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Faith

‘We’re Antagonistic Toward Religious Belief’: Military Atheists Hold Army-Sponsored ‘Rock Beyond Belief’ Festival

Apr. 1, 2012 11:20am Billy Hallowell

Military Atheists Hold Rock Beyond Belief at Fort Bragg (The Blaze/AP) — March was a big month for atheists in America. Last weekend, the Reason Rally — the largest gathering of secularists in world history — unfolded on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Then, this past Saturday, also in a historical first, the U.S. military hosted an event expressly for soldiers and others who don’t believe in God, with a county fair-like gathering on the main parade ground at one of the world’s largest Army posts.

The Rock Beyond Belief event at Fort Bragg, organized by soldiers here two years after an evangelical Christian event at the eastern North Carolina post, is the most visible sign so far of a growing desire by military personnel with atheist or other secular beliefs to get the same recognition as their religious counterparts.

The purpose was not to make the Army look bad, organizers said, but to show that atheists and other secular believers have a place in institutions like the military. As The Blaze reported last year, the Army agreed to give $50,000 toward the event following atheists’ protests over military sponsorship of a Christian concert put on by the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

“I love the military,” said Sgt. Justin Griffith, main organizer of the event and the military director of American Atheists. He added, “This is not meant to be a black eye.”

Griffith said he and other non-religious soldiers are not permitted to hold atheist meetings at the post and have so far been rebuffed in their efforts to change that. They feel their beliefs marginalize them.

Organizers were hoping for a crowd of about 5,000. At least several hundred people gathered on the parade ground by midday Saturday. Rainy weather for most of the morning may have affected the turnout. Fort Bragg officials said they would provide a crowd estimate later.

The atmosphere was festive, with carnival treats like ribbon fries and ice cream, games for children and a demonstration jump by the Army’s Golden Knights parachute team. Speakers and bands performed on the main stage. In many ways it was indistinguishable from a county fair except for the information booths ringing the parade ground and the content of the performances.

Military Atheists Hold Rock Beyond Belief at Fort Bragg

People listen to Professor Richard Dawkins the headline speaker at the Rock Beyond Belief event, Saturday, March 31, 2012 at Fort Bragg, N.C. For the first time in history, the U.S. military hosted an event expressly for soldiers and others who don't believe in God, with a gathering sort of like a county fair Saturday on the main parade ground at one of the world's largest Army bases. (AP Photo/The Fayetteville Observer, Raul R. Rubiera)

Back in January, we also reported about the intense controversy surrounding one of the bands — Aiden — whose members have used images of a burning church and a bloody cross, among other elements, in a past music video. With the event pledging to be family-friendly, these inclusions did seem a bit odd. This was compounded by the fact that Justin Griffith, an organizer for Rock Beyond Belief, defended the video on the festival’s web site.

This same issues surrounding questionable content unfolded at the Reason Rally last week, where songwriter Tim Minchin unleashed more than 75 expletives as children and families stood watching his performance (see the video here).

“We got any Darwin fans in the house?” asked a performer named Baba Brinkman at yesterday’s Rock Beyond Belief, before launching into a rap song about evolutionary biology that culminated in a call-and-response chant of “Creationism is dead wrong!”

Organizers said the goal was not to disparage soldiers with religious beliefs. In the weeks leading up to the event, some bloggers and others expressed concerns. A chaplain currently deployed in Afghanistan posted an open letter on Fort Bragg’s Facebook page, saying he feared the event would be devoted to mocking religious soldiers.

Richard Dawkins

“We’re never antagonistic toward religious believers, we’re antagonistic toward religious belief,” said Richard Dawkins, the British biologist and best-selling atheist author who was the event’s headline speaker.

Dawkins, who frequently makes pointed criticism of religious adherents, delivered some relatively restrained remarks, asserting that none of the common arguments for religious belief stand up to scrutiny.

“There is no good, honest reason to believe in a god or gods of any kind, or indeed in anything supernatural,” he said. “The only reason to believe something is that you have evidence for it.”

Watch Dawkins’ speech, below:

The event marked a coming-out of sorts for atheist and secularist soldiers at Fort Bragg, who have been trying for more than a year to be recognized as a “distinctive faith group,” a designation that would allow them to hold their meetings at Bragg facilities. Curious soldiers in uniform mixed with people in civilian clothes as bands played and children began to race around the huge field when the rain let up.

