jwp@sdchema.UUCP (05/27/83)
Relay-Version:version B 2.10 5/3/83; site mhuxt.UUCP
Message-ID:<571@sdchema.UUCP>
Date:Thu, 26-May-83 18:59:15 EDT
Quoting rlgvax!thekid:
"A quick note re: the athiests in foxholes line dying out.
"It hasn't. For a very good reason. It has a lot of validity.
"From personal experience in the military I can assure you that
conversions to religion under battlefield conditions are common.
You won't hear about conversions to atheism."
Your military experience (or at least your experience under battlefield
conditions) must have been different from mine. Mine was eight years in the
Marine Corps, including a couple of trips (1965, and 1967-68) to help save the
down-trodden poor of Vietnam from the ravaging, godless hordes of communism.
I never heard of *any* conversions to religion under battlefield conditions.
Unless, of course, you consider praying to a radio for A4's to be a religous
act. Which it may have been, now that I think about it. But that is not, I
think, what you had in mind. As for conversions to atheism... No, I never
heard of any of those, either. At least not there...
I do know one person who claims now to have lost belief in God due to his
experience under battlefield conditions. Since I know this person, I presume
there are others who claim to have found their belief in God due to their
experiences under battlefield conditions and I've just never met them. I'm
kind of curious as to how they found it, though... I can understand how
someone could lose belief...
Actually, I'm kind of curious where people found the time to worry about
this sort of thing at all under battlefield conditions... Unless maybe
they were second lieutenants; I could believe that... They worried about
a lot of strange things... If you stop and think about it it's sort of
amusing:
A late July afternoon, in a shallow gully, somewhere in Vietnam. Very heavy
firing in the background. The platoon sergeant [Lou Gosset] crawls up next
to the platoon commander [Ron Howard]. The lieutenant, kneeling by a rock,
speaks first:
"<mumble, mumble, mumble>"
"Lieutentant..... Lieutenant!! [shakes him] We gotta get these
troops the hell outta here! We're getting cut to sh... What the
hell you mumbling about?!"
[Petutantly] "Just a *minute*, Gunny. I'll be done in a minute."
"$*@#%@&& ??" [Thinking he's shell-shocked the sergeant slaps him]
"Well, if you really *must* know, Sergeant, I'm converting to religion
under battlefield conditions..."
[There is a brief struggle, a moan, the platoon sergeant cleans his
k-bar on the lieutenant's utility jacket.]
"Stupid honky mother..."
[The platoon sergeant gathers up what's left of his platoon, and as
many of their dead as they can carry, and exits stage left.]
John Pierce, Chemistry, UC San Diego
{ucbvax, philabs}!sdcsvax!sdchema!jwp