Faith in foxholes -- farfetched?

A true atheist is one who is willing to face the full consequences of

what it means to say there is no God. For example, if he or she says,

“In the absence of absolute standards, I declare that murder is wrong

in the name of common sense,” then they have made “common sense”

their absolute standard. What is in accord with “common sense” is

“right” and what isn’t is “wrong.” Or, “what is American” is “right”

and what isn’t is “wrong;” or “what is legal” is “right” and “what is

illegal” is “wrong;” or “what works” is “right” and “what is

pointless” is “wrong.”

Those three bring “God” back under different guises:

“nationalism,” “legalism” and “pragmatism.”

As Frederick Buechner says in “Wishful Thinking,” “Many an atheist

is a believer without knowing it, just as many a believer is an

atheist without knowing it. You can sincerely believe there is no God

and live as though there is. You can sincerely believe there is a God

and live as though there isn’t. So it goes.”

It seems to me that what makes it hard to be an atheist are those

feelings human beings get in the pit of our stomachs: sometimes that

there is unimaginable beauty and joy in living; other times that

there is such horror that, wacky as it seems, there must be an

absolute good ... if for no other reason than to denounce absolute

evil. I suspect that the problem of good is a major stumbling block

for atheism, just as the problem of evil is a major stumbling block

for religious faith; both must learn how to live with their doubts.

A true atheist takes humankind’s freedom very seriously. With no

God to point the way, we must find our own ways. With no God to save

the world, we must save it ourselves ... from ourselves, if nothing

else. The laughter of faith in God is like Abraham and Sarah’s

laughter when God promises them that they are in a family way.

The laughter of faith in “no God” is heard in Sartre’s story “The

Wall:” A man is threatened with death if he doesn’t betray the

whereabouts of his friend to the enemy. He refuses to do this and

sends the enemy on a wild goose chase to a place where he believes

his friend can’t possibly be. By chance, it turns out to be the very

place where his friend is. The friend is captured and executed and

the man is given his freedom. Sartre ends the story telling us that

the man laughed till he cried.

VERY REV. CANON

PETER D. HAYNES

St. Michael & All Angels

Episcopal Church

Corona del Mar

I am an a-atheist. I don’t believe they exist. It is possible to

be an agnostic, to say, “I don’t know if there is a God.” But it is

not possible to be an atheist, to say, “I know God does not exist.”

To “know” would require knowledge unavailable to any human. Is it

possible that God exists in a culture other than your own? Is it

possible that God exists in a place other than where you live? Is it

possible that God exists in a time or dimension other than your own,

or in a form unfamiliar to you? Is it possible that you have just not

heard the call of the Divine?

Of course it is possible. So someone cannot say they “know” God

doesn’t exist, only that they can’t be certain. If they are honest,

they will admit they are really agnostics. They can only claim to

“know” there is no God if they claim aspects of deity required to

give definitive answers to these questions.

Atheism then becomes a misplaced belief in self as the center of

the universe or self-theism. To them, everyone else is delusional,

only they know the truth.

As far as them being in foxholes, based on what I have said above,

if they don’t exist, they can’t be in foxholes.

However, there are people who live like there is no God. It

doesn’t take long for that kind of attitude to run out of gas when

confronted by death. That kind of living and attitude is brought into

focus when the potential of judgment is imminent. “What if?”

reverberates through their lives. What if there truly is a God? That

is not a question anyone should enter a death-defying activity

without having resolved.

Many people live accidentally. They are not intentional about

answering that question until it becomes relevant. Moments of tragedy

often wake us up to the need to find an answer.

As I searched the atheist websites, these foxhole conversions are

set aside as trivial and meaningless. They believe people will do or

believe anything to get out of a crisis. It is unfortunate that they

so easily minimize the honest soul searching being done in the

foxholes of life.

Reality is sobering. The 9/11 attacks were the most sobering thing

to happen to this country in a long time. People woke up from their

materialism, if only for a season.

The sobering nature of the foxholes has long been observed in the

military, to the point where “There are no atheists in foxholes”

became a by-word.

Representatives of those calling themselves atheists have forced

the removal of symbols of the historic place faith has had in our

culture (Just recently the symbol of the Hollywood Cross was forced

off the seal of the city of Los Angeles). Now they are doing the same

to our speech.

The chaplain should not be chastised for making a legitimate

observation and using a colloquial phrase to describe the

long-standing observations of so many of our military. Of course,

there can be people who live like there is no God in foxholes. How

long they remain that way is another question.

SENIOR ASSOCIATE

PASTOR RIC OLSEN

Harbor Trinity

Costa Mesa

In life and death situations, in times of extreme hardship and

fear and in the face of cruelty and suffering, people often turn to

God and to their faith for help and support. I suspect this was one

meaning behind the Navy chaplain’s comment that “there are no

atheists in foxholes.”

