First, I'll take this time to clearly point out that as far as religion goes, I'm very objective. I see the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, every holy book as a work of fiction that, while they carry excellent messages of being a better person, should be regarded with the same levelheadedness as a comic book. I would be justifiably assassinated for fear of madness if I ruled a country and demanded that every service member swore an oath of fealty to Batman, and there's no reason that a single deity of a single religion should be sworn loyalty to by thousands of people who frankly may not even believe that particular deity even exists.
Please don't misunderstand me, I do believe that religion is a positive and at times necessary piece of society, even given the fact that many MANY people bend their own interpretations of their book of choice to try and force arbitrary laws onto others based on their own fears or prejudices. *cough cough* leviticus *cough*.
Nevertheless, this has not stopped people from voicing several arguments (however feeble) out of a defensive predisposition of their own favorite book. There are some that believe that our soldiers and sailors need God looking out for them, and to that I sincerely ask;
Do you not know what "optional" means?
This is something that I've had to deal with for years given my own religious preference, dealing with people that seem to believe that someone who doesn't believe in their God is a living insult to everything they believe in. I've spoken with tons of people who don't like Star Wars and their opinions have done literally nothing to deter my love of those movies. And yes, I am absolutely referring to a fictional movie and religion in the same light.
There are also others that believe that mentions of God in the enlistment oath is a part of a long tradition and should not be changed due to changing likes and dislikes, many of whom have gone on record saying "if you don't like it, don't join".
Tragic, given that this was almost a valid argument before it went full "albatross landing" at the end.
Firstly, this is the only time I've ever seen people seem picky about who sells years of their life in service to the military to keep the rest of the country safe, and it's both hilariously sad and sadly hilarious that religion is found at the center of that concern. Secondly, if the concern is more centrally based on people belligerently disobeying rules in the military consider this, no one officially enlisted in any branch of military has ever taken that oath, one is not officially a part of military service until they have recited the oath word for word. Furthermore, there's some basic rules that are just as old as the American military that guarantees people are not to be forced to worship a certain deity or observe any religious custom that they do not wish to.
 |
| I'm just gonna leave this here. |
Personally I'm still waiting for the day that either current religion is regarded in the same nostalgic sense as Zeus, Thor, Jupiter, or Osiris. Or, even better, when every work of fiction can have it's own religious following and I can take the stand at any court with my hand on a stack of Batman comics.
Finally, if you're reading this and I have upset you in some way, I want to try something crazy. Instead of just getting pissed off and finding solace in Facebook feeds that parrot your own opinion back to you, reply to me personally. There's a comments section right below this post and I'll gladly oblige any thoughtful argument to the contrary of my ideas. Let's discuss this like rational adults.
May the Force be with you.
