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The Foxhole . . .
We frequently hear the polemical adage from religionists, that "there are no atheists in foxholes"; the implication being, of course, that only those who believe in God and an afterlife will have the courage to place this life in jeopardy, while those who lack this belief will run like cowards to save their own petty lives, leaving their brave "believing" counterparts to fend off the approaching enemy against overwhelming odds. Well, that's the intended picture, but it has nothing to do with reality. Throughout the world there are literally millions of nonreligious men and women who risk their lives every day in the military, fire departments, police agencies and emergency medical services they work for. Indeed, these are people you see every day but probably never noticed because they are just as devoted and just as hard-working as anyone else in their respective professions, but they simply don't advertise their lack of belief. This page is for them and for those who doubt that such people exist.
by John J. Kessler, Ph.D., Ch.E. Filosofo, arso vivo a Roma, ∙∙∙ by J.E. HILL My deconversion began in a most fortuitous way. While in the Boy Scouts, at about 12 years old, I really wanted the nifty-looking "God and Country" medal. As part of the procedure, I had to meet with a local minister to have the prerequisites signed off. The minister suggested I read the bible. I did. Somehow the warm and fuzzy stories we were taught in Sunday School dissolved into the nightmarish tales of rape, killing, pillaging, lying, deceit, genocide, animal cruelty and some just plain nonsense. By 13, I was an atheist and an avid bible reader. Through my teen years I would often debate religion. ∙∙∙ by Woolsey Teller|The Truth Seeker, 1945 PERHAPS it is with greater fear that you pass the sentence [to be burned alive at the stake] upon me than I receive it. -- GIORDANO BRUNO
∙∙∙ by Mitchell Kahle (September 19, 2002) Editor's note: This is atheist Mitchell Kahle's Letter to the Editor of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in which he rebuts political cartoonist, Corky Trinidad's characterization of him [Kahle] as cowering helplessly in a foxhole and praying to "God" to save him. In his rebuttal Kahle supplied the same cartoon, but with the caption now reading: "I wish the religious fanatics would stop all this violence and war in the name of their God." ∙∙∙ by MITCH KAHLE (5/25/2002) As a kid, I would decorate my bicycle with crepe-paper streamers and noisemakers to ride in the annual Memorial Day parade down Chicago Street through my home town of Jonesville, Mich., to the Sunrise Cemetery at the edge of town.
∙∙∙ In my last article (Post Hoc Miracles, June/July, 2002), I discussed how statistical extremes are frequently misapplied by theists as "proofs" for their religious assumptions about the existence of "miracles from God." In this article I am once again going to discuss statistical probabilities, but not as they concern after the fact claims of the miraculous, but rather before the fact statistics pertaining to religious belief and nonbelief in America, and the implications such figures have concerning the polemical axiom we frequently hear from pro-religion circles, "there are no atheists in foxholes." ∙∙∙ Even before I got into the fire service I had already long purged myself of the selfrighteous evangelistic rhetoric that had dripped on me from the pulpits throughout my youth. I was a free man, a freethinker in fact, although at that time I had never even heard of this term. So when I became a firefighter (nearly a dozen years ago) I had no grand ideas about helping others in need as a means to proving "God's love for His people," or being a "vehicle" in which Jesus could "work his miracles through me." This is certainly how many of my Christian counterparts view themselves, and that's fine, for them. But it's not fine for me. ∙∙∙ by BRUCE MONSON, Freethought Today, April 2002 It was on a Sunday around 11 a.m. when my fire department engine company responded to a teenage female having difficulty breathing. When we arrived, there were about fifteen people, mostly teenagers, crowded around a girl who was sitting on the porch hyperventilating. I was able to determine, from her presentation and history, that she was not having an asthma attack or other serious respiratory compromise, but an anxiety attack. For the next 20 minutes I sat with this girl, coaching her breathing, speaking calmly, holding her hand--just basic TLC. ∙∙∙ On October 1, 2001, USA TODAY featured this editorial diatribe by columnist Kathleen Parker. "One can't help notice the silence of atheists these days," she declares. "War has that effect. There are no atheists in foxholes, we've always known. There were none in the World Trade Center on September 11, we can guess. And now there are none anywhere to be found..." Riding the wave of rightwing political-religious banter that had already wrapped Bush, Republicans and God (in that order) in the flag and used it as a litmus test for patriotism, Parker was all too happy to feed the propaganda machine with her four-legs-good-two-legs-bad lambasting of atheists. ∙∙∙ by NATALIE ANGIER, New York Times, 1/14/01 In the beginning -- or rather, at the end of a very lo-o-ng beginning -- George W. Bush made an earnest acceptance speech and urged our nation to "rise above a house divided." He knows, he said, that "America wants reconciliation and unity," and that we all "share hopes and goals and values." After his speech he reached out, up and down and across aisles, to embrace Republicans, Democrats, Naderites, Palm Beach Buchananites, the disaffected, the disinclined. ∙∙∙ |
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