Are There Really No Atheists in Foxholes?

[rug]

Matthew Hutson
Posted: 05/14/2012 4:11 pm

It's often said that there are no atheists in foxholes. While this isn't technically true -- a group called The Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers even keeps a roster of them -- new research suggests that inducing fear of death at least makes atheists a little less entrenched in their beliefs.

The research, now in press at The Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, was conducted by Jonathan Jong and collaborators at the University of Otago in New Zealand. In their first study, they asked subjects to write about what will happen to them when they die, or what happens when they watch TV. Then they used a Supernatural Belief Scale (SBS), asking subjects if they believe in things like God and heaven.

If you say there are no atheists in foxholes, you'd probably guess that reminders of death (such as one might have in battle) would increase SBS scores (thus decreasing atheism). If you disagree with the aphorism, you'd probably guess that a death reminder would have no effect. The results, however, did not match either expectation. Compared to writing about TV, writing about death increased SBS scores among religious participants but decreased SBS scores among nonreligious participants. So maybe we should say there are no agnostics in foxholes?

The researchers explained their results using what's called Terror Management Theory (TMT). According to this set of hypotheses, reminders of death lead us to defend our cultural worldviews because the more we feel valued within a stable worldview the more we feel like part of something larger that will transcend our own deaths. Theism and atheism are just two of many worldviews, and so, ironically, affirming one's atheistic worldview that there's no afterlife appears to reduce anxiety about the end of this life.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/matthew-hutson/no-atheists-in-foxholes-research_b_1508326.html

The research is available to purchase, $31.50.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ShoppingCartURL&_method=add&_eid=1-s2.0-S0022103112000534&_acct=C000228598&_version=1&_userid=10&_ts=1337128631&md5=85a5583360b1e1911f1701f9677b1c5d

[Speck Tater]

1. I'm an atheist and I've ALWAYS stayed away from foxholes. nt

[haele]

2. If it's a matter of how you face sudden and horrific death -

No two people react alike. If one was raised with a strong "heaven and hell/rebirth" type belief environment where a deity oversees one's personal activity (and there are several, not just Christian), one could probably turn to that higher power in such a situation, even if they don't personally believe in it at that time.

A person raised atheist or with a remote, non-judgmental deity (Deism and some forms of Pagan/Shamanism come to mind) would probably be thinking "well, I'll just go down fighting..." or "What the f*** did I get myself into - I need more time..."
I'd be interested in the methodology of the research - I've been metaphorically in a foxhole facing possible death, and personally I did not look to a higher power outside of myself to overcome it, and I'm not sure from the article that they did a complete study - did they study people who had been in potentially fatal situations where they had to act, or was it just writing about that Terror Management Theory TMT "reminders of death" after being shown horrific deaths on TV. Fight or Flight is a strong reaction to terror - but from reading the article, I'm just not sure they went about it with people who had actually been trained to deal with terror and death on a regular basis - which is the whole concept behind theorizing "there are no Atheists in Foxholes" - the theory that posits that a person who has been re-adjusted to be a soldier will revert to his or her original belief - and that everyone in America is basically religious, even though they may claim to be otherwise.

I just don't have the $31.00 on hand right now to order and study it.

In my personal opinion - "Oh, Jeazus Kreist, Damn It!" uttered as part of a steadying bout of cursing while steeling oneself to inevitable action does not mean one is crying out to a deity... it only means that such are common "frustration cursing words" in the culture one is cursing in. If you have been a believer in an active, personally interested diety longer than you have been a different type of spiritualist or an Agnostic or Atheist, it is possible to revert to that belief while under stress.
However, I do have a problem claiming that using memories of trauma or terror of death to measure religiosity is a valid means of measurement. There's a lot of subjectivity there, and there could be other issues that can affect the level of terror avoidance one might feel - like, say, having recently entered or left a very strong personal relationship.

Haele

[xtraxritical]

3. If your death is "sudden and horrific" you hardly have time to consider the question. lol

[Humanist_Activist]

4. The flaws, at least in the article, seems to be an assumption that theism and atheism are...

worldviews. Both can inform on worldviews, but aren't worldviews in themselves. A theist may have a no belief or expectation in an afterlife, while an atheist could have an expectation or belief in an afterlife. Theism and atheism are simply a belief or disbelief of one, and only one, issue, the existence of a god. Outside of this, anything goes.

[Warren Stupidity]

5. Atheist afterlife?

Ok. Got a link for a serious atheist philosophy that includes a belief in life after death?

[Humanist_Activist]

6. Again, the assumption of atheism as a worldview, there is no atheist afterlife...

but there are beliefs in afterlife in religions and traditions that don't include beliefs about the existence and worship of gods. You are confusing atheism with secularism, a common mistake.

[Warren Stupidity]

7. No I asked for an example of your assertion that atheists could believe in an afterlife.

Instead I got crickets of condescension.

[Humanist_Activist]

8. Certain sects within Buddhism, many animists, certain other shamanistic religions...

etc. don't require nor have any belief on the existence of deities. Yet most of them do have one on what happens after death, along with a host of other supernatural beliefs.

Just because someone is an atheist doesn't mean they can't believe in other supernatural things, such as life after death, reincarnation, karma, ghosts, spirits, etc.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. Animists are not atheists,

to the extent that some Buddhists are atheists, they have also rejected the theistic elements of reincarnation, karma, etc. at which point your mythical atheist afterlife disappears. You might have better luck with the philosophical quandary of the sim hypothesis, in which case we could indeed have 'an afterlife' but perhaps not in any way that meets the traditional concept, and while that is a fun thought experiment, it leads nowhere.

[laconicsax]

10. Animism isn't a form of theism.

Belief in spirits/interconnected life force/etc. isn't theistic. Theism is belief in one or more gods.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. I guess my definition of atheism

Is a bit broader than yours, as I include non belief in spirits souls demons devils demigods and other metaphysical beings as part of the non belief that also doesnt believe in the abrahamic über god.

But yes if one wishes to lump animism in with atheism in order to argue that atheists might believe in an afterlife, fair enough.

[Humanist_Activist]

15. You are describing skepticism, not atheism, don't confuse words. n/t

[Humanist_Activist]

11. You are confusing supernatural with theism, theistic elements aren't necessary...

for reincarnation, karma, etc.

[Warren Stupidity]

13. No really they are.

Reincarnation and karma are hinduist beliefs that migrated into Buddhism, and they actually require a metaphysical realm in which one can reincarnate from. As far as I am concerned your argument is as suspect as claiming that theistic elements aren't necessary for a belief in heaven. Perhaps, strictly speaking one could extract a non-theistic heaven construct from the abrahamic religions, and artificially prop it up on its own, but that would mostly prove how transparent the effort was.

[Humanist_Activist]

14. Again, the confusion between gods and metaphysical or supernatural, they are not one and the same.

I'm trying to clear up your confusion, and in addition, Hinduism isn't really that concise a religion, at least compared to Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Beliefs among Hindus vary from atheists to pantheists and everything in between.

[laconicsax]

16. So...atheists simply aren't afraid enough to believe in a god?

What does that say about theists?

[rug]

17. Since you misstated the thesis, absolutely nothing.