Aron Ra is a prominent atheist on YouTube, and also the new Texas State Director for American Atheists. He and Thunderf00t, and the rest of the gang at the Magic Sandwich Show had me on as a guest just recently. It prompted an anonymous sailor to write in to Aron Ra, who forwarded it to me.

He’s trying to deal with being in the atheist closet. It’s time we all start calling this stuff out every time. If you can’t speak out for whatever reason, at least report it to someone like me. I’ll scream it into a megaphone for you.

Dear Friend,

I am writing today to make you aware of my situation. I am an Atheist, yes, that’s right, an Atheist. I am also an active duty Sailor with the U.S. Navy.

You may be asking why this concerns you.

You might think that because you don’t care, no-one else does.

You may be thinking that I should not be in the military.

You may be telling yourself that Atheists are evil, misguided or deluded.

You may think that Atheists don’t have the courage or the “moral fiber” to be in the military.

I am here to tell you that all of the above is false.

It concerns you because no matter what country you are from, someone in your military, the people who protect you, is being persecuted, discriminated against or just disliked, just because they are different.

You would be wrong if you thought that because you don’t care, ‘why would anyone else?’

I have only been in the military for a short time, a little more than two years, yet in that time I have been in many occasions required to pray in public, required to listen and respond “Amen” after a blessing of food, and been in conversations with my superiors and been forced to respond in agreement to their comments on how Atheists are ruining America due to fear of reprisal based on how hateful their comments were.

My supervisor is a Christian, but he has never made any comments and I suppose I should be thankful about that, his supervisor has stated that Atheists are evil and should not exist, his supervisor made the comment I mentioned earlier about “Atheists ruining America”, and his supervisor, who is our Director, has a degree in Theology and every comment from him has religious undertones.

You would be wrong to think that I shouldn’t be in the military. Why would you judge that because of my lack of belief I am not worthy of serving my country, that I am not worthy to die protecting your freedom to believe what you do?

You are most definitely wrong if you think that Atheists are “evil”, if anyone could be called “evil” it would be those who would make a statement like that. I have known a few Atheists, I have never known one who would say that “Christians are evil” or “religious people are evil”, They might make a statement regarding certain people being “evil”, but would never go so far as to say that a whole group of people were “evil”.

I personally don’t believe in “good and evil” because I cant see the world as being made up of absolutes like that. I can certainly say that some thing are generally more “wrong” than others, for instance I would say that murder is almost always certainly wrong, but I can conceive of situations where there is a good reason to murder someone to better the cause of humanity in general. I can also conceive of situations where letting someone live is the most “wrong” thing to do.

You would be wrong to think that Atheists are not courageous. Of all the people I know, it is people who are vocal about being themselves, whether saying that they were Atheists, or saying that they were gay, or just saying that they were different and they accepted themselves as they were. I would also say that it takes no courage to stand with the crowd, to be the same as everyone else, it takes great courage to be the one by yourself alone on the hill with the crowd gathering around chanting for your demise.

It takes courage to be proud of yourself and who you are.

Thanks for listening,

The Military Atheist

Sent to: AronRa