Why Should Atheists Have To Say "So Help Me God" In Their Oath To Join The United States Military ?

On August 25th, the United States Air Force refused to allow an airman to re-enlist. It had nothing to do with performance issues, because the Air Force wants the airman to re-enlist. The problem is the airman, when signing his re-enlistment oath, struck out the last four words of that oath. The four words in question are "So help me God". The airman is an atheist, and objected to having to swear to any kind of god -- especially since re-joining the military of a secular nation (and that's what this nation is, whether the religionists like it or not).

The crazy part is that when the atheist airman first joined the Air Force he was not required to include those four words in his oath. In the past, the Air Force has allowed the omitting of those four words from the oath. But that all changed on October 30th of last year, when the Air Force started requiring everyone taking the oath to include "So help me God" -- even if they are an atheist (or other non-believer).

The airman is still on duty at a Nevada Air Force base, because his enlistment is not over until November. But the Air Force says he will not be allowed to re-enlist without saying the complete oath (including the offensive four words), and if he does not comply he will be severed from military service.

Fortunately, the American Humanist Association (AHA) has gone to bat for the airman. They have written the Air Force, and warned them they are violating Article VI, paragraph 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which says "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States". I don't see how being a member of the military of this country wouldn't be considered a "public trust". The AHA has promised to file suit against the Air Force if the airman is not allowed to re-enlist without swearing to any god.

The YouGov Poll decided to find out what the American public thinks about this. Their survey was done on September 11th and 12th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, with a margin of error of about 4 points. It seems that 75% (or 3 out of every 4 people) don't have a problem with atheists serving in the military. They are fine with atheists serving as cannon fodder for our corporate-owned government.

But a significant number of them want to force their own religion down the throats of the atheists who chose to serve -- about 34% of the general public, and 52%of Republicans and protestants would force atheists to take the oath with the words "So help me God" included. As god-believers, they don't realize how offensive those words can be to an atheist -- as offensive as they would consider it if they were required to swear to Allah, Vishnu, Odin, Ba'al, Mithras, Zeus, or any other god they don't believe in.

This is a secular nation, and always has been. The writers of our constitution knew that the best way to protect religious freedom was to keep government out of religion. Why then is this secular government requiring members of the military to pass a religious test by swearing to a god? Does that even make sense? Doesn't freedom of religion, guaranteed by the First Amendment, also protect the right to be free from religion?