The classic phrase touted by religious nutbags throughout the World time and time again is "there are no atheists in foxholes". This obviously speaks to the supposed inability to cope with the high levels(understatement) of stress and danger involved with being in the military. This inability to cope, however, is only supposed to exist unless one believes in an invisible babysitter in the sky.
Clearly this whole stereotype of the absence of atheists soldiers is bollucks. Three months ago the organization MASH(Military Atheists and Secular Humanists) was founded by Sgt. Justin Griffith in response to the overwhelming christian ideology present in not only the United States in general, but especially in its military.
Their number one mandate is:
To serve the vastly under-represented non-theist population of Soldiers on posts across the world. To this end, we hope to ultimately establish an official tie-in with the every base’s Chaplaincy. We’d like each chapter to have some meetups on post, possibly even in the Chapels. Additionally we want to be officially recognized and listed on the Chaplain’s schedule of services that currently caters to Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and even Pagans.
Indeed, to publicly come out as an atheist is somewhat risky in parts of the US(even in many Canadian communities I'm sure) but to come out in the military speaks to the tremendous drive and courage of these men and women. The group has been gaining some public momentum recently, which is pretty cool (check out the recent article here (seriously check it out! its very cool)).
To be honest, I'd take soldiers with no presuppositions of god, an afterlife or any kind of divine protection or supervision over those who do any day. I mean, realistically, do we want soldiers who could possibly think they have some sort of holy protection/support or those who are thoroughly grounded in reality? The consequences of the former can lead to disastrous results.
Does that seem right to you?
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