I saw a Navy chaplain when I was going through some tough times in the Marines. I told him right off the bat that I was an atheist and he didn’t push any religious shit on me. He just talked to me and worked with my command to get me seen by a trained therapist. Other Marines I knew had similar experiences. Chaplains are officers outside the normal command structure and are trained to provide services to everyone regardless of their faith or lack there of. Also a lot of military members are at least nominally religious so it makes sense to have someone to coordinate religious activity, especially overseas where there aren’t local religious institutions.
Same argument can be made for Atheism which is basically people trying to convince themselves God doesn’t exist just so they can be immoral and live life without consequences. Why should society pander to that?
We do have inherent designed morality, because morality exists and we know of it because of the fruit of the tree in the knowledge of good and evil. So since morality exists and is real, everyone has a knowledge of it from the beginning.
However, Atheism does like to contravene morality and redesign the moral compass to suit whatever agenda someone would like to push. An example being is the dehumanisation of Jews and people being desensitised to violence to perpetuate the holocaust. Showing opposition brought social and political persecution, all to benefit an authoritarian agenda of militarism and not balming themselves.
Or for a more present and relevant example, foetuses being dehumanised and abortion being normalised and showing any opposition to it may bring social persecution, as to benefit a capitalist agenda and being told “it’s for the good of our freedom” while it actually just relieves the state’s responsibility to care for it’s young and to keep young women in wage slavery.
So yes, Atheists can be moral. But my point is- once you throw God’s solid and unchanging word out of the window, you can warp and “normalise” immoral things and do what you want.
I think there’s a requirement to render counseling services to all denominations, including atheists/agnostics, because the chaplain corps is pretty much the closest the Navy gets to mental health care while deployed. Not the greatest system, in all honesty.
Part of the roles of a Navy Chaplain are to provide religious services. This is inherently a religious role, it should not be expected that an atheist or “non-theist” will perform these roles correctly.
Chaplain: a member of the clergy attached to a private chapel, institution, ship, branch of the armed forces, etc.
By definition, a Chaplain is a religious insurgent.
Insurgent: a rebel or revolutionary.
So, an Insurgent Chaplain: An individual who is a Champlain in a country founded on the concept of separation of Church and State, but insists on being a paid state official to enforce their religion on members of the state.
Wow. I was thinking of Buddhist and Taoist chaplains, Or UU. personal gods may or not be held, but they don’t usually push them on people, although the former two can and do have abuse allegations brought, some substantiated. Idk about UU.
Can you be a non-religious chaplain? That feels like discrimination if there’s a religious requirement.
Edit: As of 2018 at least, nope.
I saw a Navy chaplain when I was going through some tough times in the Marines. I told him right off the bat that I was an atheist and he didn’t push any religious shit on me. He just talked to me and worked with my command to get me seen by a trained therapist. Other Marines I knew had similar experiences. Chaplains are officers outside the normal command structure and are trained to provide services to everyone regardless of their faith or lack there of. Also a lot of military members are at least nominally religious so it makes sense to have someone to coordinate religious activity, especially overseas where there aren’t local religious institutions.
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Same argument can be made for Atheism which is basically people trying to convince themselves God doesn’t exist just so they can be immoral and live life without consequences. Why should society pander to that?
Belief in a god, gods, or the lack of belief have nothing to do with morality. In fact, most atheists I know seem to have sincere morality.
We do have inherent designed morality, because morality exists and we know of it because of the fruit of the tree in the knowledge of good and evil. So since morality exists and is real, everyone has a knowledge of it from the beginning.
However, Atheism does like to contravene morality and redesign the moral compass to suit whatever agenda someone would like to push. An example being is the dehumanisation of Jews and people being desensitised to violence to perpetuate the holocaust. Showing opposition brought social and political persecution, all to benefit an authoritarian agenda of militarism and not balming themselves.
Or for a more present and relevant example, foetuses being dehumanised and abortion being normalised and showing any opposition to it may bring social persecution, as to benefit a capitalist agenda and being told “it’s for the good of our freedom” while it actually just relieves the state’s responsibility to care for it’s young and to keep young women in wage slavery.
So yes, Atheists can be moral. But my point is- once you throw God’s solid and unchanging word out of the window, you can warp and “normalise” immoral things and do what you want.
And every chaplain i met in the army was a jackass trying to recruit for their religion.
I think there’s a requirement to render counseling services to all denominations, including atheists/agnostics, because the chaplain corps is pretty much the closest the Navy gets to mental health care while deployed. Not the greatest system, in all honesty.
Part of the roles of a Navy Chaplain are to provide religious services. This is inherently a religious role, it should not be expected that an atheist or “non-theist” will perform these roles correctly.
So what exactly do you think UU Ministers and ToS clergy do?
Chaplain: a member of the clergy attached to a private chapel, institution, ship, branch of the armed forces, etc.
By definition, a Chaplain is a religious insurgent.
Insurgent: a rebel or revolutionary.
So, an Insurgent Chaplain: An individual who is a Champlain in a country founded on the concept of separation of Church and State, but insists on being a paid state official to enforce their religion on members of the state.
Oh look a religious test for a government position… What the fuck.
Wow. I was thinking of Buddhist and Taoist chaplains, Or UU. personal gods may or not be held, but they don’t usually push them on people, although the former two can and do have abuse allegations brought, some substantiated. Idk about UU.