[Despanan]

Originally Posted by Saya

Please stop comparing being an atheist to being a gender or sexual minority. Its not the same at all.

No but it's similar, in the sense that it's a minority status which is invisible and often demanded by society and loved ones to be kept in the closet. Which is why I made the comparison. That's how comparisons work - If atheism were the same thing as being gay we wouldn't have a different word for it.

"Faith" is the language used because this is replacing the old rule that you had to be of a particular religion that had it set in stone that military service is wrong. The Court can't say anyone who's anyone who kinda thinks war is wrong is exempt, this rule was made during the Vietnam War, remember, and after the escalation in 1968. Desertion rates were high and the penalty severe. A lot of people were trying a lot of different things to get out. Some men showed up to the draft board in dresses, shot up on drugs beforehand, etc. And a lot draft boards didn't care, one board had a member of the KKK on the board for years.

This is precisely the problem: Faith is seen as something special, mandating special treatment. If one can get out of military service via their membership to a religion, but not by showing up in dresses or shooting up drugs it shows the derangement of our society.

You can't get CO status if you disagree with a particular war. You have to be a pacifist. You have to strongly be a pacifist. The Supreme Court can't give so much legitmacy to disagreeing with a particular war, which would have excluded most draft able men and most of the enlisted army, or even a inkling that all wars are bad. Its easier to prove when you're a devout Mennonite, but how does a Muslim or atheist prove it (yes, the Supreme Court ruled that atheists can be COs a year before they decided Muhammad Ali could claim as a Muslim he was a CO, after years of legal wrangling)? They have to show that their conviction is as strong as the faith of a Mennonite.

Yet there process for a Mennonite is to drop off a letter signed by their pastor on church stationary. The process for an atheist is much more involved/non-existent. That's a problem.

And I'd argue that being atheist and being faithless are not mutually exclusive. Aside from atheist religions like Raelianism, or Humanists, general examples like activism requires faith in the good of humanity and the ability for humanity to change, despite all the despairing news we hear every day. Otherwise what's the point? Anyone who faces an uphill battle kinda needs some kind of faith to see it through.

Faith in the goodness of humanity is not the same thing as religious faith, and religious faith is not necessary to face an uphill battle and see it through. Again, the idea that religious faith is necessary IS a serious problem, for many reasons, not the least of which that if that idea that faith is necessary naturally leads to the idea that those who lack faith are somehow deficient/lacking in character.

Which is bullshit. It's also dangerous.