Religion And Our Military Leaders

[Solitary]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-b-wilkerson/the-taliban-in-our-midst_b_7421578.html

[Mike Cl]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lawrence-b-wilkerson/the-taliban-in-our-midst_b_7421578.html

Thanks for the article.  In this country (and I imagine everywhere else, too) god and the military have maintained a real love affair.  What gets a very religious person going more than killing for god?!!!Organized religion begets a real zeal and love for war.  Always have--always will.

[Solitary]

When people are taught by indoctrination to kill or be killed for a belief, they are being used to benefit the leaders, whether religious, military, or politicians, in my opinion. I support our teenage troops because they need our support for morel, but I sure don't support the politicians, religious leaders or military leaders who do think every problem can be solved by violence. When you make, even children, think they will always exist and not die but be transformed, or go against their instincts for self preservation, I think it is not only child abuse, but evil as you can get, in my opinion. 

[Unbeliever]

Thanks for the article.  In this country (and I imagine everywhere else, too) god and the military have maintained a real love affair.  What gets a very religious person going more than killing for god?!!!Organized religion begets a real zeal and love for war.  Always have--always will.

According to Blue Letter bible, the word "war" occurs 225 times in 220 verses in the KJV. Here're just a couple:

Exo 15:3
The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.

Psa 18:34
He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms.

And, of course, the one all the hawks know and love:

Joe 3:10
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

[Solitary]

That doesn't mean squat, look at the Qur'an!

[Unbeliever]

OK, I just went to Quran Browser and found that there are 177 references to "war" in the Quran. Respectable, but the Bible still has it beat. 

[kilodelta]

Yeah. The Air Force appears to be the biggest offender of advocating Christianity within their service and while in uniform.

[Atheon]

Jesus said "Blessed are the peacemakers." Now kill, kill, kill!!!

[kilodelta]

You can't be a peacekeeping force if you can't kill everything in the area of operations.

[Unbeliever]

When every living thing upon the Earth has been obliterated, peace will reign forevermore : war is peace!

[drunkenshoe]

...In this country (and I imagine everywhere else, too) god and the military have maintained a real love affair.  What gets a very religious person going more than killing for god?!!!Organized religion begets a real zeal and love for war.  Always have--always will.

The real love affair is maintained between military and nationalism. Nationalism is the religion of the modern state. Religion was born of 'nationalism' -not in the sense we know today- but in the sense of community, society. And nationalism rules over atheists and seculars as easy as it does over the religious. Religious is simple, nationalist is not. Religious has to change rhetorics to adapt and survive, nationalism does not. The former feeds on human reality and its simple fears and ignorance, while the latter is just invented 200 years back to raise the modern state and feeds on imaginary historical perceptions, self convictions, self love, economics, domestic and international politics, draw peoples apart in a fundamental scale so they can be used against each other easily and further that they would be glorified for that. You can't brainwash an atheist with religious delusion, but you can brainwash nonreligious, religious, atheist, theist, deist, pantheist, this and that...etc anyone with nationalism and make them do anything pointing patriotism to their head. And they will do it glady, they won't think for a moment.

Religion is just a means of nationalism today. Not the other way around, contrary to the common belief. (Pun intended.)

Did you know that national armies have just been around for 200 years ? And before that an army anywhere included a very diverse mass of soldiers? (So much that language has always been a lot of problem and that's actually how we get the most of it.) It explains a lot about the modern age kind of violence and mass destruction doesn't it?

One day, if we can beat religions and gods, would we ever be able to beat the most powerful fanatism of it all?

[Savior2006]

Yeah. The Air Force appears to be the biggest offender of advocating Christianity within their service and while in uniform.

On CF the conservatives were whining like bitches when they made the "so help me God" part optional. One of them had the nerve to call atheists "petty," saying that serving the country should be more important than any hangup about the oath.

I reminded him that under no uncertain terms would be ever say "so help me Allah" for any reason, and said this was proof that Christians in America had a the massive sense of entitlement that they accused liberals of having. Strangely enough, no response.

[Solitary]

OK, I just went to Quran Browser and found that there are 177 references to "war" in the Quran. Respectable, but the Bible still has it beat. 

I can believe that, they are both based on the authority of religion rather than the authority of truth.

[Solitary]

On CF the conservatives were whining like bitches when they made the "so help me God" part optional. One of them had the nerve to call atheists "petty," saying that serving the country should be more important than any hangup about the oath.

I reminded him that under no uncertain terms would be ever say "so help me Allah" for any reason, and said this was proof that Christians in America had a the massive sense of entitlement that they accused liberals of having. Strangely enough, no response.

Some of them are petty in the Navy. He! He!

[hrdlr110]

When people are taught by indoctrination to kill or be killed for a belief, they are being used to benefit the leaders, whether religious, military, or politicians, in my opinion. I support our teenage troops because they need our support for morel, but I sure don't support the politicians, religious leaders or military leaders who do think every problem can be solved by violence. When you make, even children, think they will always exist and not die but be transformed, or go against their instincts for self preservation, I think it is not only child abuse, but evil as you can get, in my opinion. 

Yeah well opinions are like asshol.....oh wait, yeah, that's exactly my opinion too.

There doesn't seem to be a huge % of politicians that served, or if they did it was some half assed bushesque form of service.
There are only atheists in foxholes! And that sums up true belief in god when you get right down to it. It is so much easier to join/sign up when you're not confronted with war's realities. That gets glossed over when the sharp dressed, well spoken, emaculately groomed big grinned recruiter asks you to sign. I wonder how successful recruitment campaigns would be if they used amputees, and disfigured vets to do their bidding?