The Abdication of Morality

The Abdication of Morality:

I served this nation as a United States Marine from the years 2000 until 2005. I served as a part of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003 from January until June. I have been in harm’s way, though in a limited capacity. Though my experiences as a war veteran are relatively quite minor in intensity, scope, and duration to that of my brothers and sisters in the Armed Forces, my experiences have led me onto a path of discovery of myself, the world, and myself as a living, sentient being as a part of this expanding Universe. I constantly seek to improve my personal knowledge of better morality; perhaps a Universal morality that transcends humanity. As a result, I loathe war and the practice of killing, though I understand the unfortunate necessity of it. It is a part of my moral code to have such a dislike of war. It is also a part of my moral code that it is highly immoral to justify killing and destruction as deference to a supernatural being; since none has been proven to exist, a humanly constructed and imagined one at that. Such a practice is not only to not be condoned, but it must be stopped. I say this unequivocally and without apology.

Here is some information I have found regarding the issue of religiosity in the United States Armed Forces, one of the many problems being a highly problematic environment of unethical religious proselytizing; but more importantly, immoral behavior by the very people we blindly call heroes. On atheists.org, “Dave Silverman, Communications Director for American Atheist, cited a recent incident where the Al Jazeera television network aired a segment showing troops in Afghanistan discussing the distribution of bibles printed in the native languages, and exhortations for a military chaplain telling soldiers that they should ‘hunt men for Jesus’.” Hunt men for Jesus??!!?? Are you FUCKING kidding me??!!?? How is this allowed? How did we ever end up with a military culture where this more likely to be the norm and not a rare exception? I do not ask these rhetorical questions out of ignorance. I know exactly what it feels like to be driven by enough fear and excitement to want to hunt down any man that ever even thought about killing Americans; i.e. me. After numerous SCUD missile attacks and one close call with a seersucker missile, I know that had my occupation in the Marines been that of a machine gunner, I would have mentally prepared myself through many methods — some seemingly bizarre — to be able to ruthlessly hunt down enemy combatants with high volume fire. Had that been my lot in life, I would certainly have had to face the consequences of my circumstances and actions. In going through this many people are scarred very deeply as a result. It’s a devastating thing for anyone, even the strongest.

When “thou shall not kill” turns into “hunt men for Jesus” so easily, it becomes clear that Richard Dawkins may be ENTIRELY right in saying that religion is the root of all evil. When religiosity assumes the bully pulpit of self-proclaimed, unproven, poorly reasoned moral superiority to justify the most brutish and vicious of actions, it is such an abomination and practice of human depravity that any society or culture that condones it is clearly committing a complete abdication of morality.

This abdication of morality must be stopped somehow. This practice stains the honorable service of so many men and women of great. It is not what I signed up for. I didn’t sign the “motherfucking contract” to be a part of this. When I preach that our young men and women of more fortunate socio-economic backgrounds (i.e. liberals) should consider military service, this is not what I had in mind; it, in fact, makes me question such a stance.