Update:  The Air Force Times repeated the atheist claim that “one in five” troops need “clergy who don’t believe in a god.”  Also at the Stars and Stripes and Washington Times.

In what has become a recurring theme, atheists lobbying for a spot in the military chaplaincy misrepresented demographic data to support their cause.  Again.  The American Humanist Association — which is attempting to endorse the first atheist chaplain — equates the military category of “no religious preference” with “a secular values system.”

“23% of US military soldiers claim “no religious preference” thus indicating a secular values system”

Jason Torpy, who has positions at both the American Humanist Association and the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, first published this misleading “analysis” in 2010, and even presented it to White House staff.  (That’s not the only data with which he’s played loose.) He recently cited the data again.

As was noted then, the AHA is essentially claiming Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan — who claimed NRP in his records — as a fellow secularist.  For many years, Jewish service members selected NRP to avoid hostility while serving in majority Muslim countries.  If it isn’t obvious, “no religious preference” does not equal a “secular values system.”

Some members of Congress have grown wise to the “creative” way in which atheists have presented the numbers (and have called the idea of an atheist “chaplain” “total nonsense“). On the AHA’s Facebook page, some of their own supporters criticized the AHA’s use of a conclusion unsupported by evidence.

It seems some atheists are so intent on joining the chaplaincy that they’re willing to falsely represent factual data to achieve that end.

Funny, atheists often deride those they think believe in “fairy tales.”

In the end, integrity is a necessary character trait for military service. That’s a virtue Jason Torpy’s AHA seem to lack.

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