Army officer bashing/minsunderstanding atheism/patriotism

So the story is this army guy tells a lie for the Bush administration. Apparently he is a Christian. So when he starts being questioned about his lie (a specially non Christian action) he gets defensive and:

Kauzlarich, now a battalion commanding officer at Fort Riley in Kansas, further suggested the Tillman family's unhappiness with the findings of past investigations might be because of the absence of a Christian faith in their lives.

In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."

Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, "I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know." source

It always bugs me when people make incorrect statements, but this one is a common one, and I gather Kauzlarich isn't much of a mind (or a good Christian for that matter). If you don't believe in an afterlife your life is much more valuable! Humans don't really value microseconds since they pass rather quickly, but what is your 80 earth years compared to all eternity? (I wonder if a lying Christian is "gooder" than a truthful atheist...)

But more importantly the fact that he says good Christians would have more faith in government I think is very insightful to a large chunk (perhaps the 30% or so who still think Bush i doing a great job) think are "good" Americans: Government = my Christian faith = good. This isn't just a problem for atheists, but is also a problem for other faiths and Christians who can read the newspaper and make small inferences about cause and effect! Since Bush is in office for another 1.5 years, I think the bets thing to hope for is the amount of atheism towards Government religion goes up too (and if real atheism goes up too, I'll welcome my new intellectually honest brethren).