Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dennis M. Dutton on October 16, 2010 at 12:29pm

no shit!

Permalink Reply by Noah Petersen on October 17, 2010 at 2:48am

In the Navy, every night while we are on a ship underway, they do evening prayers at 9:55 pm. These are always done by Christians, and they are always agenda driven. They rarely just read a biblical passage and then stop, they must add personal notes.

This usually equate the "bless the puppies, our families back home, and I hope everyone has a good day at work." These are obviously my attempts to make them look slightly more ridiculous than the really are, but I'm not completely off-base.

The way i deal with it personally is that I have an alram clock/ipod set to blare loud rock music from 9:54 pm to 10:00. If I have to hear white noise every night for 5 minutes, it's going to be noise of my choice.

Permalink Reply by Apeman Jim on October 18, 2010 at 7:40am

Dont forget the spiritually enlightening "Loord, bless us during this evalution period and grant us success...". The invocation of Gawd before shipboard certification in any area.... the results of which, of course, directly influences their fitreps and consequential advancement.

Permalink Reply by Adam McCullough on November 7, 2010 at 12:47am

Here is a prayer writen by mark twain, illistrating the absurdness of praying durring war. Well, absurd if you claim to be preying to an all loving, benevolent god. If the preyer above is at the shallow end of the spiritually enlightened scale this one would at least be sincere.

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

Permalink Reply by Apeman Jim on April 5, 2011 at 3:36pm

I almost feel as though I was there for that one!

Permalink Reply by Noah Simoneaux on October 18, 2010 at 5:14pm

In 15 years on active duty I never bowed my head for any of the superstitious stuff. Never even attended any of the craziness if I had a choice. It was generally known in most of the units I was in that I was not one of "them". I even went in front of a promotion board once for E-6 in a unit where the unit motto was Toujours Pret(Always Ready in French). When I had finished the board, the commander of the board, the Battalion Sergeant Major, returned my salute and said "Do ya pray?" with a smile on his face. I wasn't even sure I had heard him right until after I left the room. I passed the board, by the way.

Permalink Reply by Apeman Jim on April 5, 2011 at 3:37pm

Not usually an option for the ones I attended...

Permalink Reply by Apeman Jim on April 5, 2011 at 3:38pm

I have had a mix of experiences on those matters.  Several occasions in the past required interfacing with the Chaps, they usually ask about my faith and that is when things get interesting...

Permalink Reply by Bud Martin on November 23, 2010 at 9:53am

"Ignorance is the greatest evil." You have to understand that most supervisors are "culture captives." Belief is not fact. One's perceptions of "reality" may not involve actuality. Arguing (debating) with misguided fanatics is like talking to a billboard. As an active duty ANG officer, I had to deal with many, both subordinate, and even Flag rank. I found the best method was to say nothing (It's always your mouth that gets you in trouble!). Silence, and an appropriate facial expression usually conveys adequately. For insistent talkers, the best cut-off is to ask the question: "What is our mission here?" (i.e., redirect).
God(s) is/are a mental escape mechanism from pain. Most humans will do anything to reduce pain, and we each have our own methods.
One must suffer the ignorance of others.

Permalink Reply by Apeman Jim on April 5, 2011 at 3:40pm

I agree to a capacity, but I dont relish the idea of being sent into harms way by someone who feels that any of the inherent flaws of their planning "is in Gods hands..."

Permalink Reply by Shane Fisher on December 10, 2010 at 5:27pm

I was with 5th Marines and the only time I had problems is when I was working as the embark NCO for my grunt unit (30% of my unit was Atheist or Agnostic). So I had to work with a lot of non-infantry when embark stuff came up and they were amazed that I even existed, they had never met an Atheist before, probably never asked. They pointed me out to everyone that was there that I didn't believe in god, you know, asking why, aren't you afraid of going to hell. It never came into their head to question why they believe, like "Do you believe in talking snakes and unicorns?", "Well no", "They're in the Bible". As I said before, 30% of my unit was Atheist or Agnostic, we were Division Crew Served Weapons competition champs four years in a row and won the Meritorious Unit Citation. If you don't constantly question why your doing something and come up with a good reason for it you can never become better.   

Permalink Reply by Zachary Jennings on March 31, 2011 at 8:24am

Eh, once my unit up in FT Lewis walked a ruck march to donate toys for less fournaute kids which was a good cause but some asshole of an officer, the rank escapes me but he was higher than a CPT, stood in front of the formation and said: "If you are standing here in this formation you believe in a God. I do not care what God but none of you do not. No one who does not believe would be standing here."

I audiably muttered under my breath "Nope, still says Atheist on my dog tags."

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