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Question190

Have you even gone through a life-threatening experience or illness and never once though of a god or religion

Yep. Burst ovarian cyst
Peritonitis
Emergency operation 3:30 in the morning.
Never considered mythology even once.
Thank you, cousin Dr. Hy Stein for saving my life with your scientific knowledge. (Michelle Malkin (aa#01)

Not me personally. My wife & I had a baby born about 4 months premature. He died after a couple weeks of surgery, life support, and prayer (by nurses, etc., at the catholic hospital). There was enough to think about without indulging in fantasy wishful-thinking god crap. (Mike Smith aa#1164)

Yes. I once raced automobiles...and once made the mistake of testing an alleged "race car" built in the backyard of the friend of my (then) wife. A critical suspention componant failed while I was "at speed", and I tumbled. After the car came to a stop, I made the turn marshal's hand signal (I worked as a marshal for about 8yr. before I was fortunate enough to drive..) for "how many?" to a marshal across the track. She held up four fingers.

I never thought about "god". Perhaps it's just my personal reaction to "danger", but when the ground approached the windscreen for the second time, all I thought about was about how on Earth my (then) 4yr. old daughter would be able to afford college tuition, and also about how many different women with which I'd had the opportunity to mate, but hadn't done so. (Panama Floyd)

I haven't been an atheist very long, but one thing sticks out in my mind. When my SO was pregnant about 2 years ago, she had some complications and we thought she was going to lose the baby. I was at school at the time, two hours away, and I skipped several classes and broke several speed limits to be with her. It was a gut-wrenching experience, and it wasn't until some time later that I realized I hadn't done the whole appeal-to-god-to-stop-whatever-he's-doing-and-make-my-life-more-comfortable routine. Growing up xian had trained me to do that in any tense situation, so I took this as a sign that I was finally starting to get rid of some of my xian knee-jerk responses. Any other xians-turned-atheists probably know what i'm talking about- some habits are harder to break than others. (Leo aa#1941)

I think that I posted this once before. I was in a car accident once where I went into a skid, did a complete 360, and slammed into another car. While the car was spinning, I really thought that I had bought the farm. I didn't think of any sky-daddy, but what was going through my mind was anger about how I was not going to be able to give a presentation at work the next day which I had been preparing for weeks. Looking back, it seems like a weird thing to be thinking about at a time like that.

I survived with only superficial injuries, and I did get to make the presentation. (John Hachmann aa#1782)

Not personally, but my father died four-and-a-bit years ago of pancreatic cancer, he was diagnosed in mid-March 1997 and died in early May. He wasn't in much pain towards the end (at least, we tried to be sure that he wasn't) but to see my father so ill, unable to help himself just about tore me apart.

Despite the fact that my mother is a born again, and we had her religious friends coming round all the time (IMO they were useless gits who were constantly in the way) the idea of 'God' as a concept that could help me didn't really impinge on my mind - even when he was being prayed for, it wasn't a concept I reached for for myself.

My father was an atheist, too, and I have to say that in the face of his suffering and the expectation of death, he wasn't much thinking about god, either, that I could see, and I spent a lot of time with him. He was quite patient with the vicar when he called, but when the vicar asked to pray for him, all Dad said was, "If it'll make *you* feel better." So the vicar prayed, and when he'd gone, Dad said, "What a waste of breath. Don't let them bother me with that again." So I didn't let anyone else do any praying over him - if the God-squad wanted to pray I made them do it down stairs or in the garden and quietly, because it upset him that they were there, it took what little strength he had being annoyed with it all. He didn't see it as a kind or friendly thing to do, it was another burden he didn't want and with so little life left to him, he didn't need it. It upsets me still that they were so thoughtless. Does this make sense? (Lexin)

I went sky diving one time and one time only to see what it was like. Ended up with a twisted parachute and spun around in circles and was falling a lot faster than I should've been. I can't remember thinking about some god on the way down, but I was definitely in a sort of panic-mode. It was a real head rush. (Elroy Willis)

November, 1972, near the village of Kwai Li, South Vietnam. A nine-year-old boy jumped me when I was asleep. Stabbed me in the arm.

I killed him. He died hard.

I mean, he was hard to kill. He was everywhere, and yelling, and he wouldn't let go. It took a long time.

I didn't think about me. I didn't think about God. I thought, "This is really shitty."

Few people here know what that means.

It was only later, when I was on the boat that took me back home (an aircraft carrier, the long way back), that I renounced any notion of a god.

I'm not sure I answered the question.(chib)

Yes. Nearly got swept out to sea one when I was 14. Being ingnorant of what to do in a rip current, I struggled for nearly a half-hour before getting to shore. Having never to that point bothered with *GAWD!* it never occurred to me that I ought to start... (Nemo aa#1331)

... In the past 6 years, I have been electrocuted on stage by a live microphone (in which I was only saved from death when my drummer realized what was happening and pulled the plug on my amp, breaking the circuit (the excruciating pain involved is impossible to convey, BTW), and gone to the ER with chest pains from an allergic reaction to caffeine that I worried at the time was a heart attack.

