{"id":17942,"date":"2012-05-31T01:41:29","date_gmt":"2012-05-31T04:41:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/?p=17942"},"modified":"2012-05-31T01:41:29","modified_gmt":"2012-05-31T04:41:29","slug":"the-wisdom-of-atheist-midshipmen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2012\/05\/31\/the-wisdom-of-atheist-midshipmen\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wisdom of Atheist Midshipmen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate Donovan posted text from interviews she conducted with atheists<\/a> at the US Naval Academy as part of a series on atheists in the US military academies.\u00a0 The text is interesting as an overview of the midshipmen’s group, but what is fascinating is the mature perspective from some of the mids:<\/p>\n

…the paperwork process is slow for all groups, regardless of whether people like our group or not…<\/p>\n

…Although our group has not been \u201cofficial\u201d for this past year \u2014 it was due to the fact that all prospective ECA\u2019s must submit paperwork for official review every year in April \u2014 no other opportunities are afforded, our group included.<\/p>\n

We can host events, but just have to go through the same bureaucracy as everyone else on that…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The theme is consistent:\u00a0 The mids recognize they are subject to the same “issues” as every other extracurricular group.\u00a0 They don’t have\u00a0a persecution complex or an antagonistic attitude.<\/p>\n

By contrast, some atheists on active duty seem to have exactly that:\u00a0 Justin Griffith of Rock Beyond Belief fame inaccurately claims atheists are “banned”<\/a> from meeting on Army posts, a claim that was, until recently, repeated by Air Force atheists.\u00a0 Now, these Air Force atheists have apparently decided to do what everyone else has to do and are applying to be recognized as a private organization<\/a>, which will give them the same access every other non-religious group gets.<\/p>\n

Atheist cadets at the US Military Academy<\/a> had a somewhat mixed response to the same questions:<\/p>\n

Our first attempts at official recognition were shot down outright…[but the new director of clubs] has given us reason to believe that we will be recognized sometime in the near future.\u00a0 Currently, the Academy\u2019s club program is being revised.\u00a0 After the revision process is completed this summer, we will know if our efforts were successful.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At first it seems they acknowledge their unofficial status — but they then\u00a0complain about being denied certain things, which require official status.\u00a0 Similarly, they complain about not having access to public advertising — but then say they actually do have that access, but they don’t have a use for it.\u00a0 Finally, the cadets make global statements about being denied the ability to travel —\u00a0implying it has to do with their atheism and failing to acknowledge their unofficial status or the fact other groups get denied, too.\u00a0 It seems West Point atheists could use a lesson in humility and maturity from their Annapolis peers.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, the atheist midshipmen, who will be commissioned as officers after they graduate, will maintain their level heads and the maturity they’ve so far displayed — maturity that seems to exceed that of some of their counterparts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kate Donovan posted text from interviews she conducted with atheists at the US Naval Academy as part of a series on atheists in the US military academies.\u00a0 The text is interesting as an overview of the midshipmen’s group, but what is fascinating is the mature perspective from some of the mids: …the paperwork process is slow for all groups, regardless […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[134,133,88,20,2,36,10,2624,473],"class_list":["post-17942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-annapolis","tag-army","tag-atheism","tag-military","tag-navy","tag-religion","tag-travis-afb","tag-usna"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17942"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17942\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}