DO IT RIGHT

The first assignment I received as a Freshman at St Ignatius High School was to read a pamphlet called “Do It Right.”

I was a pretty obedient kid, but I barely skimmed it. There were more interesting textbooks to open, and I figured I already knew about “Do It Right.”

Only lately do I realize that Do It Right was an explanation of AMDG (ad majoram dei gloriam—to the greater glory of God). Apparently an Ignatian ideal is that any action, if not sinful, can glorify God if it’s done well and with devotion.

The practical upshot was that we had to write AMDG at the top of every paper.

I notice in the most recent Genesis that SI’s football team has the magic letters on its uniforms, ugh.

So, I’m thinking that the AMDG thing must have applied during World War II. There were certainly many Jesuit trained scientists and technicians at Los Alamos working on the Manhattan Project.

These Jesuit trained workers, like all their colleagues were anxious to perfect an atom bomb which the United States could drop on a Japanese population center. The Jesuit alumni had the added incentive of glorifying God in the process.

So, when Little Boy’s outer casing was complete reps of the various shops were allowed to write messages in a small area near the tail fins. Some messages were obscene, or racist, others were sentimental. But what stood out were the three or four AMDGs.

Chances are that the AMDGs were written by lower level employees since most studies show a negative correlation between IQ and religiosity.

This quote from Wikipedia cites a survey published in Nature.

A 1998 survey by Larson and Witham of the 517 members of the United States National Academy of Sciences showed that 72.2% of the members expressed "personal disbelief" in a personal God while 20.8 expressed "doubt or agnosticism" and only 7.0% expressed "personal belief".

And Enola Gay’s crew was also dedicated to doing the job right. It could be that one of the crew was Jesuit trained and that it was AMDG all the way.

Approaching target. AMDG.
Bomb doors open. AMDG.
Blinding flash. AMDG.
Shock wave disintegration. AMDG.
Heat wave incineration. AMDG.
Mushroom cloud. AMDG.

It’s all good.

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