Cultists, Pagans and Druids Sign Up for UK Armed Forces

I don't think so. The hunter-gatherer would have been more interested in target practice than what he ate his meat off.

Grumppa, I too looked at the round table in Winchester (I used to live there until 6 years ago) and thought of it as a giant darts board! Wasn't it dated as 12thC or something? It's a long time ago since I did that tour. I waved at Alfred though, when I went back for a few days a week ago.

We lived in Alresford for a few years, jane. My husband worked in Winchester.
Would the hunter-gatherer have painted his target in dartboard colours, grumppa?

I expect woad would have featured.

A group of people gather together and start chanting to give themselves strength and bring down their enemies. Are they Wican, Druid, Jedi, Muslim or Christian?

Or all of the above? Does it matter? They are coming together to defend their country and protect their way of life. If the armed forces application form includes religion when a lot of the applicants have none, they will get some silly answers. I expect there will be a lot of Monster Raving Lunies in the politics section too.

Exactly Nfk it hardly matters if soldiers have no religion or are a druid does it, as long as they do their job.Newspapers just enjoy 'stirring' as it sells papers.

Precisely. As long as they do their job, what does it matter? Soldiers are trained to be loyal to their comrades, first and foremost. If they can't do that, then they are usually weeded out anyway.

I loved Alresford, durhamjen. We used to eat in the garden of the pub by the river with the children in the summer. Even their Pizza Express was nicer than most! Did that pub in the centre get to keep its bright blue paint?

My thoughts too Nfk - the article seemed to be deriding whole groups of people based on nothing more than their religion (obviously, if the religion is based around pacisfism it may be more of a problem!). I'm sure there will have been a fair few deserters over the centuries that were both Christian, Roman Catholic and athiest; in the end, it is the person that determines how well they can do their job.

To get back to the original post, what difference does it make. If someone shoots to kill, does it matter if he dons a cloak and hood and does a few chants in his spare time. It shouldn't matter what any ones religion is as long as they do the job. that should apply to any job.