Where did the popular saying, “There are no atheists in foxholes” come from? What is the meaning?

It is a long-standing, simplistic saying by theists who want to further the idea that atheists (non-believers in “God”), when located in a foxhole that is under bombardment by enemy forces (a World War I meme), will give up their atheistic attitudes and become “God”-believers, solely because they realize that they are liable to be killed and that therefore their mortal lives and eternal souls are in danger.

More deeply, it implies that atheists can afford the luxury of not believing in the existence of “God” only as long as they are not troubled with the thought of dying and their immortal “souls” going to a place of eternal punishment called “hell.” When they are faced with the real possibility of dying and their souls being eternally consigned to the fires of hell, they will recant their non-belief and become true “God”-believers, thus showing that they, as atheists, were wrong and those theists were right all along.

This saying makes “God”-believers happy and feeling superior to atheists, because as theists they are confident that their own reward will be everlasting life in the presence of “God” in “heaven.”

Source: Frank Dauenhauer

 

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