His commander asked whether he believed in God? 'No, but I believe in Plexiglas'

[NNN0LHI]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080426/ap_on_re_us/army_atheist_speaks;_ylt=AjHNEBjmmabZ.Dd4A206y42s0NUE

Fort Riley atheist soldier speaks out on lawsuit

<snip>"I was ashamed to say that I was an atheist," Hall said.

It eventually came out in Iraq in 2007, when he was in a firefight. Hall was a gunner on a Humvee, which took several bullets in its protective shield. Afterward, his commander asked whether he believed in God, Hall said.

"I said, 'No, but I believe in Plexiglas,'" Hall said. "I've never believed I was going to a happy place. You get one life. When I die, I'm worm food."

The issue came to a head when, according to Hall, a superior officer, Maj. Freddy J. Welborn, threatened to bring charges against him for trying to hold a meeting of atheists in Iraq. Welborn has denied Hall's allegations.

Hall said he had had enough but feared he wouldn't get support from Welborn's superiors. He turned to Mikey Weinstein and the Military Religious Freedom Foundation.

Weinstein is the foundation's president and a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate

[pleah]

1. Is it against the law to hold non-christian meetings?

WTF? I hope Hall doesn't end up a victim of (friendly fire) over this.

[roguevalley]

10. no. the guy is a bigot.

[Marr]

2. I was honestly shocked at the response I got when I first mentioned

I was an atheist on one of my first jobs. I was raised without any religion whatsoever, and the subject simply never came up with friends all through school. On one of my first jobs, I happened to be in the room when several people were comparing their religious beliefs; a Catholic, some Babtists... I believe there was a Muslim as well. They were all getting along just fine, then one asked me what I was and when I replied in a friendly tone that I was an atheist, a couple of people literally starting shouting *insults*. "Stupid, blind, evil", etc. I was truly taken aback, because I didn't even realize there was a taboo against atheism until that point. I thought they must be joking. Nope.

Word got around to one of the supervisors, a Born Again Christian, and he seemed to make it his personal duty to get me fired. He started submitting fabricated complaints about me to HR, saying I'd done everything from curse people out to steal office supplies. So weird.

Anyway, just saying I'm not surprised at the reaction this guy received at all. Some of these nitwits go insane at the word "atheist".

[EvolveOrConvolve]

4. I feel for ya'

I work in an office filled with born-agains, baptists, mormons, fundies, etc. I won't EVER mention the fact that I have no religious beliefs, let alone let it be known that I'm an atheist. Shit, being a Democrat is bad enough.

Sadly, these are mostly good people who would throw me under the bus in a second if they knew about my atheism. I've learned the hard way that it's best to stay in the atheist closet.

[Warpy]

5. I made that mistake once, too

They're a lot more forgiving if you stay in that, "I'm not really religious" self-imposed ghetto.

Hearing a normal, reasonable and ethical person say he's atheist rocks the very foundations of their imaginary world, a world that needs a god in order to function at any level above savagery--never mind every savage has a god.

Add to that the fact that most reasonable people are doubters in that "afraid not to believe" place and thus more likely to be defensive as hell when any threat is perceived to their fragile hold on belief, and you have a recipe for real persecution.

European friends have all been shocked when they've come here, deeply shocked at what a god soaked nation this is. After two world wars and a depression during which no god appeared to save anyone's bacon, Europe is much more tolerant of unbelievers.

The people who founded this country had experience with religious intolerance and wrote religion out of the government. I sincerely hope that when this sanctimonious and evil government is finally gone, we can get back to that ideal of a government that is neutral on religious belief, allowing every person to follow the dictates of his own conscience as long as those dictates harm no one else.

[usaftmo]

9. What about being a born-again atheist?

While stationed in Kansas, one day we were all making chit-chat. The bible-thumpers in our office turned the generic chat into religion...I was asked which religion I am...and I answered that I'm a born-again atheist.

The shock and horror!

They asked me what a born-again atheist is. I asked them if they've heard of a born-again christian. Of course they said yes. Then I said it's a similar thing that happened: I used to be christian but after significant thought have changed into an atheist.

[Matariki]

8. wow - what happened to you at that job?

I gues your supervisor hadn't read the bit in his bible about lying and bearing false witness. did s/he succeed in getting you fired? did you sue?

[Marr]

12. I eventually asked the head of Human Resources to arrange

a conference for the three of us, because I wanted to ask him about some of the accusations he'd made, and see if he could back any of them up consistently. I told the HR guy that I wasn't going to do it alone, because the man had shown a tendency to create stories out of whole cloth, and I wanted some kind of impartial witness there so the nut wouldn't say I'd tried to kill him or something.

The HR guy made the offer, the supervisor declined. That was pretty much the end of it.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

3. Atheists are the best. They use logic and reason and don't operate as if they

have some kind of invisible safety net against behaving like a civilized person. They recognize people as flawed and fallible and it's all OK.

I'm so sorry about your work experience. Having just extricated myself from a job where I was co-managing a department with a hard core born again type, I feel your pain.

On edit, meant to respond to Marr.

[Robb]

6. So much for the "no atheists in a foxhole" theory. /nt

[DFW]

7. Europe is more tolerant of unbelievers because.....

Most Europeans ARE unbelievers. Most are raised with some kind of
tradition, and the generation born before World War II sees differently,
but my wife's generation (born 1952) has no interest in it whatsoever
except as historical background. As a kid, her playmates who were
protestant were told not to play with the evil Catholic kids (her).

They all found it to be total baloney, and instead of adopting the religious
intolerance of their elders, they dropped religion instead. The re-kindled
interest in religion in Europe is mostly focused on immigrant Muslims, and
at that only those who would impose their religion here violently. No one here
cares if someone prays at a mosque. When they kill their daughters and sisters
on the street for dating German boys, or walking around without a headscarf,
that's where tolerance ends.

[alfredo]

11. When I joined in 1965 they asked my religion and I said Atheist. They

put down Protestant. When I didn't want to go to chapel in basic they made me crawl on my belly from one end of the company to the other while the others were in chapel. I was a bloody mess after crawling over the gravel and pavement.

The one Jew wasn't treated well either. But he became a favorite for being able to call cadence in Hebrew and in Hebrew song. We had another guy who could yodel cadence. There was always a tradition of showing off when coming upon another company in formation. We call and response some dirty song or put one of our "specials" in charge of calling cadence.