“I’ve been an atheist pretty much my whole life, and where I was growing up in Texas, I didn’t know another atheist,” said Pfc. Lance Reed. “It’s important to meet people who have some of the same beliefs and interests as you do, and that’s what this is about.”

Reed also said he hoped Christians at Bragg and other believers would attend, to dispel some misconceptions about atheists.

“A lot of people think it’s all about God-bashing or something like that,” he said. “You can see we’re not evil people who want to burn down churches. We’re just here to have fun.”

Sgt. Lance Hollander, who said he’s been looking forward to the event ever since he first heard about it last year, agreed that in some ways the concert could serve as a calling card for soldiers who aren’t religious.

Military Atheists Hold Rock Beyond Belief at Fort Bragg

“Atheists are the least trusted group in America, and we want to change that,” he said.

A concert that was planned last year fell apart after a dispute between organizers and the base leadership over questions such as location. Saturday’s gathering was made possible in part by $70,000 in donations from the Raleigh-based Stiefel Freethought Foundation, whose founder, Todd Stiefel, said he hopes the Army ultimately decides that its role doesn’t include events like Rock Beyond Belief and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association-sponsored concert that prompted it.

“I would like this to be the last one of these events,” Stiefel said, arguing that the government shouldn’t have any role in hosting events geared towards religious belief or lack of it.

Fort Bragg is willing to work with organizers of any event that fits its guidelines, said Garrison Commander Col. Stephen Sicinski, who estimated that the BGEA evangelical concert generated twice as much controversy as the atheist event. As far as the Army is concerned, Siciniski said, the event isn’t a bellwether of changing beliefs – it’s simply another one of the community events that Bragg often hosts.

“We don’t treat soldiers who are atheists as atheists, we treat them as soldiers,” he said. “They’re soldiers first.”

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Comments (255)

AlaskaismyEden
Posted on January 15, 2013 at 8:02pm
“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” ~ St. Thomas Aquinas
Even the beasts of the field cry out at the glory of God! These poor, pathetic people are threatened by those of us with faith, and try to fill the holes in their lives with secular crap… it doesn’t work. They should listen with their hearts instead of their ‘intellect.’

“America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold: its patriotism, its morality and its spiritual life. If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within.” – Joseph Stalin

GOD HAVE MERCY ON US IN THE DAYS TO COME

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Sh3LLz
Posted on April 4, 2012 at 2:29pm
But then again.. so called “christians” (and muslims alike) are quick to want to kill or at least beat up atheists…. And in many cases each other….. .hmmmmmmmm

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Sh3LLz
Posted on April 4, 2012 at 2:27pm
Being atheist is ideal for the military. It makes killing easier and fun since we are all just animals anyway according to them.

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Pontiac
Posted on April 4, 2012 at 1:45am
“Duck”

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greatgrandpa
Posted on April 3, 2012 at 8:04pm
there are no atheist in fox holes. wars prove this. there is a power over all

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binge_thinker
Posted on April 3, 2012 at 3:30pm
Let’s see here. The reason rally was expected to get 50,000 people and maybe they had 10,000, maybe. This pitiful rally was expected to get 5,000 and they had 500. Does anybody else see the trend here? These atheists that say they represent 50 Million Americans are so full of BS, it is coming out their eyeballs.

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binge_thinker
Posted on April 3, 2012 at 3:16pm
Most of these New Age atheists, Pagans, and moral- relativism fools are just drones of the Democrat party and basically are looking for their piece of the pie like all the other special interest groups that comprise the Democrat party.

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Hope_and_Restore
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 8:47pm
(finish the thought from my other post)

and the threat it is to coercive power.

A great essay, “Persuasion vs. Force” is at http://www.mskousen.com/persuasion-vs-force-by-mark-skousen/
I don’t agree with all of his particulars, but he’s right overall.

