# Atheists and the rest of us **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [July 4, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-and-the-rest-of-us/253504 "2004-07-04T16:30:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![erislover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/71e660/32.png) [@erislover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erislover)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-and-the-rest-of-us/253504/61 "2004-07-05T07:26:15Z")
> [@Triskadecamus](#): > > Talk about a witness! Can I get an AMEN? … > That’s what I am supposed to be doing now! Only I don’t get the short cut route to God’s house as part of the deal. I get the long way, living my life as a testament. Much harder deal. But, the journey becomes the destination. 😃 Oh, see, that’s interesting, because to me it felt that laying it all on the line _right then_ was the larger test of belief than the long road, where mistakes can be corrected, actions amended, beliefs adjusted, etc. Interesting you see it the other way. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 10:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-and-the-rest-of-us/253504/62 "2004-07-05T10:40:01Z")
> [@erislover](#): > > At parties, I used to come up with an odd question, poll everyone about it throughout the evening, and eventually announce my results without divulging who said what. Only once did it go poorly. The question was, “Suppose you could elect to die, knowing that _because of your death_ everyone currently alive would instantly know what the truth about life-after-death and religion was. They wouldn’t know what you believed, because maybe you were wrong; they would know the truth. You, of course, would just die to go meet that fate head-on, so of course you’d find out (in a way). Would you do it?” I actually ended up in a physical confrontation over that one. I’m surprised the bite mark didn’t leave a scar. 😉 FYI, among my friends, only two said they would do it. Ooh, interesting. I don’t know what I’d do (athiest). Don’t Christians believe everyone sort of already knows, but that three-quaters of us aren’t listening? ---
**Author:** ![Kegg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Kegg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kegg)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-and-the-rest-of-us/253504/63 "2004-07-05T11:22:10Z")
A little late but…David Simmons “History goes back a lot further than that with most of it not written”. History is the writen part, Prehistory is unwritten. * * * Spelling and grammer subject to change without notice. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![sinical\_brit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/48db29/32.png) [@sinical\_brit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinical_brit)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-and-the-rest-of-us/253504/64 "2004-07-05T13:50:48Z")
Hey imagine if Jesus had just come out and said it at the time … “hey guys this’ll blow your mind, the old man says the earth really is a sphere NOT a circle, AND the earth does go round the sun!!!”. Maybe he would have been laffed out of town though. Much better to stick with the “wine and loaves” campaign… ( if he did say any of that - it shows my poor bible knowledge. Sorry ) Sin ---
**Author:** ![David\_Simmons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9de053/32.png) [@David\_Simmons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/David_Simmons)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-and-the-rest-of-us/253504/65 "2004-07-05T14:57:04Z")
> [@Kegg](#): > > A little late but…David Simmons “History goes back a lot further than that with most of it not written”. History is the writen part, Prehistory is unwritten. > > * * * > > Spelling and grammer subject to change without notice. 😃 Picky, picky, picky. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Triskadecamus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b19c9b/32.png) [@Triskadecamus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triskadecamus)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2004, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-and-the-rest-of-us/253504/66 "2004-07-05T17:08:44Z")
> [@erislover](#): > > Oh, see, that’s interesting, because to me it felt that laying it all on the line _right then_ was the larger test of belief than the long road, where mistakes can be corrected, actions amended, beliefs adjusted, etc. Interesting you see it the other way. Well, that difference might be strongly influenced by the fact that I expect leaving this life to be a wonderful, and exciting thing. I want to live my life as a servant of my Lord, not because it gets me a reward, but because it’s a really good idea. I screw up a fair bit. I used to screw up even more, but I work on it. Tris [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/atheists-and-the-rest-of-us/253504.md?page=3)