It might be especially relevant for people who profess a belief in

God, but are not actively engaged in their faith tradition until

moments of crisis. I wonder if this chaplain would also say, “There

are no atheists in hospices, at disaster sites or in intensive care

units?”

In my years as a hospice chaplain, I met many patients who faced

their declining health, increased dependency, pain management issues

and impending death without a belief in God or an afterlife. It is

not necessary for a person to believe in God in order to live with

appreciation and joy, and to face death with peace and equanimity.

This is where atheists or those who belong to nontheistic spiritual

traditions might interpret the chaplain’s remark as incorrect and

even disparaging.

In Zen, the death of self-as-ego is a lifelong practice, one that

prepares us for our death in the more conventional sense. It can be

difficult to see through our false ideas about ourselves and to work

with our fear of nonexistence. An expanded awareness of our true

selves takes time to discover and to mature.

Zen Master Hakuin (1685-1768) wrote, “If you fear death, die now!

Having died once, you won’t die again.”

The Zen tradition is also referred to as the Bodhisattva Way

because meditation inevitably puts us in touch with the suffering of

the world, which we must experience rather than escape. The Buddha

did not allow himself to be drawn into philosophical or speculative

discussions about the existence or nonexistence of a God.

The metaphor about a person who has been shot in the leg by an

arrow is sometimes used: Buddhism addresses removal of the arrow and

relief of the suffering, not discussions about who shot the arrow and

why.

Although Buddhism is often referred to as atheistic, a philosophy

or not a religious tradition, I prefer the term “nontheistic” to

refer to religious and spiritual traditions such as Confucianism,

Taoism and Buddhism. Zen is about “waking up” and it can be practiced

by anyone -- atheist, agnostic, theistic, Christian, Jew and Muslim

-- and in any place -- office, home, monastery, freeway or foxhole.

REV. DR. DEBORAH BARRETT

Zen Center of Orange County

Costa Mesa

Army: “What do you want on your dog tags, soldier: Protestant,

Catholic or Jewish?”

Atheist: “None. I’m an atheist.”

Army: “If you are wounded in battle, who should we call: a

minister, a priest or a rabbi?”

Atheist: “Call a medic!”

Along with “War is hell” and “Don’t fire until you see the whites

of their eyes,” the observation that “There are no atheists in

foxholes” is one of the most famous quotations to come out of

warfare. Rev. Bill Cummings, a Roman Catholic priest, uttered this

statement at a field service on Bataan in 1942, where the Japanese

captured my father.

Rev. Cummings was wrong. The atheism proclaimed by many a soldier

not only survives battle conditions, but also is confirmed by asking

how a loving, compassionate God of mercy could allow such barbarism

or summon men to such carnage. Many an atheist, through the

application of reason, has concluded God does not exist and his

lifelong conviction is not impacted by dangerous circumstances.

Facing unrelenting brutality, butchery and bloodbaths, there are

those in the trenches who rebel against the concept of a merciful and

righteous God. Others, experiencing the first true test of their

faith, find it wanting as their belief wilts before the insanity and

injustices of war.

Just because one is in extremis does not inevitably prompt a

conversion to theism and, conversely, a theist may crawl out of his

foxhole as an atheist.

No doubt many a nonbeliever has made a fervent bargain with a

newfound God, promising to trade faith for protection, only to allow

the commitment to lapse when the crisis passes. Theism may be

manufactured in a foxhole, but is it sustainable when the calm

follows the storm?

The Military Assn. of Atheists and Freethinkers maintains an

online list of actual atheists who are or have been in foxholes. The

Freedom From Religion Foundation erected a monument to “Atheists in

Foxholes” in 1999 at Lake Hypatia, Ala. A website called “Further

Than Atheism” challenges: “As for all those religious folks out there

sitting in their own foxholes, they would do well to reconsider their

prayerful ways. After all, if their nightly prayers to God were

really effective, they would never have ended up sitting in foxholes

in the first place.”

Atheists have manned the battlements as honorably and valorously

as their religious comrades in arms. Theism is not a prerequisite for

courage, heroism or patriotism. Nonbelievers have spilled their blood

in freedom’s cause and sacrificed their lives for their country. The

enemy does not inquire into a soldier’s spiritual beliefs before

taking aim. It is condescending, and factually false, to claim that

the convictions of atheists will not stand up to enemy shelling. If

atheists do call out to God, it is more a manifestation of

desperation than proof of conversion.

RABBI MARK S. MILLER

Temple Bat Yam

Newport Beach