You’re just pissed because YOU haven’t had a revelation.

Maybe you should go to Madison WI to see if you have one, like Christopher Hitchins. Or was that an epiphany he had?

You’re right. You ARE full of shit.

>>When their life was on the line, ALL OF THESE
>>PEOPLE REJECTED FAITH, and found a foxhole.

WTF are you talking about? Many of these people’s lives were never “on the line”. And of those that were, none rejected their faith because of it. Have you seen footage of MLK marching in Birmingham saying “Damn, Madalyn Murray O’Hair was right, there IS no God!”??

Pascal even provided a mathematical argument for why a rational person SHOULD believe in God:

http://tinyurl.com/8qttyj

>>Those people are famous/remarkable ONLY for
>>their scientific contributions.

Uh….that’s what I said. Yet they remained devout. Anyone who seeks fame ONLY for “their religion” is most likely a charlatan, like Ted Haggard, Jimmy, and Tammy Faye.

>>How come all these good people found the
>>Western God rather than Jew, Muslim, Buddha,
>>Mormon, etc?

Well, I might argue that Jews and Mormons also worship a “Western God”. But not to fret about that. Perhaps they did so because there is an inner core, an essence, a truth to all religions that is independent of praying the Rosary or wearing magical undies or bowing in the right direction when you pray.

You really need to get out more, Bobbo. The shit they portray on TV and tech blogs as “religion” isn’t what it’s all about.

#26–Mustard==so close but no banana. Those people are famous/remarkable ONLY for their scientific contributions. The fact of their religion already very clearly is a statement about the power of early childhood indoctrination. How come all these good people found the Western God rather than Jew, Muslim, Buddha, Mormon, etc?

BECAUSE ITS ALL SOCIOLOGICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL.

Silly Hoomans. Proof before swine, still prefer the mud.

>>all those famous people became so by using
>>science, not religion, to make their
>>reputations/accomplishments

You’re paying too much attention to those who DO use religion to make their “reputations”. By and large, those are the Ted Haggards and the Rick Warrens and the Jimmy Swaggarts and the Tammy Faye Bakkers. The charlatans, those grasping desperately for 15 minutes of fame, in the absence of any discernable productive skills.

It’s the ones who do NOT use religion as their only springboard to public notice, like Newton, Pascal, Copernicus, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. that perhaps should occupy more of your study of religion. Why are those people held in such high regard, and given so much credit for their intelligence and courage, yet remain so devoted to their God?

Oh, I never said that NO denizen of the foxholes was an atheist. I’m sure that there are a hardy few, whose Atheist beliefs are so strong and unshakeable, that even when faced with likely death, the refuse to give them up. We see the same single-minded devotion in other religions as well.

And you’re correct, your link DOES list a number of actual atheist military folks, at least one of whom was most likely in combat, as he received the Purple Heart (many of the others’ decorations were for Good Conduct, Marksmanship, Driver’s Badge, Global War on Terrorism, etc., they were physicians, radio operators, “engineer/ space operators”, musicians, weather forecasters, or legal advisors…. one was an actual clerk/typist)

The Purple Heart fellow is the exception that proves the rule: When faced with overwhelming adversity, many (or most) people turn to a higher power.

What does this actually teach us about religion?

Your pettiness is showing.

I can’t speak for the atheists in fox holes organization as there member list is private.

However the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers has a number of people listed there combat experience and a short blurb.

The point being that it is false to assert that all these atheists are sitting miles away for combat zones.

http://www.maaf.info/expaif.html

I was thinking about ’studies’ that try to prove or disprove the effectiveness of prayer.

Trying to use empirical means to asses something like prayer really gets you nowhere. The results are singularly useless.

Just because one prays for something doesn’t mean it will happen.

>>There are most definitely atheists in
>>foxholes.

Who says any of the members of that organization have ever been in a foxhole? Or have ever even been in combat at all, for that matter?

The saying doesn’t go “There are no atheist clerk/ typists or computer programmers at the Naval Base in San Diego”.

It just has to be true.

There are most definitely atheists in foxholes.
http://www.atheistfoxholes.org/

As for prayer, Jesus say :-
I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [John 14:13]

Jesus did not say
I will do whatever you ask in my name except if you are testing me.

So where do you get this notion that prayer should not be empirical, certainly not from the bible.