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Good question, Brian. I am more conservative than liberal, but not staunchly so...then again, I am more agnostic than atheistic, I do believe in a Creator but not the Christian one. I don't want McCain OR Obama as president. So...tis a puzzlement
I consider myself a moderate. With Social issues I am on the liberal side, and with fiscal issues I fall on the conservative side, which in my view puts me in the middle, or a moderate.
I keep seeing everyone listing their non religious identity preference as Atheist, Agnostic, and Deist. I put them all in the same box. Atheist is just that and can be used when with other non religious people, Agnostic is what I call Atheist light and is good for meeting of liberal friends, and Deist is atheist ultra light and safe to use in any situation.
I use agnostic and atheist most times, and just ignore the standard definitions. This is my effort to be some what less in your face with my non religious views. I think my peer group has evolved past the deist position, and the only one I know is my wife who I think fits the old standard definition of a deist.
I am more conservative than liberal, but not staunchly so...then again, I am more agnostic than atheistic, I do believe in a Creator but not the Christian one.
I sometimes feel isolated because I am a religious liberal and a political conservative. I attend a Unitarian church and, though I like my UU (Unitarian Universalists) friends, boy howdy are they liberals! And it is assumed by nearly all of them that anyone that attends a UU church is a liberal. Well I attend and I am not politically liberal.
To me it is ironic for UUs to be realistic about religion and by that I mean not dogmatic and believing in mythology at the expense of living in the real world. And on the other hand to be imo unrealistic about politics and by that I mean to think that we could all live in a cheery wonder land if only those mean conservatives would stop being smarter and more successful than whomever we see as "disadvantaged." It varies.
Maybe I am getting off topic but it sort of supports the argument that politics is the religion of liberals.
I keep seeing everyone listing their non religious identity preference as Atheist, Agnostic, and Deist. I put them all in the same box. Atheist is just that and can be used when with other non religious people, Agnostic is what I call Atheist light and is good for meeting of liberal friends, and Deist is atheist ultra light and safe to use in any situation.
I used to think an agnostic was an atheist who didn't want to admit to atheism, until I became an agnostic. I went from a strict religious upbringing, to figuring things out on my own, long story extremely short. IN so doing I never quite let go of the belief that there was a supreme being.
Gradually I have arrived at the place I'm in now. That is I just don't know, and that, ladies and gents, is the definition of agnostic as far as I can tell.
There are things that I have heard of, people I personally know and trust for instance having had near death experiences. Or relatives who believed they saw and spoke with a relative who had passed away (a ghost) and had no reason to lie about it to me or other family members.
How could these things happen if there wasn't something spiritual out there. But is that organized under some all knowing being, I don't think so. Anyway it is nice to exercise ye olde brain cells here thinking about such things.
I have never suffered personal discrimination nor heard of any individuals here in the UK but I am constantly amazed that churches in the UK do not need planning permission for example when Hospitals and military installations do.
That to me seems discriminatory. Why aren't churches taxed unlike any other business ? Charities are exempt from taxes but then again the Church is not a charity. It is an organisation whose main aim is to increase its own followers not to help the world ( though I do recognise churches donate a lot to good works , most of their money still stays in their hands and does not end in the pockets of people who need it most).
We seem to give special consideration to various religions ( what people are allowed to wear, time off for prayer etc... people are entitled to take time off for special religious festivals - in the UK at least). If you happen to be from a non mainstream religion or an atheist you get no such special consideration.
I do not see why faith should give you any special privileges.
I know a while back in some European countries that Nuns and Priests used to get free public transport and train journeys for example. I assume this has been discontinued but the principle remain. I think a certain reverence tends to be offered to priests, nuns, vicars etc.. We mollycoddle religious people. We tread lightly around them so as not to "offend". It's OK to offend me but offending a Christian or A Sikh is just blasphemous and wrong.
It seems Faith still has the upper hand in many respects.
I live in Europe a bastion of secular thinking , of moderate religion and still it influences many aspects of life. The UK has a state Church and as such Bishops are allowed to influence political life. I would not get to represent my atheist views in the House of Lords but Bishops automatically get in simply because....
Goodness knows how I would feel if I lived in the Deep South, the Bible belt where people seem to take it for granted everyone is a Christian ( or should be) and keep bible-thumping and trying to impose their views on you.... I suspect many people feel ostracised simply because they do not believe. Many probably do not get jobs or get sacked because of their atheism and many will get bullied and preached out by self-righteous fundie nutters. That is discrimination.
Yes, I think we could have had better choices. I'm a conservative, myself, though I don't agree with the Republicans on some things. Maybe we should start a different note, talking about differences between Republicans and conservative views, or between liberal and Democratic views.
I see a lot of the things listed in this thread as forms of discrimination, yet it seems to be seen by many as nothing but rudeness or something they can live with. I think my question is if you feel your values are not acceptable as a political leader, if you can just ignore prayers in public meeting, ignore religion in government documents, face religious pressure on the phone and at your house, if you have segments of the population seeing you as a person to fear and be avoided, than aren’t you seeing discrimination.
The non religious have been listed with everything but eating babies. That was saved for the Jewish culture. What is the point where we recognize all these subtle negative acts are an effort to attack your self worth? Seems to be working if so many think they couldn’t elect a nonreligious person to public office today when our founding fathers were free thinkers just like the non religious of today.
I would agree that an atheist would be more likely to be elected president at the beginning of our country than now.
Looking at your link to the poll, I think I see a way to get an atheist elected.
First we need a Black, Female, who was married to a Mormon for one of her three marriages, a Hispanic for her second, and a Jewish man for her third. At age 72 she became gay. Average those together and it is a land slide. She has something for everyone. Can anybody think a person who fits these requirements? I seem to be at a lost for any potential candidates.
LOL, well that was just one poll, and looked a little better than some of the others. But I think in all of the ones I saw, atheists were at the bottom of the heap. That may trump everything else...
I've never posted to this thread (Atheism and Agnosticism) before, but I am here because I have been thinking quite a bit about my own Atheism lately. After reading over the posts here I see that most Atheists here are pretty laid back about their relationships with the religious, like I was up until recently. I'm becoming quite a bit more militant over what I see as increasing intrusion by the religious-minded into society, creationism/ID in schools, battles over religious displays on government property, use of government resources for religious purposes, laws tailored to religious sensibilities, and more.
These things have begun to change me from an apologist about my Atheism in front of the religious to more of a (lightly) outraged individual who rightly opposes these abuses. But to the question: Have I ever been discriminated against for my Atheism? Yes, but only very rarely to my face, and even then it was of little consequence. More like ignored or shunned. Have I been discriminated against for my Atheism by society? Yes, but not to the degree I would if I lived in one of the world's less tolerant areas like the Middle East or Egypt. But I do not think this is grounds to kick back and say we have it easy. I think we need to be vigilant about these (still minor) abuses by the religious in America. I think of the religious as addicts in a way. They have no self-awareness when it comes to their efforts to spread their religion. They are, after all, doing it for your own good. I know that most people you meet every day have no agenda for converting you or anything, but they also are, for the most part, unable to see those efforts by others as harmful in any way. This is why we need to be vigilant - few others will be on our behalf.
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Average those together and it is a land slide. She has something for everyone. Can anybody think a person who fits these requirements? I seem to be at a lost for any potential candidates. 
