Only atheists

[interminable]

Hi
العنكبوت
فَإِذَا رَكِبُوا فِي الْفُلْكِ دَعَوُا اللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ إِذَا هُمْ يُشْرِكُونَ
And when they board a ship, they supplicate Allah, sincere to Him in religion. But when He delivers them to the land, at once they associate others with Him (65)


Have u ever had this experience in your life? Both positive and negative answers are appreciated.

Note: ship here means dire situation


Thanks in advance

 

[icehorse]

interesting question!

When I was a kid my parents were Presbyterians, so I kind of was too. At the time I might pray for god to keep me safe in a scary situation. But since becoming an atheist, not so much. But for sure, when I'm in a scary situation, I become more alert, alive and appreciative of my life.

 

[interminable]

interesting question!

When I was a kid my parents were Presbyterians, so I kind of was too. At the time I might pray for god to keep me safe in a scary situation. But since becoming an atheist, not so much. But for sure, when I'm in a scary situation, I become more alert, alive and appreciative of my life.

So u mean in a scary situation u think no one can help or save u??

 

[Iti oj]

So u mean in a scary situation u think no one can help or save u??

I think there is a lot I can do to help and save myself. Other people I know from friends and family to first responders.

 

[interminable]

I think there is a lot I can do to help and save myself. Other people I know from friends and family to first responders.

Even in airplane?

 

[icehorse]

So u mean in a scary situation u think no one can help or save u??

What @Iti oj said.

I think I can help myself, or other people can help me. But I don't think any invisible, supernatural being will help me.

 

[YmirGF]

Now at the young age of 60, I have been in dire situations in my life. You have to understand that it simply would not occur to me to "hope to god" to come to my aid. It, literally, would not enter my mind. As others have said, my first thoughts would be "how do I get myself out of this situation". If, in the case you mentioned, in an aircraft that was in difficulty, I'd simply hope for the best but plan for the worst. Again, thoughts of god, would not enter my brain. I've gone too far beyond that kind of weak thinking to even look back wistfully.

 

[Revoltingest]

Now at the young age of 60, I have been in dire situations in my life. You have to understand that it simply would not occur to me to "hope to god" to come to my aid. It, literally, would not enter my mind. As others have said, my first thoughts would be "how do I get myself out of this situation". If, in the case you mentioned, in an aircraft that was in difficulty, I'd simply hope for the best but plan for the worst. Again, thoughts of god, would not enter my brain. I've gone too far beyond that kind of weak thinking to even look back wistfully.

Oh, good....you already said it for me.

 

[YmirGF]

Oh, good....you already said it for me.

Every mouse has its day.

 

[LuisDantas]

Hi
العنكبوت
فَإِذَا رَكِبُوا فِي الْفُلْكِ دَعَوُا اللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ إِذَا هُمْ يُشْرِكُونَ
And when they board a ship, they supplicate Allah, sincere to Him in religion. But when He delivers them to the land, at once they associate others with Him (65)


Have u ever had this experience in your life? Both positive and negative answers are appreciated.

Note: ship here means dire situation


Thanks in advance

I don't think I have ever met (and I have certainly not been) such a person.

What you describe does not seem to be an atheist at all, in any case.

By my understanding of what Muslims and the Qur'an usually describe as "associating others with God" it seems to be a verse that disapproves of polytheism, not atheism.

There is a saying about atheists in foxholes that may be closer to what you mean to ask. And it is very much a fantasy spread by people who do not understand atheism or do not want to extend due respect to it.

Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers

Atheists In Foxholes - Freedom From Religion Foundation

There are no atheists in foxholes - Wikipedia

 

[Iti oj]

Even in airplane?

Luckily flying is the safest form of transportation. And what @YmirGF said.

 

[Animore]

This used to be a similar situation to me, yes. However, I have since become less two-faced. I've stopped being so frightful as to pray to something that I do not believe in, if that makes sense. When I had just de-converted I had been going through some bad compulsive thoughts, fears, and paranoia. Since then it's calmed down, but back then it was really problematic on a day-to-day basis. I used to be very frightened of the thoughts and feelings, so I would start praying to God to reveal himself, and that if he did, and if he helped me, I would worship him like no other. I didn't get any responses. Since then I've accepted to myself that it isn't very probable that the Abrahamic God exists. But that's just me.

 

[Laika]

Hi
العنكبوت
فَإِذَا رَكِبُوا فِي الْفُلْكِ دَعَوُا اللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ إِذَا هُمْ يُشْرِكُونَ
And when they board a ship, they supplicate Allah, sincere to Him in religion. But when He delivers them to the land, at once they associate others with Him (65)


Have u ever had this experience in your life? Both positive and negative answers are appreciated.

Note: ship here means dire situation


Thanks in advance

I've had this sense a few times. I have thought about whether there is something going on that is "more than" just coincidence. I think that best describes the passage because its about different ways of seeing and whether it is "allah" or "others".

