Athiests Seek Chaplain Role in the Military

**BrockSamson** · 05-01-11, 07:05 PM

Lets just get rid of the Chaplin position all together. I thought the constitution said that my tax money wouldn't be used for religion...

**Gumby** · 05-03-11, 06:32 AM

No, it only says there is no official religion. Since there are chaplins for most major religlions, there is no endorsement of any particular religion.

Sent from my Defy using Tapatalk because all my computers are Folding @ Home for the TPG Folding Team

**AetheLove** · 05-03-11, 11:37 AM

Originally Posted by DJ Mr. White

Wouldn't that be just a psychologist?

I don't think it works like that. As WikedTribe mentioned, Atheism isn't a rejection of spirituality.

To the extent that a psychologist can be helpful, I don't see them being any more helpful to atheists than to the religious.

I am lucky (cursed?) enough to be good friends with a bunch of religion scholars. One of them puts it like this:

Basically, we want God.

The point (to the extent that I understand him) is that there's something about being human that makes us want God to exist. There is a need in all of us, and one of the ways that need gets satisfied is a belief in God. Historically, the pattern of inventing God keeps repeating itself. Ancient societies and civilizations all do it in one way or another. Now that the people of the world are all interconnected, and no new societies rise in isolation from the rest of the world, the experiment doesn't get repeated quite the same way.

Even so, it still goes on. One of my religion-scholar friends looks at young and proto-religions. The rise of New Age, and the re-birth of Paganism, are (to him) good examples. Scientology (for which he has a special hatred) is another one.

So atheists are in an awkward position. They have come to an intellectual conclusion that God doesn't exist, and that means they're kinda screwed. They still have the human need (whatever you want to call it), but they have rejected the traditional way of fulfilling that need. Some atheists seem perfectly comfortable with that world, but I think others feel like something is missing in their life. A world without God isn't necessarily a comfortable thing. Without God there is no ultimate moral authority; so good behaviour is something you have to take upon yourself. Without God, there is no afterlife; the life you get is the only one there is, and if you're unhappy with your life you have nothing to look forward to. Virtue really has to be its own reward - because no one is going to give you a lollipop on the other side.

So it doesn't seem strange to me at all that atheists would want someone who can offer a ministry to their spiritual needs.

I wonder if it seems strange to them.

Cheers,

AetheLove

**WickedTribe** · 05-03-11, 08:59 PM

Originally Posted by AetheLove

I don't think it works like that. As WikedTribe mentioned, Atheism isn't a rejection of spirituality.

To the extent that a psychologist can be helpful, I don't see them being any more helpful to atheists than to the religious.

I am lucky (cursed?) enough to be good friends with a bunch of religion scholars. One of them puts it like this:

The point (to the extent that I understand him) is that there's something about being human that makes us want God to exist. There is a need in all of us, and one of the ways that need gets satisfied is a belief in God. Historically, the pattern of inventing God keeps repeating itself. Ancient societies and civilizations all do it in one way or another. Now that the people of the world are all interconnected, and no new societies rise in isolation from the rest of the world, the experiment doesn't get repeated quite the same way.

Even so, it still goes on. One of my religion-scholar friends looks at young and proto-religions. The rise of New Age, and the re-birth of Paganism, are (to him) good examples. Scientology (for which he has a special hatred) is another one.

So atheists are in an awkward position. They have come to an intellectual conclusion that God doesn't exist, and that means they're kinda screwed. They still have the human need (whatever you want to call it), but they have rejected the traditional way of fulfilling that need. Some atheists seem perfectly comfortable with that world, but I think others feel like something is missing in their life. A world without God isn't necessarily a comfortable thing. Without God there is no ultimate moral authority; so good behaviour is something you have to take upon yourself. Without God, there is no afterlife; the life you get is the only one there is, and if you're unhappy with your life you have nothing to look forward to. Virtue really has to be its own reward - because no one is going to give you a lollipop on the other side.

So it doesn't seem strange to me at all that atheists would want someone who can offer a ministry to their spiritual needs.

I wonder if it seems strange to them.

Cheers,

AetheLove

I don't think that that claim holds much water, considering the large and increasing number of atheists around the world. Yes, historically, societies have invented religions, but historically, religion was the only way to explain natural phenomena. In recent generations, as our understanding of the world has increased, our need to "fill in the gaps" with god or the supernatural has decreased, and that's being reflected in an increasing number of atheists.

Also, although you can technically be spiritual and an atheist, in my experience, few are. Most atheists that I've known are also naturalists, and don't really differentiate between belief in god(s) and belief in other superstitions.