Probably been asked but, USMC thinks atheism could be dangerous?

That is actually unconstitutional and wrong! Whoever put that in needs investigating and their security clearance removed whilst it is decided whether they can remain in the military at all!

Extreme religion has always been a bar to security clearance since it indicates a loyalty to their religion and not country. Let us not forget the Marine major on trial for the slaughter of 12 of his own troops?!

Recent changes have instituted a bar on extreme religious views joining the military and the person who instigated that check box needs investigating under that!

Atheists in this case do not want equal rights, which they have had. They want their way to be the only way and it starts with the sensitive lilies complaining that they are wilting under the heavy condemnation of having to hear others pray. The Marines don't need wimps. Either people have a backbone and stand for their atheism even in the blistering heat of hearing others pray, or they don't and can move on.

I'm an atheist in the military and have had a tough time with it.

I've tried to get "none" "atheist" and even "buddhist" on my dogtags. They keep coming back as "protestant."

I don't have access to anyone who won't try to pray with me for dealing with emotional crisis, depression, etc.

The military has a very anti-atheist attitude right now, and it drives me crazy when the religious right gets up in arms and acts like faith in the military is being attacked.

edit: @david

The reason atheists in the military are more prone to suicide is because we are on a f(_)cK1n6 island, we are left alone and given no support to deal with our issues. Religious people are handed days off during basic training to worship while the atheists do details. They are given access to preachers, encouraged to congregate together and support each other during deployments. There is no "atheist support group." We sit in our tents and rot while everyone else gets cared for. The answer isn't to convert atheists, its to offer secular counseling and support services.

I suspect it's more like atheists are harder to brainwash into doing everything they say and shooting/torturing without pause. Whistle-blowers tend to be the outsiders in a system, the atheists, gays, women, or all of the above. (Bradley Manning was two of them. Pat Tillman was an atheist fragged by his fellow soldiers for questioning the Iraq war.)

Whenever someone kills an unarmed combatant or noncombatant, or kills a friendly, they should take a poll of what their religion is. But that's only if they're sincere about reducing danger, and not just taking a swipe at atheists.

Lack of faith and loss of faith are two different things that are very different. The fact is, they have suicides among the religous. A "loss" of faith may be a sign in a previously religous person, but for an athiest with a lack of faith it would have no bearing.

Please if anything an atheist knows that they only have the life they are living and therefor should be an asset to the USMC! Knowing and those around me only have this life would cause me to protect it harder not less!!!

Disagree.

Also, I find this disturbing.

No branch of the government has any business fielding an opinion like this.

PS: @ProudAirman:

I thank you for your service.

This has been a problem. One thing the army looks out for is "spiritual health" as well(I'm army, not USMC). We aren't all religious. I wish the government understood that.

No surprise. Most people don't even seem to know what the word means.

"...: there is a strange and almost inexplicable stigma attached to the word atheist. Most people equate it with evil. Not merely godless (which is, oddly, an anathema to most) but also lost and pitiable, considered allied with forces originating from "hell"—a mythical place after all..."

---NO MEEK MESSIAH, Prologue