Navy atheist came out of the closet on Good Friday

[Ian David]

Over the last three weeks I’ve been hammering home the importance of identifying as an atheist on your records. Most atheists in the military are still under the false impression that it’s not allowed. Most of us were told that “No Religious Preference” is all we can get. That hasn’t been true for at least a decade. But worse than that, “NO REL PREF” can lead to seriously fucked up consequences.

Sometime last month in reddit’s atheism comment section, I encountered a reluctant closeted atheist in the Navy. She took some harsh criticism from one of her peers for being scared. She was legitimately afraid, and that guy couldn’t relate.

<snip>

NO-REL-PREF has got to go, brothers and sisters. The atheist community doesn’t understand it, civilian and – sadly – military alike. Please spread the following information. We really need massive visibility for this. I’m amazed at how rude and dismissive some of the comments were. But the problem is more rooted in misinformation or lack of familiarity with military culture. This is a huge deal, and here is why.

Here is the debate-ending argument against NO-REL-PREF:


More:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/rockbeyondbelief/2012/04/07/navy-atheist-came-out-of-the-closet-on-good-friday/

[PassingFair]

1. I am beginning to believe that "non-religious" or "non-believer" would be a better category.

Because the "atheist", "agnostic", "pantheist", "humanist", "bright"
categories would be too lengthy and show fewer actual atheists than
there are.

BTW, to me, "Atheist" = "Non-believer" when religion is asked to be specified.

[SamG]

2. I think you're correct about that.

Wasn't it Obama that talked about "non-believers" in his inauguration speech?

Don't remember the exact words he used.

[onager]

3. My dogtags said "No Pref"

But that was a long time ago. As we used to say in the Marine Corps, back when Jesus was a PFC.

At that time, AFAIK, very few things could be stamped in the "Religion" block on dogtags. I only remember seeing Jewish, Catholic, Protestant or No Pref.

When I was a Drill Instructor, I had access to all the recruits personnel records and those four are all I remember ever seeing. Looking back, that seems strange. I was a D.I. in San Diego, which trained all Marine recruits from west of the Mississippi River. So it seems like we should have had a few Buddhists, Hindus or Sikhs.

When I went home on leave and my father saw "No Pref" on my dogtags, he had a shit-fit. Told me I should change it to "Baptist." Non-hilarity ensued. We finally decided to - YOU GUESSED IT! - not talk about it, since we were both pretty...short-tempered about that subject.

[Ian David]

4. When I was thinking about joining the Navy, the recruiter was "helping" me fill-out my forms...

... and he asked me what religion I was.

I told him, "I'm Jewish."

So, next to religion, he wrote-in, "Jew's Churches."

[sakabatou]

8. *facepalm*

What an idiot!

[enlightenment]

5. When did they change things?

When I was in the service (70s and 80s), my dogtag read 'atheist'. I had that choice. I could have also chosen 'agnostic'. When did they do away with atheist and agnostic as preferences?

[onager]

6. I don't know, but that's interesting.

My Marine Corps service was about the same time. I thought specifics like "atheist/agnostic" were only allowed later, when they loosened things up to include Wiccans, pagans, etc. Though I have no idea when that might have been.

Maybe there was a much wider choice when I was in, and I just didn't know about it. Dammit! I could have had "atheist" and really annoyed my family!

[enlightenment]

7. My mom and dad just sighed -

they had their own beliefs, but never forced them on the kids. We went to church when we were little, but as soon as we decided it wasn't for us (I was eleven), they let it be.

They were interested in having us develop ethics and scruples (which my grandmother differentiated from morals by saying 'other people tell you what morals your should be - you decide yourself what your scruples are' ).

I don't think the AF had anything beyond atheist, agnostic, and no preference though. I probably would have chosen pagan just to give my granny a chuckle.

[deucemagnet]

9. When I was in the Air Force in '87 we had a guy with "Pagan" on his tags.

I think it was for chuckles. He was a pretty nerdy D&D fanboy-type.