Hello all! I feel I need to preface what I’m about to say by pointing out that I am a stern supporter of everyone’s constitutional rights of freedom of religion. I even was willing to defend these rights with my life as a former soldier. I also want to point out that I am a proud Republican, husband and father and not necessarily in that order.
Ok, disclaimer out of the way, I’m an Atheist. As an atheist I am more inclined to fight to live because I don’t believe there is any “life after death”. I am constantly reminded how entwined the pro-gun ideology is with religion every issue of Concealed Carry Magazine I flip through because I can’t get more than 10 pages before someone makes a reference to god. I guess I’m just perplexed, if someone told me that I can work at my current job but once I break my leg I’ll be given a life of riches and be taken care of forever…I’m gonna be taking up skydiving, rock climbing and mountain biking to speed up the leg break. In this case, many of you believe in the concept of heaven yet you arm yourselves to try and stay alive longer preventing you from reaching the gates of Heaven sooner. Again, just seems counter intuitive.
And because I know I opened up a can of worms and I’m pretty sure this will rub some people the wrong way, I apologize ahead of time for calling into question something so important and vital to so many of you. So, is your religious belief not as real as you claim and you want to prolong life as long as you can so you don’t have to “see if it’s real” or are you claiming you’re fighting to live to spend more time with those around you even though once they pass they too will go to heaven and you’ll see them there as well? Again, never made much sense why religion and guns go hand in hand.
Sorry, to disappoint, with this incredible group of people you won’t get attacked. It is your right, and thank you for your service!
As my momma used to say “to each their own” . I have many friends in the same camp as you. I respect their views they respect mine. I don’t push my points of view on them, they don’t push theirs.
The only thing I do is joke with them and ask them, What do you do in a fox hole then?
That’s my joke with them… just keeping it fun.
Ok, I’ll bite. Though I do not fear death, for I know what awaits me, I fear the act of dying. Even worse, watching a loved one die.
As a Christian, I believe that Christ instructed me to “Go forth and make disciples of all nations.” My family are Christians also, but, I make my son wear a life jacket in a boat.
Even the Archangels carry weopons.
What if, my purpose is to save the life of a hell bound sinner, with MY gun? That gives them more opportunity to repent.
The Gunfighter’s Prayer
Lord, make me fast and accurate.
Let my aim be true and my hand faster
than those who wish to harm me and mine.
Let not my last thought be “If only I had my gun”.
and Lord, if today is truly the day you are to call me home,
Let me die in a pile of brass.
Thank you for your service, and as a fellow service member as well, I will say that I prepare and train to be the first line of defense for those I love. Period. Dot. End of story.
I truly hope all of my training and preparation is for nothing.
I find it interesting and maybe you will too. In this country we have the freedom of religion. So I respect everyone’s beliefs and views and opinions and so on. The founders of this great nation did have a preference. God is part of the foundation of this nation. In God we trust is on our currency. And many other references to God in many other places and historic documents. But we do have the freedom to practice any religion we want to. I find all of this interesting because the founders set an example for us. By referring to God in the creation of this nation, they still respected the fact that not everyone has the same beliefs. I consider this a great foresight of our founding fathers. Just my observation and maybe worthless for some of you, but thanks for allowing my two cents worth. Be safe and prosper.
So this begs the question, isn’t god responsible for those people you don’t trust? All part of his plan? So then it seems to be in line with, he’s testing you and therefore putting these people in your way to deal with.
I guess my real question is why aren’t there more non-religious people fighting for their lives like I am? Most gun totting people are god fearing and not godless.
I’m not the religious type, and I don’t really know what happens after I die. While I’m not afraid to die, I would like to go when I’m ready. If I am forced to go before I am ready, I will do my best to take that person with me. If I am not able to, I hope there is another responsibly armed person is there to send that person with me. We will find out what happens together.
Interesting topic. I associate with a religion. I always wondered why, except for specific governments that push Atheism through their government policies (e.g. China), why most atheists were white.
God uses everything according to his plan. We are also given free will - to accept or not accept redemption, to act or not act in accordance with His Word, to follow or not follow His precepts.
Actually, I agree…to some of it. I wonder if it was forethought or sheer luck at times why they did what they did. Considering that they fled religious persecution and came here with the hope of being free to follow their religious beliefs…it makes sense that they might want a nation where it’s citizens are free to follow their religious beliefs. However, reread the 1st amendment…“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” but it did make many laws by adopting that religion is our country’s foundation. Every reference to god is establishing religion as our core value.
I’ve always had issues with the thinking there because I don’t think the founders ever even considered people like me who are NOT religious and aren’t convinced of anything TO believe in. If you really think about our constitution and the 1st amendment, any religious person is protected, but Atheists like myself are NOT. I am free to exercise my religious beliefs but it makes no mention to protecting my right to NOT believe.
Yes, but as I’ve posed before…which God? The one on our money may not be the one another American believes in. So what then? Don’t we have to make new money to be inclusive? As with so many other differences, isn’t this one that we then fight over (as we have done since the dawn of time)?
It is a very deep topic, and while many take the two topics hand in hand, I don’t think that it should be a big part of the firearm discussion.