I used to pray when I was a kid as I was introduced to the idea of the christian god at primary school. I would have been 4-6 years old. To the best of my knowledge god did not respond but it just helped. I was extremely lonely and had no real freinds I could talk or relate to and talking to god was how I coped. I prayed for a best freind and none came. That was how I stopped "believing" and how I became an atheist. It wasn't intellectual, it was just a kid who was lonely and took out his disapointment and hurt for a promise that wasn't fulfilled. I don't think a god could punish me for being an atheist for that even if I was wrong. Its too innocent.

I have prayed on and off since becoming an atheist. Sometimes its just to let off steam and is half in jest. The last time I really meant it was in 2013 when my bisexual crush took a job in the defence industry selling weapons and it was the moment I tried to intervene to stop him also became the same time I came out of the closet and told him I was bi. It was Unbearably messy to put it mildly. He chose a job selling weapons and effectively killing people over me and that tested all my coping mechanisms to their limits. Praying for his saftey was what I had left because nothing could be done. I sacrificed everything I had emotionally for this guy and he never understood just how much he meant to me. That part of me from being a five year old walking round the school playground talking to himself in my lunch break because I had no one to play with never really went away and here was the first time that longing for freindship could truly be answered but wasn't. I know from other sources that this guy did change his mind about the job but we haven't spoken since and I don't expect I will ever hear from him again.

Thats pretty much my relationship with "god" in a nutshell and its been almost exclusively as a coping mechanism for loneliness.

 

[Iti oj]

What would a pray out of desperation even show? Is it really much different from just wishing to survive?

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Hi
العنكبوت
فَإِذَا رَكِبُوا فِي الْفُلْكِ دَعَوُا اللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ إِذَا هُمْ يُشْرِكُونَ
And when they board a ship, they supplicate Allah, sincere to Him in religion. But when He delivers them to the land, at once they associate others with Him (65)


Have u ever had this experience in your life? Both positive and negative answers are appreciated.

Note: ship here means dire situation


Thanks in advance

No. Allah doesn't delivery me from dire situations but my family in and as both spirit and living on earth. The Dharma is life and explains the nature of life, so I guess as I learn more about The Dharma, this too would be my deliverance not as being a savior or idol but a means to understand how to practice so I can deliver myself from dire situations.

 

[SkepticX]

I never got into a dire situation, even as a believer (which included my tour in the Army) in which I had the free time to start praying rather than dealing with what was going on. As a believer I understood that God was in ultimate control, but that clearly didn't mean rescuing every believer in good standing from any dire situation. I thought that was a pretty infantile notion, far too obviously nonsense based upon even the most cursory observation.

So my personal position on the notion that God will protect me if I ask is functionally no different. I remember a fellow soldier saying God was protecting me once, when I was an exception to Stop Loss and we learned my enlistment wasn't being extended for the first Gulf War. I started naming other troops respected as good Christians in my unit, asking what about these guys then?

I've never had a lot of patience with egocentric or otherwise careless or irresponsible thinking (which certainly didn't guarantee but does have a lot to do with why I apostatized).

 

[Kuzcotopia]

I think religion has a way of poisoning you, and then offering a cure.

Most of this fear of death actually comes from religion. I used to be very afraid of death and lack of meaning when I was religious.

It only went away when I let go of it. If you aren't as afraid of death, you don't need a mythological story to make you feel better.

 

[Satans_Serrated_Edge]

Hi
العنكبوت
فَإِذَا رَكِبُوا فِي الْفُلْكِ دَعَوُا اللَّهَ مُخْلِصِينَ لَهُ الدِّينَ فَلَمَّا نَجَّاهُمْ إِلَى الْبَرِّ إِذَا هُمْ يُشْرِكُونَ
And when they board a ship, they supplicate Allah, sincere to Him in religion. But when He delivers them to the land, at once they associate others with Him (65)


Have u ever had this experience in your life? Both positive and negative answers are appreciated.

Note: ship here means dire situation


Thanks in advance

No.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

What would a pray out of desperation even show? Is it really much different from just wishing to survive?

No different. The former, you're making it personal, the motivation and solution comes from you (or an outside source, if one likes); and the latter, the motive and the solution is by chance.

One is meditative and with intent, the other hoping but nothing personal.

 

[Aupmanyav]

"Dukh Mein Simran Sab Kare, Sukh Mein Kare Na Koy;
Jo Sukh Mein Simran Kare, Tau Dukh Kahe Ko Hoye."

In anguish everyone prays to Him, in joy does none;
To One who prays in happiness, how can sorrow come.

A famous verse by Kabir Das, a 15th Century saint of India. It is comforting for most people to think of God helping them, but I am an atheist.

Kabir also said: "Saints I see the world is mad. If I tell the truth they rush to beat me, if I lie they trust me."