If you were on a plane that is crashing would you pray to god?

I've never been anything other than an atheist in any meaningful sense.

I've almost drowned twice, once when I got caught in a wad of fishing line at the bottom of a lake, and once when I got washed down a river without a boat. I also slipped on a waterfall and ended up hanging by a backpack strap about 20-30 feet above some jagged rocks, but that's sort of a different proposition. Now that I think about it, though, I should probably stop playing in water.

When I got caught in the fishing line, I had been swimming around the bottom of the lake trying to take pictures of fish, and I was just about to surface for air. I turned to push off the bottom and my foot hit the tangle of line and when I first pushed off it pulled tight. Well, first I tried to pull it off with my hands, but I couldn't work it loose. Then I tried to break it, and I got a few strands to break, but it was a big tangle and it was hard to get a grip, plus it was someone's catfish line. 10 pound test at least. Finally I got my feet under me again, and pushed off as hard as I could, and it came loose from the bottom, or felt like it, but about 5 feet from the surface it stopped me again.

That was the moment I knew I was truly screwed, because I had nothing to push off of, no leverage, my lungs were screaming, I was about to pass out, nobody could see me, and there was still enough line around my foot that I knew I wasn't going anywhere. I remember being really upset that my wife was going to have to deal with this, because just a short while before that she was telling me how this was the best day she had had in a long time.

I'm not entirely sure, but I think I thrashed around and the line came loose from the bottom, and I do remember being able to move, but unable to see the surface or figure out which way was up. Then I had my head out of the water and I was just gasping and struggling to stay afloat.

About ten minutes later, my wife, who had been off taking pictures when this happened, came back and told me that it wasn't safe to be swimming so soon after I had eaten. A few days later I told her why that made me laugh like a maniac.

I also had a pretty good cancer scare a few years back, which seemed like it was going to be pretty final, but the drowning scare was probably the nearest-death experience I've had.

/r/atheism Thread Parent