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ADMIN NOTE: Gents, it's getting ugly in here! People are losing their sense of civility to each other, and it has to stop! Personal attacks and name calling will not be tolerated. Either have an adult discussion and respectfully disagree, or this thread will end. No more warnings. Thanks for your understanding and cooperation!

I always hated this line from atheists, and I'm atheist. You can't simultaneously argue that religion is just a human construct that doesn't reflect reality, while pinning the overwhelming majority of human evil on religion. If you can't specify which religion is the most evil, then you aren't making a statement at all. The only logically consistent position for an atheist is to explain religion as a normal and (so far) inescapable desire for humans to put faith in something. But if God doesn't exist, then "religion" describes no group with any meaningful borders. It's like saying sadness is the greatest source of evil, or greed, or jealously. No. Humans are the greatest source of evil. And I'm pretty sure the communists have the record for most fatalities in the modern era, so your point is both logically and factually wrong. The overwhelming amount of charity work has come from religious groups. So is religion the greatest source of good in the history of humanity? It's always curious when atheists create a replacement for religion that looks a whole lot like religion, in their pursuit of stamping out religion.

Indeed this discussion has come to a screeching halt, although I now understand why so many are contemptible of those seeking a religious accommodation: turns out you’re contemptible of religion itself. Makes perfect sense. Freedom of religion is one of the basic tenants our country was founded upon. Enshrined in the US Constitution. As military officers, we take an oath to defend the constitution. Personally I’d feel like a fraud if I swore to defend a concept I thought was inherently bogus. As a fellow officer, I am puzzled at those who ostensibly serve to protect the constitution yet distain and despise its core aspects. But ok, your beliefs don’t have to make sense to me. 🇺🇸 However as a Christian I do understand being despised for Christ: he promised exactly this. So now conversation comes to a halt and the religious among us each must pray and determine where to draw the line. “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” John 15:18.

Interesting. Parable of the Drowning Man springs to mind.

Why would you seek accommodation to remain part of an organization that is actively sanctioning and promoting use of something that spits in the face of god? Even if they accommodate your individual objections, they are pushing it on the masses that don't share your enlightenment, and that is the work of the devil. Seeking individual religious accommodation does nothing to redeem the organization that you would continue to be a part of. Seems you're pursuing exemption for the sake of money/safety/comfort at the expense of your righteousness. Wouldn't the righteous thing be to resign rather than seek accommodation? I'm sad that I'll never live to see it, but it gives me great comfort to know that religious delusion is gradually losing out to the true enlightenment of reason, and though it will never disappear altogether, my great-great-great grandchildren will live in a world where it is so utterly insignificant as to be meaningless. Praise god.

Segue - I think the greatest source of the immense strife we see in our country is colossal assholes like you who vehemently shit on someone for having a different view point or set of beliefs than yourself. Absolutely you can think it’s all gibberish, but when you belittle people for their personal beliefs and attack their core values, you’re just a POS bully. Time for some introspection, or just keep being a total shitbag, you’re call.

I guess this is a flying video https://funker530.com/video/nigerian-airforce-fires-missiles-at-cow-thieves/

There is nothing wrong with the government acknowledging religion as long as it doesn’t sponsor a specific religion and force everyone to join it.

See, this is where the discussion has to come to a screeching halt. There's no way to put it mildly: The whole of Genesis is a farce. Every Chapter is demonstrably false and is inconsistent with anything we observe about the universe. Specifically to your references, Ch 6 is about the "flood" that never happened and the ridiculous notion that a dude built a boat to house 2 of every living creature on Earth. Ch 11 is about the tower of Babel, and alleges that the human species only originally spoke a single language, which we also know to be demonstrably untrue. The rest of Ch 11 is a boring account of folks that supposedly lived 200, 400, even 500 years. You can believe that stuff, that's fine. But why would anyone entertain your thoughts on science/data/evidence when you've made it clear that those things don't matter to you? You talk about fetal stem cells and mRNA --- but you think some humans lived to be 500 years old and that the Earth was flooded ~4000 years ago. Do we invite the flat-earthers or chemtrailers to discussions about space exploration or meteorology? Of course not. They're operating under a set of beliefs that don't comport with reality. Try explaining how a belief in Genesis is in any way different. In any case, Prozac and Mark1 nailed it. Ultimately if you are refusing to get any vaccinations from here on out, and if the military universally mandates this particular work of the devil, it seems you have grown incompatible with military service.

My philosophy is if a 200 year old book, a guy in a funny hat, a glass of bourbon, or a joint helps you sleep at night, more power to you. To paraphrase Dave Chapelle: We're all just humans on this earth trying to have an experience. Where I take issue is when you (royal you) try and push whatever proverbial opiate you subscribe to on me or it becomes destructive to the point of affecting other people. From a military perspective, I'd argue that destructive threshold is met when you can't live up to the obligations expected of the rest of the mil population. From a societal perspective, I think the threshold is met when religious beliefs stand in the way of known science to include flat earthers, anti-vaxers (of all stripes), and creationists, to name a few.

Stating or writing the name of that MWS should be penalized with a keg to the bar or a head-shave.

