Atheists in the Military

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Yep. In the Wikipedia.org article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscript ... _objection "Conscription in the United States," at least two U.S. Supreme Court opinions defined the ability of atheists to seek and be granted conscientious objector status (which simply means that they would be conscripted, just not for combat duty). During the Vietnam war, most were assigned to medic duty putting them in harms way, but not armed.

Yes, my personal experience is that in basic training/AIT in the US Army was that we were given a choice several times to attend religious ceremonies or do morning work. It was not presented as either/or, rather, it was explained that you can attend church and if you didn't , then you will be doing whatever B.S. work they thought of (e.g., "police the land" which in the military means pick up the trash. I went to the church on the military base to get out of doing work. My impression is that "religious activities" works as a good excuse to get our of work if they happen to schedule a religious event during work hours.

I hate how the military makes it a "you've got a choice, BUT...if you don't do it our way, you WILL be miserable". This applies to the church going comment as well. Not the first time I've heard of systems set-up to encourage a narrow range of acceptable practices.

Personally, I'm an atheist, I'm a pacifist, and I don't want to be forced to get involved in issues I don't consider appropriate. I gotta find myself a better country!

how is saying "so help me god" the same as saying I believe in god.
what about when atheist say "oh my god" does this mean they unconsciously believe ?

or could it be these sayings are just that sayings, that have been used for so long that its just common place.


as for with the military have any of you served recently? cause the s**t I hear about from people is the military is turning anti christian. labeling christian groups as groups you can't be in etc.

/\
Precisely, and that's pretty much how it is in Air Force BMTS. If you're wise you use that time as ersatz f**k off time. They will not ask you if you're an atheist and keep you from going to chapel services, nor will the ceiling collapse or anyone burst into flames if an atheist enters one of the churches there. Go there and simply enjoy the peace of not being yelled at for a while.

So long as its not a fire and brimstone "YOU ARE ALL GOING TO BURN IN HELL" preacher.

I love it
I'm also "quoting" this image because there is a good chance you'll change your mind (at least a few times) about it in a few minutes and delete it.

Those kind turn me off, too.....

So you would be happy if the oath said, "so help me Allah," or "so help me Vishnu" or "so help me FSM" ? It's just a formality, hey.

If they want to deny Atheists the right to serve, they should mandate that every single Christian not only serves in the military, but also serves in combat.

^My line of thinking on the subject. If they want to keep the wordsl, there should be the option of saying "so help me" and then filling in the blank or leaving it at those three words.

But can you imagine the sh*tstorm that would begin if someone said "so help me Satan?"

^the only people I have heard this from are the same people who are convinced there is a war against Christmas and that all liberals want to force America into a godless communist state (or saome similar variation along those lines).

"The same damn Constitution that they just asked people to support and defend! wrote:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."




To refer back to the OP's post on the first page: legally speaking "so help me God" is not in fact a religious text (is the statement above meant to read "test " or text?), as it's not a quote from a verse in the Bible or Quran or any other "holy" book,- it is simply a phrase that's been used in various countries for many years as a statement of emphasis.

Is is meant to read "test". And the "So Help Me God" phrase was actually recognized in the US as an explicitly religious phrase as early as 1789, where an exemption was provided in the Judiciary Act of 1789.


Source:
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Page%3AUn ... 1.djvu/198

The US Constitution itself calls for affirmation or oath in several instances, but contains no "So help me God" obligation.

It is somewhat ironic, even, that so many US Christians are so keen on maintaining a religious oath... After all, the entire issue started with Quakers who refused to swear oaths for very obvious Christian reasons...

Happy? No, if I had to take an oath with any of those names in it I'd find it disturbing and 15 minutes later I would be OVER IT since it would not be relevant to my reason for joining up. It would not occur to me to manufacture some offense to use it as an excuse not to join up or whatever other butthurt I could milk out of it.