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GCS, I understand it's not going to happen, but I certainly hope that there are no more John Ashcrofts covering the breasts of "Justice" and praying and anointing cabinet members with crisco oil in the future.
This administration and the evangelical take-over of the military truly frighten me.
GCS, I understand it's not going to happen, but I certainly hope that there are no more John Ashcrofts covering the breasts of "Justice" and praying and anointing cabinet members with crisco oil in the future.
This administration and the evangelical take-over of the military truly frighten me.
Actually, it's kind of a catch-22 on our behalf... at least, the way I see it. I love the freedom of not having to belong to a group that has a particular set of ideas as to what is right and wrong. In the end, those sorts of groups always end up becoming corrupt themselves and the hypocrisy becomes enormous. However, the only way a politician is going to listen to what people like us have to say is if we all band together and show that we are a heavy enough portion of the voting population to be listened to. In order for us to band together and voice concerns, we have to collectively come together and agree what concerns "non-belief" has in general and that is what is so awkward about it. I've noticed that most of us are like Dawkins says, akin to trying to herd cats. We just don't like to be herded into groups and attached a label with what we should or shouldn't do.
Our own "free roaming" mentality is also what seems to hold us back from being heard at all. At least, in my opinion. I don't think you could really get me into joining a "Freethinker's Club". This is about as close as I can get to that.
Actually, I think it is a bit unfair to ask a politician to do such a thing. Are we talking more about the concerns of the "non-religious" or are we talking about the concerns of "atheists"? In fact, the concerns for atheists are probably concerns for the religious as well. High gas prices, the Iraq War, medical care, etc.. etc.. The only concern atheists may have aside from the religious are how they are treated by the religious themselves. Yet, there's not really a platform to stand on in that regards. Technically, there are laws saying you cannot discriminate against us just as you can't discriminate against blacks but nonetheless it happens. So, I don't see what any candidate is going to say that's going to assuage or address any of those sorts of issues.
In all actuality, I think a better thing to address would be education standards, the development of critical thinking skills for the young in this country, and a real focus on putting America back into a more dominant force as regards our standings in science, math, and history. If those things would be addressed, then I think you'd fix the majority of the issues that the "non-religious" have with this country.
damn straight (If i can say that without getting this blocked)
polictics never ment to mixed religion and each time it does well, it really doesn't help the country Bush is a great example with the senate judicial and executive branch in his power take a look what he has done pro religion, One of them is the war against science. theres list that i can get tommrow
and well we have something called the bill of rights in that bill of rights we have somthing called the first admenment in that admenment we have freedom of religion. THANK U IN that believing in nothing is catorgized in there
Any politician who even suggested that the views of atheists or agnostics should be respected would lose the election, it's as simple as that. I don't think we're a very large group, at least in the US, and the majority of the public don't like us and consider us to be a bad influence in society. For the foreseeable future we won't see an atheist in high office or a politician who even supports us but at least we have the right of free speech which we're exercising on this forum and of course we have atheist authors and a few influential people who write books or present a positive view of atheism. Hopefully in a couple more generations it will be much more accepted in society.
I agree it will be a long time before we see an atheist or a one who admits it in office. The size of our group, if polls are anywhere close, reaches higher than the most of the minority groups already working the system. A block of 16 to 20% would catch the eye of all the politicians I know. It just requires us to speak up. If we don’t begin to pressure the political system than we are in reality telling them we do not care if they walk over our rights. Worst yet we may be allowing them to push our rights off the books. To steal a saying from the Buddhist “The start of any trip is made with that first step”. I think it is time we took that first step.
Well in the Netherlands Creationism is a non-issue. I don't think that we have any religious Christian leaders who don't believe in evolution or insists that Creationism should be taught instead of evolution.
Here we are in another election and I don’t see one political leader addressing the concerns of the nonreligious. In the United States the nonreligious make up 18 to 24 percent of the population which is a number large enough to get the attention of our government and shift things back to a true secular government as our founding fathers wanted it. Is it not time for the Nonreligious to take the lessons learned from the Black and Hispanics movements, and flex that political muscle? We hold a larger percentage of the population than both groups, but I cannot see we have any representation in our government, or any segment of government to protect our rights
Look...
The fact is that the general public considers us atheists to be vermin. We were recently named as the most loathed category in America, somewhere below even terrorists, IIRC.
No politician is likely to pander to us, and for good reason: it would be poltical suicide.
The fact is that the general public considers us atheists to be vermin. We were recently named as the most loathed category in America, somewhere below even terrorists, IIRC.
No politician is likely to pander to us, and for good reason: it would be poltical suicide.
Vermin, now that is hard. In my peer group is about 90% of us are non religious, and I would not call any of them vermin. I think you study must have polled the local churches for their data. They will never like us.
So far I don't think my rights have been violated by the government. What does concern me is that there is a very influential and politically well connected far right religious movement that would like to expand their influence as far as possible and push this country towards a Christian perspective in many ways which would include undermining our educational system by promoting creationism in public schools, attacking and generally making life miserable for gays and lesbians, establishing the Christian religion as the official religion of America, and the list goes on. I think that Christians and other religious people have every right to follow their beliefs but I also believe that I have that same right and no single group of like minded individuals have the right to force the rest of society to adopt their beliefs even if they are the majority.
You are oversimplifying and overexaggerating the conservative agenda. Make Christianity the state religion? No serious politician has proposed it since Eisenhower in the '50s that I'm aware of. Make gays and lesbians suffer? Some churches preach hate, but true Christians and politicians on both sides of the aisle see gays as human beings just like heterosexuals. Just because we disagree on marriage doesn't mean we want to make your life misearable. Creation in public schools? A few schools have tried it and it gets a ton of media attention, but those are few and far between.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cncracer
Vermin, now that is hard. In my peer group is about 90% of us are non religious, and I would not call any of them vermin. I think you study must have polled the local churches for their data. They will never like us.
Its rare for somebody in today's teen/20-something demographic to be religious. There is tremendous pressure towards athiesm or agnosticism on college campuses today.
How do we tell the difference between real and not-real christians? You all identify as the same and enough of you, especially the evangelicals, want a christian state. Read these boards. How many people want to completely rid the country of the separation of church/state? A great number.
How can there be pressure towards not believing something or questioning it?
Everyone should question the world constantly, it's the intelligent thing to do.
Maybe there's some backlash from the all christian all the time focus.
Last edited by chielgirl; 04-30-2008 at 04:18 PM..
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I don't think that we have any religious Christian leaders who don't believe in evolution or insists that Creationism should be taught instead of evolution.
Political Power And The Nonreligious:
now that is hard. In my peer group is about 90% of us are non religious, and I would not call any of them vermin. I think you study must have polled the local churches for their data. They will never like us. 
