Hey all,
Just returned from my 13 week stint at Parris Island where they "..Make Marines!" Every Sunday we were afforded different religious services to attend. One, which I was surprised and happy about, was the "Atheist/Agnostic" category. So, I decided to visit it the one Sunday. There were two hours we were afforded. The first was ran by the recruits where we had an open forum type discussion which I enjoyed. We had a mix of actual atheists and agnostics and we also had the recruits who just wanted a place to come and sneak in a few conversations and get the latest news on what to expect in training coming up ahead, he he. Aka. the "recruit underground."
The thing I would like to mainly discuss and bring up is, in the second half they had a religious figure come in and speak to us about creationism and why evolution was faulty. It consisted of videos from creationist speakers (mind you, with no valid or rational evidence, mostly by the Bible). To me, it was disrespectful to provide a forum and option labeled Atheist/Agnostic and then to have a religious figure come in and try and (in my eyes it was) "convert" people or sway their views deliberately. Now, being a recruit ('maggot') on Parris Island, I had no real room to speak up about it, and the gentleman was nice and did allow for some debate against it (although it always ended, as usual, with the 'Bible held as the Truth' cop-out).
Anyhow, I was just a bit sickened by it. I ended up attending the Buddhist religious education option, at least it was close to philosophy and as we all know, you don't have to have much dogma to enjoy the practice of Buddhism in general. I'm looking for thoughts, shared experiences, etc.. from both military and non-military members here alike. For those who are in the military, any similar experiences and thoughts?
Sincerely and Semper Fidelis,
JWG