Believe whatever you want. If you think I'm going to face judgement in front of god because I took a vaccine partially made through stem cell research, that's your prerogative. Just as it is my prerogative to think your beliefs are backward and silly. But at some point we need to acknowledge the reality that not all beliefs are compatible with military service.

Press Briefing by White House COVID-19 Response Team and Public Health Officials | The White House "We are intent on not letting Omicron disrupt work and school for the vaccinated. You’ve done the right thing, and we will get through this. For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm."

And where did PYB, er, Dogfish78 retreat to? He starts this thread of insanity then goes dark for months. Playing the long troll game! 😂

We need a spinoff from the spinoff thread.

I think most people support personal religion up to the point where folks abuse and cherry pick their core values to use religion as a trump card (pun intended) to do whatever they want and impact others. See gay marriage, abortion, COVID, abortion etc. I don’t even agree with mandates for the whole population, but trying to pursue religious exceptions come off as one of the most disingenuous “You can’t make me!” temper tantrums possible - not a genuinely held belief.

Lol, I don't think it's as contemptible as your hubris. You realize scientific atheism is a religion right? Anthropological definition below. Your contempt isn't at religion it's at authoritarianism which has allowed individuals or groups to universally enforce a moral code across a population schema without checks and balances. Ironically the push for a vaccine mandate is a turn toward just that sort of authoritarianism that has allowed that to happen. "Religion is a pattern of beliefs, values, and actions that are acquired by members of a group. Religion constitutes an ordered system of meanings, beliefs, and values that define the place of human beings in the world."

More specifically, freedom from religion is a tenet (yeah it's tenet, not tenant) of our constitution. If you feel like Sky Wizard is calling the shots in your life, cool. But that stops with you - fortunately it's an all-volunteer force and we're all welcome to either play by the rules, or take your ball and go home. You're spot on - I'll happily uphold my oath regarding establishment of religion. Keep that shìt at home.

Exactly. And the important point here is that not all ideologies are created equal. An ideology based on the scribblings of goat herders from 2000 years ago translated 690 times and then monetized for centuries is far less productive than an ideology based on basic tenets of scientific inquiry and reason.

It is overly simplistic to say that all humans are innately religious. I’m not, and I think you’ll find that is true for many others.

Nah... I have ram dumped that portion of my life and strive to never remember it, save for a few people I got to know.

This should scare everybody into getting the shot. And the empty suit is going to preach to us on Tuesday. https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-coronavirus-omicron-is-going-to-take-over-this-winter-and-fauci-says-americans-should-brace-for-a-tough-few-weeks-to-months/ar-AARXxel?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531 https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/news/why-omicron-could-bring-the-deadliest-phase-in-the-pandemic-yet/ar-AARXLjH?ocid=msedgntp

keep on the watch for those god darn (notice the little “g” in god bahahahah) simpletons of such lowly character and intellect in our military. Pawn has passed the baton of stirring the pot onto a valiant steed. god speed bro. Keep stirrin👍🏼

Mr Mayor. Point of order. I’d like to open feats of strength MWS version or super drink off as options here. [emoji481]

Honestly I was waiting for him to hit one of the expansion gaps in the concrete.... ...so tell me again how you went DNIF?

At least the pilot retention problem will be offset by the massive increase in military readiness we will obtain, thanks to the vaccine mandate/purge along with mandatory mask wear.

It’s not hard people, the LEFT leg pocket is the SCIF, not the right…rookies.

Careful with stats. Every year 4% of that demographic dies. And it's a mathematical certainty that there is significant overlap of the 4% and the 1%.

You asked your HARM or SARM? Our HARM said they could only pull 18mo like you said but I just got a print out from SARM that went back to 2017 2 weeks ago…don’t ask me why they would be using 2 different systems - no clue. It is a different format but just had a buddy interview at DAL with no issues. To be honest the new format looks cleaner anyways

Yours truly flying #381 in 1979 (leading a verboten formation landing in today's AF), the aircraft shot down by Dorsey. I flew in the same Med exercise against the same carrier, Saratoga, but was intercepted by a Navy F-4 albeit 10 years earlier. The A&P that annuals my private plane was on the Saratoga the day the recce F-4 was shot down. Small world.

Why is it that aliens can figure out how to travel across many millions of miles, over how many thousands of years, through an extremely dangerous and complicated environment...and they always fuck up the landing?

I would gladly defend religious freedom with my life while simultaneously acknowledging its absurdity and the fact that it is the single greatest source of evil in the history of humanity. The defense is of freedom, not religion. There's no dissonance there, and no grounds to feel like a fraud. Defending someone's right to make a choice for themselves that you wouldn't make for yourself is an amazing thing. Religion is contemptible. That doesn't extend to a believer as long as they aren't using their faith to justify causing harm. I'm aware of the awesome power of indoctrination. The doctrine/church/organization deserves contempt, but for the faithful it's pity.

The force will be immensely stronger without all the selfish antivaxxers in it. They claim to have “served honorably” but they were just in hiding for their decades of service, and their true colors are being shown now. Boot em all. Self righteous bastards.