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Hope_and_Restore
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 8:36pm
@ Evil_Empire,
You said of religion: “providing of course you abandon your own free will and spend your life in humbled subservience blindly following ill conceived poorly written dogma.”
I am a strongly religious person because I also use logic, not in spite of logic. Even if there was no God, I would live the same way, because I see and know that it brings the most happiness and love to my life and to the lives of others.
There is a distinct difference between persuasion and force, between choosing of my own free will, and being compelled to do something. The church uses persuasion, and I am free to make my own decisions. The most they can do is excommunicate me. The government uses force, and they are the ones who compel me to give up free will, threatening to take my money, choices, or even my life, depending on what regulation or law I don’t follow. Those who voluntarily walk away from religion’s teachings of love, responsibility to God, and responsibility to our fellow men, walk into a place where they start thinking everyone must be forced into whatever is considered ‘right’. Big government is an enemy to religion for a couple reasons, and by this definition, religion is an enemy to big government. Anyone who uses persuasion is an enemy to those who use force or regulations to gain power and control. That is one of the reasons religion is under attack so much- those who want power, hate its philosophy of governing and the threat it is to coercive

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Kitkarr
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 2:29pm
The difference between believers and non-believers? Nothing, we are all believers in or against something or nothing.
The difference between theists and atheists? Maybe nothing again. Depends on the theology.
The difference between a Christian and an anti-Christian? Easy. On one hand, an anti-Christian must be right in order to evade eternal damnation by being separated forever from an all loving Father. On the other hand, a Christian can be wrong and not lose a thing.
What, living a moral, self-denying life is all that bad? Why? That’s rhetorical, there is no good answer to that particular “why.” The things that I liked and the way that I used to live were destructive to myself as well as those who loved me. I don’t have to live that way anymore, so where is the downfall?
But its no fun! Really? The “fun” I have now is more real than all the junk I used to be so into could ever hope to accomplish.
Not everybody is as bad as you were, I’m a good person! Delusional, at best. Go ahead, convince yourself that just because you don’t rape and murder that you aren’t accountable for the things you do and the way you live in private. Tell yourself that its all ok because you give to charity or you get along with everybody. I used to do that, before I got wild.
I won’t do the things you did! Sin often starts out as fun.
I don’t believe in sin! You don’t have to. The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world that he (or He) doesn’t exist.

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- wvernon1981
  Posted on April 2, 2012 at 5:53pm
  That only works for dichotomies. If you have multiple choices, say between Christ and Allah, then as a Christian, you could still end up in hell.
  
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- Kitkarr
  Posted on April 3, 2012 at 11:12am
  I suppose that makes me “dichotometric.”
  
  Report this comment
Hope_and_Restore
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 11:02am
@ Evil_Empire,

You said “providing of course you abandon your own free will and spend your life in humbled subservience blindly following ill conceived poorly written dogma.”

I am a strongly religious person because I also use logic, not in spite of logic. Even if there was no God, I would live the same way, because I see and know that it brings the most happiness and love to my life and to the lives of others.

There is a distinct difference between persuasion and force, between choosing of my own free will, and being compelled to do something. The church uses persuasion, and I am free to make my own decisions. The most they can do is excommunicate me. The government uses force, and they are the ones who compel me to give up free will, threatening to take my money, choices, or even my life, depending on what regulation or law I don’t follow. Those who voluntarily walk away from religion’s teachings of love, responsibility to God, and responsibility to our fellow men, walk into a place where they start thinking everyone must be forced into whatever is considered ‘right’. Big government is an enemy to religion for a couple reasons, and by this definition, religion is an enemy to big government. Anyone who uses persuasion is an enemy to those who use force or regulations to gain power and control. That is one of the reasons religion is under attack so much- those who want power, hate its philosophy of governing and the threat it is to coercive power.

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qzak491
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 10:58am
.
‘We’re Antagonistic Toward Religious Belief’:
Is this so. What have you said about the moslems, that’s a religious belief. Your not antagonistic against religious belief your antagonistic against Christian belief. Your RACIST and BIGOTS.
ALSO Atheisim is a religion, that makes you against yourselves.

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Hrothgar
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 10:53am
This thing probably sucked pretty bad. It was probably flooded with hipsters and hipster bands. Seriously, if you’re going to throw a shin dig call Lemmy and see if you can get Motorhead to play, you’ll get triple the amount you originally expected.

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qzak491
Posted on April 2, 2012 at 10:51am
.
Atheists’ Threats Lead Town to Remove Christian Cross From Water Tower

“You can see we’re not evil people who want to burn down churches. We’re just here to have fun.”

This was pure evil. Was this “fun” for the town?????

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