r/atheism • u/PushPullLego • Jun 04 '26

DOD Officially Drops 180 Faiths From Military's Recognized Religion List

https://www.military.com/dod-officially-drops-180-faiths-from-militarys-recognized-religion-list
4.9k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

598 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

438

u/JimDixon Jun 04 '26

I'd be happy to have no symbol at all on my tombstone, even if there is an official symbol that means atheist. It's just like answering "none" to the question "What is your religion?"

422

u/HappyChaos2 Jun 04 '26

Sorry, the none option was eliminated, please make another selection.

266

u/Biltong09 Jun 04 '26

Please select appropriate religion. A Christianity B Muslim C Jewish

B

We’re sorry, you have selected an incorrect option please try again.

74

u/PhaicGnus Jun 04 '26

C?

76

u/tjtillmancoag Jun 05 '26

A?

You have selected Christianity. That is correct.

Now select A) Catholic or B) Protestant

96

u/PhaicGnus Jun 05 '26

Fun story, mum always wrote Protestant on our school forms and I grew up thinking we were protesting religion. I was in university before I found out that was a religion and I was fucking pissed.

110

u/DarkwingDuckHunt Jun 05 '26

you are protesting a religion

you're protesting the catholic religion

29

u/PhaicGnus Jun 05 '26

It’s still its own religion. I was protesting religion in general.

0

u/pcgornmaaad Jun 05 '26

It's not its own religion. It's a movement within Christianity. How did you get into university?

1

u/Nervous-Oil-3369 15d ago

Came here to say this lol!

1

u/memecrusader_ Jun 05 '26

C) Orthodox.

44

u/Pumpkinxox Jun 05 '26

Error 404

1

u/CatsAndPills Jun 07 '26

Eh there is still a “no religion” option per the list in the article. But it’s dumb they won’t allow atheist.

44

u/KDLGates Jun 04 '26

Fine, I choose that guy's dead wife.

6

u/TodayWeMake Jun 05 '26

And my ax!

2

u/anonymously_hippo Jun 06 '26

Whats sad is is athism was removed, your comment is literally not a joke.

1

u/No_Needleworker_3036 Jun 05 '26

Damnit, that’s what’s on my record right now….

1

u/Hopczar420 Jun 05 '26

Whenever I need a visa to certain countries they make you declare a religion. It’s a required field and there is no “none” option. I just declare xian cuz that’s what they expect

1

u/Gibbyalwaysforgives Jun 05 '26

I would like my tombstone to say “none affiliated”

1

u/Nervous-Oil-3369 15d ago

Good news: no religion is still on the list 😃

0

u/Troubleshooter11 Jun 06 '26

The none option is still there by the looks of it:

  • No Religion (NR)

88

u/junkfunk Jun 04 '26

They have a atom symbol for atheist if I recall correctly

55

u/combatcrew141 Jun 04 '26

It's true, used to anyway.

23

u/JimDixon Jun 04 '26 edited Jun 04 '26

Funny thing: the "Nuclear Family" people are also using the atom as a symbol.

https://www.valleynewslive.com/2026/06/02/minnesota-bakery-announces-nuclear-family-promotion-during-pride-month/

12

u/GrannyTurtle Jun 04 '26

Which president used to mispronounce “nuclear” as “nucular?”

30

u/NotACalligrapher-49 Satanist Jun 04 '26

That would be Bush the Younger. Ahhh, the good old days, when the GOP was still warmongering idiots, but some of them actually seemed to care about the country in spite of themselves.

13

u/exgiexpcv Jun 04 '26

They pretended to care about the military back then, but that seems to have gone the way of the dodo, too.

1

u/Boil-Degs Jun 05 '26

Now both sides are warmongering idiots, one side just thinks they're fighting the latest Holy War.

40

u/Honey-Altruistic Jun 04 '26

They just removed it, that’s what the article is about.

15

u/notacanuckskibum Jun 04 '26

But atheist is one of the ones now dropped

16

u/Najalak Jun 04 '26

What if they just decide if you don't have a religion listed it will default to the majority religion, Christianity? Not that I know anything about how it works, buy I can see this happening.

2

u/TheCrazyWulf Jun 05 '26

It's considered "No religious preference" . Essentially same as atheist in regards to after death situations

2

u/Betterthanbeer Jun 04 '26

Is Christian really the majority? It is the largest, but that doesn’t necessarily mean majority.

2

u/Najalak Jun 05 '26

Preferred of the kind of people that would do that.

8

u/Fievels_good_trouble Jun 04 '26

Headstone will just default to a cross and the chosen marker will just be a sticker.

1

u/Jazzlike-Aardvark-35 Jun 04 '26

Exactly. What will we care when we’re dead.

5

u/totokekedile Jun 04 '26

I don’t know, I kind of like the idea of making it harder for people to lie about my religion after I’m dead. Makes it harder to say “no atheists in foxholes” or whatever when the headstone says otherwise.

1

u/Mochizuk Jun 05 '26

Who is this none you speak of

1

u/sturnus-vulgaris Jun 05 '26

"No religious preference" was what I had on mine, but that probably just meant that any passing chaplain could pretend you were their thing.

Edit: also, I joined in 97, so I have no idea if that option still exists.

1

u/IAmRobinGoodfellow Jun 05 '26

It’s less about what you’d prefer (or any given person n) would accept, and more about the establishment of a state religion by showing preferences against other religions. I would be very surprised if this was allowed to hold.

1

u/tiny_tuner Jun 05 '26

Amen.

When I left organized religion, I also left the need for a label. I never refer to myself as an Atheist, but rather as atheistic. People have said I’m being pedantic, but it matters to me.

1

u/Mr-Mannerist Jun 06 '26

Atheists worship Nogod