Air Force Academy makes 'God' optional in cadets' oath

her209

No Lifer
Oct 11, 2000
56,336
11
0
http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20131025/NEWS/310230013/Academy-makes-God-optional-cadets-oath

The war on God continues!

But Weinstein said nothing short of eliminating the “so help me God” language from the oath is acceptable. Making it optional would not be good enough, he said, because airmen who chose not to say it would feel pressure.

“It exacts an unconstitutional toll on religious objectors,” Weinstein said. “Everyone knows you’re not playing for the right team.”

But if the language is struck from the oath, he said he would not object to cadets choosing to say it on their own.

“I’m completely and totally fine with them adding it if they choose,” Weinstein said. “They can swear so help me God, so help me Allah, so help me Spider-Man. But when you have it there, that is a noxious violation of separation of church and state.”

A Don't Ask Don't Tell policy if you will except you don't get kicked out for being found out that you have a relationship with an invisible partner who lives in the sky.
 

schmuckley

Platinum Member
Aug 18, 2011
2,335
1
0
How is there going to be honor without God?
Don't tell me humanistic morality is honorable.Far from it.There is no moral code without God.
"If we ever forget that we are one nation under God,then we will be a nation gone under" -Ronald Reagan
 

thraashman

Lifer
Apr 10, 2000
11,112
1,587
126
How is there going to be honor without God?
Don't tell me humanistic morality is honorable.Far from it.There is no moral code without God.
"If we ever forget that we are one nation under God,then we will be a nation gone under" -Ronald Reagan

So you're going to quote a President who illegally sold weapons to a country we embargoed to fund secret wars in central America as an authority on morality? Just remember, 15-20% of the U.S. is atheist/agnostic. Less than half a percent of the prison population is.
 
Last edited:

DominionSeraph

Diamond Member
Jul 22, 2009
8,386
32
91
How is there going to be honor without God?
Don't tell me humanistic morality is honorable.Far from it.There is no moral code without God.

Developmental psychology would beg to differ.
The way Christians ignore everything in Leviticus and Deuteronomy except for "the gays" and manage to get by pretty well also seems to agree.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
73,135
34,438
136
Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's.

Guess what? When you join the Air Force Caesar owns your ass. God doesn't factor.
 

Moonbeam

Elite Member
Nov 24, 1999
74,803
6,775
126
http://www.airforcetimes.com/article/20131025/NEWS/310230013/Academy-makes-God-optional-cadets-oath

The war on God continues!



A Don't Ask Don't Tell policy if you will except you don't get kicked out for being found out that you have a relationship with an invisible partner who lives in the sky.

The god you ridicule here does not exist. What kind of dementia are you suffering from? God is not in the sky. Someplace people just think that way. God is what God is, not what some humans imagine Him to be.
 

Broheim

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2011
4,587
3
81
Guess what? When you join the Air Force Caesar owns your ass. God doesn't factor.

most apt quote :thumbsup:

all the "god stuff" was only added to oaths and mottos in the fifties (if i remember correctly) during the great "godless commies" scare of the cold war.
 

brycejones

Lifer
Oct 18, 2005
30,044
30,983
136
most apt quote :thumbsup:

all the "god stuff" was only added to oaths and mottos in the fifties (if i remember correctly) during the great "godless commies" scare of the cold war.

Exactly, but some want to pretend like its been there since the founding of the republic.
 

Retro Rob

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2012
8,151
108
106
most apt quote :thumbsup:

all the "god stuff" was only added to oaths and mottos in the fifties (if i remember correctly) during the great "godless commies" scare of the cold war.

It was more than just a "scare". Those "godless commies" (who were open ATHEISTS) were murderous, genocidal pigs. Adding or removing an oath to "god" doesn't mean a thing, as history clearly shows.

Sometimes, I just don't get the point. :confused::\
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
73,135
34,438
136
Exactly, but some want to pretend like its been there since the founding of the republic.

In the Winter of 1777-78 as American Patriots faced their hardest test yet, each morning the Air Force Cadets would scrape the ice from the windshields of their bi-planes and then kneel down in the snow to thank Almighty God for seeing them through another night. At Gettysburg, the pilots would humbly join hands in prayer to ask the Lord for courage and safety as they took flight to bomb the rebel scum that threatened to tear our great nation apart. Without God under their wings, our flyboys never would have found and defeated Geronimo and the Alamo would have been lost.
 

