Lets remember it's Remembrabce Sunday

[Zacs-Master]

Can we please put aside our petty and pointless religious differences just for one day and remember the fallen, who gave their lives so that we may have the freedom to discuss such topics openly?

[naomi24]

Actually, I've just been to a memorial service which included prayers for the 'faithful fallen'. I was there to pay my respects to all the fallen - faithful or not.

[ladybirder]

I'm sitting here shaking my head in disbelief at the 'faithful fallen' in your last post naomi. What a shameful indictment.

[sandyRoe]

I can't believe that any service, of whatever hue, would have prayers only for the 'faithful fallen'.
Perhaps you misheard, Naomi?

[naomi24]

I heard accurately.

[LazyGun]

Remembrance Sunday remains an important date in the calendar -deservedly so, as a means for a nation to come together and honour the dead, fallen in service to to the country.

But when Naomi mentions the "faithful fallen", it doesn't surprise me. In this modern day age of inclusivity, guess which group does not have a place at the Cenotaph to lay a wreath honouring the fallen? The Humanists. Many of those who gave of their lives were actually of no faith, unyet there is no specific representative for them at the national event at the Cenotaph.

http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/1139

[jake-the-peg]

// honour the dead, fallen in service to to the country. //

When's the service to honor those who didn't want to fight in some daft war, who were conscripted none the less and got shot within a couple of weeks of getting to the front?

You're using words like "fallen in service to their country" to give a poetic lilt to some pretty sh1tty things

A dustman is a dustman not a waste operative technician

And a shot conscript is not a "fallen hero"

[LazyGun]

Whether or not they were conscripted, they still died in service to the aims of the country, be it in defence of its borders, or in furtherance of its political aims. No, war should not be glamourized, but neither should those who died be forgotten.One morning a year does not glamourise military adventure, but it does offer an opportunity for reflection.

Regardless of how they died, regardless of whether they were conscripted or not ( although I would like you to identify how many conscripts have died since WW2), they deserve some recognition.

And nowhere did I offer a paean to a "fallen hero" - thats your phrase, not mine.

You are anti-war? Good for you- just try to avoid parading your sanctimony here though.

[mibn2cweus]

The important thing to remember every day is what all the fighting is about, that which makes it inevitable, a disregard for that apart from which it would never have become necessary. Conflict is the consequence of the failure to recognise and acknowledge personal responsibility, and to protect and defend the individual rights which enable each of us to assume that responsibility.

Rational people recognise the validity of the existence of only one common border and no other, the sanctity of the individual, a line which should never be crossed by anyone for any alleged 'reason'. The failure to recognise and defend the inherent rights of any single individual is an indictment against us all, a crime for which we all inevitably pay for at the expense of our own.

[sandyRoe]

Wasn't it the case that from the late 19th Century some in England viewed the Germans as cruisin for a bruising? There was a fear that they planned to have a naval base in Agadar, Morocco. That they too were looking for a place in the sun. And the subsequent arms race that came about was in in dreadnoughts.
Didn't men die then to protect trading markets? And aren't they still dying today to protect oil interests?

[wardlaw]

Have just read your post Zacs-Master. Good idea but can we not put them aside every day?

[beso]

wardlaw //Have just read your post Zacs-Master. Good idea but can we not put them aside every day?//

That is what the religious want - no criticism. The extreme want it like the old days where blasphemy was punishable by death. (Unfortunately in some places it still is the old days.)

While the religious continue to push their doctrine and expect public policy to reflect their fantasies rather than observable fact then atheists will continue to protest.

[goodlife]

The wise writer of the Bible book of Ecclesiastes said: “A name is better than good oil, and the day of death than the day of one’s being born.” (Ecclesiastes 7:1)

Why would the day of one’s death be better than the day of one’s birth? Because at birth a person has no established reputation. His personal slate is totally blank. His life course will result in either a positive or a negative reputation. For those who have established a good name over the years, the day of death is indeed better in that respect than the day of birth.

[Anngel]

Let's. Although what religion had to do with WW1 and WW2 is beyond me.

[vulcan]

"A name is better then a good oil", this was written of course before the invention of car engines.

[plautus]

...and why would a name be better than good oil? You can't fry chips in a name!

[beckersjay]

Good try, though, Zacs-Master........

[goodlife]

Yes, you have a choice. In fact, daily we have many choices that will determine our reputation on the day of our demise, especially how we will be remembered by God. Thus, the same wise Hebrew said (Proverbs 10:7)

[LazyGun]

Only a JW could imagine that the day of death is better than the day of birth.

[sandyRoe]

Well at least all your troubles would be over then

[wildwood]

I prefer to remember ALL fallen soldiers in my mind, not make a spectacle of it in public occasions.

Afaik, most of the soldiers in both WWs were not happy about going to war and shooting others people. Many were conscripts and even the ones who went in defense of 'King and Country' would have preferred to stay home.

There are people, alive and deceased, who are genuine heroes by saving another's live while doing so endangers their own live. Why are they ignored?

We should never forget so that those who lost their life did not do so in vain, but to stop discussing religion in AB is pointless.