By Jim Downard
I was honored this week to represent the atheist/freethinker/humanist position on a panel discussion on “Religious, Spiritual, Neither” held at Fairchild Air Force Base to help their base leaders and staff better understand the varied beliefs of those under their command.
The panel was specifically selected to offer perspectives on the views and needs of current base constituents: Buddhist, Muslim, pagan, Christian, Jewish, Native American and atheists. Bases in other regions might well have included Sikhs or other faiths, depending on their mix of personnel.
A good number of base staff attended the event, asking excellent questions to clarify issues of concern (from disrespectful attitudes for people of different views, religious and not, to the often contentious matter of LGBTs now openly serving in the military). The panel also clarified issues specific to faith observance, from dietary restrictions under orthodox Judaism to the prayer break needs of observant Muslims.
As atheism has no creed per se to explain or argue for, and we were not there to debate the truth or falsity of any religious view in any case, I wore more of a historian’s hat to offer observations on the background context for many of the topics that did arise. Daphne Soto (the base’s Equal Opportunity director, who organized the event) distributed the piece I wrote on the Secular Global Bill of Rights issue (based on my posting here at Spokane Favs, available also at www.tortucan.com) giving some numbers on how many believers there are, and how in the end everybody’s belief is a minority view, underscoring the importance of learning to get along together peacefully and productively.
I think the seminar went very well, meeting some very interesting people (panelists and guests) contributing to better awareness of how diverse America is (has always been, without people recognizing it, and will be growing ever moreso as Millennials enter the mix) and how this reality must be appreciated in order to keep our military community both maximally effective and professionally invigorated in that process.
