people they believe whilst in the foxhole, but what do they believe once they’re out again?

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So yes, there are atheists in foxholes, and Jesus too and, unfortunately, both are armed.