In neither case, did I even think for a moment about any imaginary sky pixies, much less invoke one. While I was being electrocuted, knowing full well that I was going to die unless someone did something, I was saying (in a croaking, strangled voice, since my throat muscles were constricted by the juice) "kick the mike, kick the mike!" (which was still clenched in my hand by my paralyzed muscles after I collapsed to the floor like a ton of bricks on contact with it). My only other thought was "FUCK, THIS *HURTS*!!!". Never once did the idea of any kind of "god" come into play in the 20-30 seconds it took for my drummer to figure out what was going on and save my life, even though I *knew* with certainty that I was going to die unless someone figured out what the problem was and intervened immediately.

(For those who are wondering, it was during the soundcheck, and yes, I did get up a few moments later and play a full set after we fixed the grounding problem. I did tell the audience "I'm a real live wire, eh?").

As for the other incident, it happened earlier this year, and occurred when I drank 2 cups of an herbal tea (Yorba Mate, in case anyone who is sensitive encounters it), which I and the person who gave it to me were unaware that it contains large quantities of caffeine, which I am quite allergic to, and which causes symptoms resembling a heart attack in me (chest pains and pressure, as well as hyper-elevated BP). Not realizing that I had taken caffeine (I found out afterwards, looking the tea up on the net), I went to the ER for the chest pains and pressure I was experiencing, worrying that I was having a heart attack. (I'm only 35, but I have a family history of heart disease; my paternal grandfather died at 29 of a heart attack, and my father currently has various heart problems).

To make a long story short, in the 7 hours I was there, from midnight to 7 AM or so, until the cardiologist showed up and said that my preliminary cardiac enzyme tests showed nothing, and since I was no longer experiencing the symptoms, I could leave, not *once* did I even contemplate the idea of some sky pixie, even when my symptoms were at their height. Instead, my feelings were of deep boredom (try hanging around on a gurney in the ER for 7 hours and you'll see what I mean), and extreme annoyance that I had a gig and a recording session the next day, and the night shift staff were talking about keeping me until late the next afternoon for more tests. (Raven1)

There was that time recently when I was driving in tail-end-of-rush-hour traffic at @70 mph and had a golf ball come hurtling at my windshield. (Luckily, it hit the wiper rather than the glass, and bounced off over the roof.) I had lots of thoughts about worst-case scenarios, zero thoughts about god.

Then there was the time I had an emergency appendectomy. No thoughts about god.

Or as a witness to my father's death in the ICU (complications after heart bypass surgery). No thoughts about god, only concern for my mother. (Pat Kiewicz aa1154)

I was Medi-vac for hepatitis. Eight guys in my unit dropped like flies. I was put into isolation and lasped into a coma. When I woke up, I was in Japan having blood pumped into my arm. It was awful, just laying there for weeks. I was finally shipped to Honolulu and spent three months in convalence. I didn't think of a magic pixie once. If I did, it would have been along the lines of 'thanks for creating this disease'. (not!) (Steve Knight aa855)

Yep, My 13 year old (at the time) daughter had severe Peritonitis and had an emergency Appendectomy. She was febrile and a had a fever of 41C. The surgeon commented that if the operation took place 1 hour later she would have been dead. I placed my faith in the hands of the medical staff. She was in Intensive care for 2 days and in hospital for a total of 8 days. My feelings were that if she had died, then all that could have been done, had been done, but it didn't make it any easier on me and I was so relieved when she became better. She is now 15 and if she doesn't stop being a creep I'm gonna kill her (Parent's Joke) (Phylter)

Never personally been in situation which threatened *my* life.

However, I did have the distinct displeasure of seeing an unhealthily large portion of my immediate family be killed off and put to rot in communist concentration camps, in the most unimaginable and inhumane of conditions.

It is perhaps the hardest thing in the world to conceive of - waking up every day and hoping to death that the person you so care about and love will actually die before the day is out, so as to put an end to their suffering.

And I did think of god during all those times. I prayed to god every morning that if he did exist, and he did have control of things, then I'd like to meet him for just one minute before sends me to hell, so as to see with my own eyes the true face of evil for that brief, sweet and golden minute. To see god's face.

Then I went back to being an atheist for the rest of the day with the knowledge that what I prayed for would most likely never come about.

'Cause, in the ten billion year history of our universe, if there ever existed a god, he sure as hell died the day religion was born. (The Flying Reverend)

Yup. In November of '96, I got an extreme case of vertigo. While they were trying to diagnose the cause of it, they found that I was bleeding in the brain. After several weeks they pronounced it non-life-threatening, but I didn't know that at first. Viewed death calmly (if with a little exasperation at things left unfinished), and never once resorted to groveling to any supernatural being in the hope that it could make things turn out alright. In fact, had an interesting debate with a fundie working at the hospital who couldn't understand *why* I wasn't terrified of dying and ready to "get right with The Lord." =-) (Brenda Nelson aa34)

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