Atheist Soldier says Army punishem him

[erin moore]

"he was denied his constitutional right to hold a meeting to discuss atheism while he was deployed in Iraq with his military police unit. He says in the new complaint that his promotion was blocked after the commander of the 1st Infantry Division and Fort Riley sent an e-mail post-wide saying Hall had sued. ..."

http://www.military.com/NewsContent/0,13319,163451,00.html?ESRC=army-a.nl

[Mesogen]

Did they even try to put him in a foxhole?

But seriously, this kind of crap is lame.

[Theocrat]

This is an interesting article. Though I disagree with all of the fundamental beliefs of "atheism," I don't think the U.S. Army should have the power to deny one of their troops from discussing and sharing his beliefs and religious concerns with his fellow combatants. One of the intriguing things about "atheism" is that it brings forth challenging questions about life that sometimes is looked over by those of theistic convictions. I think this is healthy in sharing different opinions about one's faith in order to sharpen and strengthen others.

One final comment that I found very interesting is that when the "atheist" soldier Jeremy Hall was challenged by his sergeant that he (Hall) had no rights if "atheism" was not a religion, Hall appealed to a religious document, the Army's chaplain manual, to justify that his "atheistic" beliefs were protected under that manual. In my opinion, this shows how when a person's "atheism" is pushed to the limits, that person will readily admit that his or her belief is truly religious in nature, and that individual will seek any legal provision to protect his or her "right" to believe freely in his or her humanistic religion (http://www.americanhumanist.org/about/manifesto1.html).