There may be no atheists in Vauxhalls but there was one in a Volkswagen
Mine wasn’t in such good condition. Photo by Andreas Reinhold.
I’m tripping up over a lot of really quite vicious anti-atheist posts recently and it seems I’m not the only one. Via Coturnix comes the news that the tired line “There are no atheists in foxholes” has been brought out for a fresh airing, this time by Lt. Gen. Blum who charmingly said “Agnostics, atheists and bigots suddenly lose all that when their life is on the line.” Obviously any slur there upon people serving their nation is entirely imaginary, though Archy disagrees. But is Lt. Gen. Blum or a satanist correct to say people abandon a lack of faith when the chips are down? It’s one of those things that sounds like it might make sense. If things are going really badly wouldn’t you take any option?
It might be difficult to know if it is true. I haven’t been in a foxhole for reasons explained by Coturnix at God, Country and Apple Pie nor shot at by trained professionals. The only people who have shot at me did so on a purely recreational basis. On the other hand I think I have had enough of a test to know I wouldn’t call on a god. In fact if I were concentrating on avoiding uncertain death it probably wouldn’t occur to me to call on a god for help.
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