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Veteran's Day Atheists

HEY, IT'S VETERAN'S DAY!!
I'm a vet - USN .. and an Antago-theist.
I was wondering what is the correlation between military service, war, and religion - are vets who have seen action more likely to be religious?

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enealk 4 Nov 11
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The cross section of the military is not much different than what one finds in the general populace. At least, that has been my experience.

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Not being a vet, this is one instance where I wish I coudl see the pool results, even without castign a vote.

As an outsider, I would suspect that it goes both ways. Some people become believers after seeign action, and some people lose their faith after seeing action. Still i wish I coudl see the results of this poll, as not beign a vet, I did nto put in a vote.

So far there are 12 votes cast. Zero for believers and an even split of 6 and 6 of non believers. However, what would you expect in this forum?

you can view the results without voting. the tab is next to the vote tab

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Unfortunately, the higher part of the military is used as a way of getting soldiers to fight often unjust wars. If one thinks there is a god on their side they are less likely to question their orders/actions.

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Whenever I encountered some religious person claiming that we should all "bow down" to religion, I remind them that the Constitution states very emphaticlly that their is a separation between state and church! In an active war zone, I would NEVER attend any form of religious indoctrination. Put me on guard duty, I didn't care. It was better then praying to some mysterious person in the sky to prevent the VC from shooting at us. I never had anything done to me because of my non-belief, because I was a draftee and never intended to make the military a career.

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Whenever I encountered some religious person claiming that we should all "bow down" to religion, I remind them that the Constitution states very emphaticlly that their is a separation between state and church!

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I'm never going to be able to say I'm 100% convinced there is no personal God, yet I find the idea of one rather silly. I can't speak for an impersonal deity but even if such thing we're to exist, it wouldn't impact my life or affect my chances of an afterlife based on behavior here on Earth.

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What do you mean "seen action?" I'm not sure how to answer this poll... I don't think I've "seen action," but I have been deployed to an active theater.

I spent two years deployed to Kuwait and Iraq. In Iraq, the base I was at was regularly hit with mortar fire, and I could hear explosions, but none ever came close to me. I was involved in the movement of HRs ("human remains" of the deceased) back to the US. Sometimes that meant participating in the dignified transfer at the aircraft, and sometimes that just meant planning for the transfer case's movement from my office computer.

My time in Kuwait was spectacularly mundane. I was doing the same work, and it was important, but it was dull drudgery. HRs typically didn't move through that base, and I was in the office all the time anyway. I never really felt I was in danger there, even though I was in the AOR.

When I hear "seen action," I assume it to mean that one has been in direct combat. There are a ton of people who have deployed but have had relatively uneventful experiences.

I'm going to take the poll as "seen action," although I wouldn't personally use that term to describe my service.

Sorry, but anyone who has been deployed in the military knows what "seeing action" means - you are being facetious. If you feel you have been directly involved in a combat situation, then you can likely consider yourself to have "seen action" - technically however, it is generally a term left up to your commanders to determine your involvement - as a vet, you would know that.

The reason it is important to the question is because being in an active theatre is often cited as a contributing factor in individuals committing to their beliefs in a religion.

I would venture to say that live fire in the area would have some effect on your mental status, whether it was active engagement or not. As for it qualifying as 'seeing action' is as enealk said.

enealk, I was not being facetious. You're right. I DO know what "seeing action" means. I said it right in my post. To me (and everyone else) it means direct combat.

I have been in an active theater, but have only experienced "indirect fire." That's an official term. I have not been in combat. I would not say that I have "seen action." I wouldn't use those words to describe my experience because I know that people would assume that I had been in combat, which I have not.

The poll's questions were: "seen action" or "have not been in an active theater." I was genuinely not sure how you were using "seen action," because of the binary choice in the wording of the poll. This is just a question of semantics. I had not seen action. But I had been in an active theater.

I do understand what point you were making. It's simply the word choice of the questions themselves that I needed clarity on.

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