Broheim

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2011
4,587
3
81
It was more than just a "scare". Those "godless commies" (who were open ATHEISTS) were murderous, genocidal pigs. Adding or removing an oath to "god" doesn't mean a thing, as history clearly shows.

Sometimes, I just don't get the point. :confused::\

OH THE HORROR!!! D:

and no, the Soviets didn't have any more blood on their hands than the Americans.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
73,135
34,438
136
OH THE HORROR!!! D:

and no, the Soviets didn't have any more blood on their hands than the Americans.
"Any more of other people's blood on their hands" would be more accurate. At killing their own, the Soviets were hell on wheels as were the Chinese.
 

Broheim

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2011
4,587
3
81
"Any more of other people's blood on their hands" would be more accurate. At killing their own, the Soviets were hell on wheels as were the Chinese.

that's probably true, the soviets really cleaned house in the early days. But to be fair America had gone through that process years before, not quite in the same way though.

the Chinese were just completely bonkers, but they weren't really the commies you guys feared for 50 years.
 

Retro Rob

Diamond Member
Apr 22, 2012
8,151
108
106
OH THE HORROR!!! D:

and no, the Soviets didn't have any more blood on their hands than the Americans.

Does it matter? Would it make any difference if I murdered people with a sword rather than with a shotgun?

At any rate, and I apologize for not mentioning this, a poster who commented on the article said this is a "good step forward" and I was really referencing that mostly and partly to your post.

Yes, it is a good step forward in giving people the option to not say something they don't believe or what have you, but I suspect it was more to than just that.
 

Angry Irishman

Golden Member
Jan 25, 2010
1,883
1
81
Well that decision should stop world hunger and improve how they are controlling our nuclear ICBMs....so glad the Air Force is focused at the real problems at hand.o_O
 

Broheim

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2011
4,587
3
81
Does it matter? Would it make any difference if I murdered people with a sword rather than with a shotgun?

At any rate, and I apologize for not mentioning this, a poster who commented on the article said this is a "good step forward" and I was really referencing that mostly and partly to your post.

Yes, it is a good step forward in giving people the option to not say something they don't believe or what have you, but I suspect it was more to than just that.

relativistically it matters, the shotgun and sword analogy doesn't fit this scenario though.

I believe religion is an entirely personal matter and should be removed completely from government. You take an oath to the country and its People not to whatever god you pray to, you're free to make a personal oath to him/her/it/them on your own time but an official oath is a contract with the country not some god.
 
Last edited:

Broheim

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2011
4,587
3
81
Well that decision should stop world hunger and improve how they are controlling our nuclear ICBMs....so glad the Air Force is focused at the real problems at hand.o_O

the air force isn't in the business of ending world hunger, those aren't happy meals coming out of the weapons bay.
 

brycejones

Lifer
Oct 18, 2005
30,044
30,983
136
Well that decision should stop world hunger and improve how they are controlling our nuclear ICBMs....so glad the Air Force is focused at the real problems at hand.o_O

So do you expect the Commandant of the Academy to also control the ICBMs? I'm sure he would be surprised to know just how vast his responsibilities are based on your opinion. You might have a point if this was a decision being driven by the Air Force brass as a whole but that doesn't seem to be the case based on the linked article.

Or are you more in favor of forcing cadets who don't believe in god to swear an oath that includes something they don't believe in? How very American of you.
 

Thebobo

Lifer
Jun 19, 2006
18,574
7,672
136
How is there going to be honor without God?
Don't tell me humanistic morality is honorable.Far from it.There is no moral code without God.
"If we ever forget that we are one nation under God,then we will be a nation gone under" -Ronald Reagan


Why is there no moral code without God?
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
73,135
34,438
136
Why is there no moral code without God?
In traditional use of the term morals were, by definition, derived from divine guidance. Ethics were the god-neutral or god-free version of the word. In modern usage, morals are used to refer to ethical codes with or without ascription to divine origin.
 

OutHouse

Lifer
Jun 5, 2000
36,410
616
126
he soviets really cleaned house in the early days. But to be fair America had gone through that process years before, not quite in the same way though.

the us executed millions of our citizens? when?