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Hi,
One of my really close friends in LA is pro life and believes that marriage is between 1 man and 1 woman. He professes atheism. A few months ago I started a thread here asking if there were pro life atheists and if they received any flack for their stance, and some said that they did, while others said it wasn't an issue amongst their atheist friends. So, I was just wondering, is their any tension between socially and fiscally conservative atheists and more liberally minded ones? Just curious. Thanks
This question makes about as much sense as asking if there is "conflict" between coffee drinkers who like cream on their coffee and coffee drinkers who like it black.
I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal. One thing I feel strongly about is (any) religion impinging on the US constitution and, because of this, people mistakenly think I am a liberal in the Politics section of CD. Sometimes. I have been also called a greedy Republican pig when discussing the US economy and my hesitation about handouts. I have voted for Obama & W (1st time he ran). Not a fan of either party. I must add presently I lean left mainly because fundies give me no option but to go Dem. The way I see it, I will grudgingly pay the extra taxes to keep the fundy-types out of power - too many leaders misuse religion (and flag) across the world.
So OP, I am an independent who would probably disagree with both liberal and conservative atheists on many issues (other than the god thing).
This question makes about as much sense as asking if there is "conflict" between coffee drinkers who like cream on their coffee and coffee drinkers who like it black.
I have never heard the saying, "you shouldn't discuss religion and coffee in public"
I am fiscally conservative and socially liberal. One thing I feel strongly about is (any) religion impinging on the US constitution and, because of this, people mistakenly think I am a liberal in the Politics section of CD. Sometimes. I have been also called a greedy Republican pig when discussing the US economy and my hesitation about handouts. I have voted for Obama & W (1st time he ran). Not a fan of either party. I must add presently I lean left mainly because fundies give me no option but to go Dem. The way I see it, I will grudgingly pay the extra taxes to keep the fundy-types out of power - too many leaders misuse religion (and flag) across the world.
So OP, I am an independent who would probably disagree with both liberal and conservative atheists on many issues (other than the god thing).
I'm not big on politics so I don't know what I would technically be classified as, but I have been in conversations where fellow atheists/agnostics would jump to the conclusion that I'm Christian merely because I'm pro-life/anti-elective-abortions.
Good first point! Unfortunately the Religious Right tends to lump atheist = liberal together don't they? On the other side, I hear many liberals equate Conservative = Religious. Neither of those are true, obviously. The atheist/agnostics I know tend to be more Libertarian...IOW, social issues are not of anybody elses' business and certainly not the damn government's. It could be because of my neck of the woods though. I will never understand why some folks get all bent out of shape about things that do not directly affect them.
Touche! Call it the Uber-Left then. I should have defined that better.
I suppose it's that when I think of the word "liberal", I see Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barak Obama, Barney Frank, and the Hollywood and academic elitists. I do not like them telling me what to do or what's best for me anymore than I like Pat Robertson and his kind doing it. That's what I meant by all that.
I will admit, for the most part when I think atheist, I think liberal.
When I think Christian, I think Conservative. I know there are exceptions to the rule but it's pretty much a knee-jerk reaction.
For the most part, I'm libertarian when it comes to social issues: abortion, same-sex marriage, etc.
I prefer a single-payer health care system or socialized medicine and I think we should have regulations that prevent a corporatist monopoly on our economy. I think there are dangers in big government AND in big corporations. Of course, big government means different things to different people.
I was getting my eyebrows waxed today and the nail place always has CNN on. It just so happened Obama was on and he said, "Some want to say I want big government. I don't want big government, I want smart government." I can agree with that.
Some may think single-payer or socialized medicine makes big government but I don't think that's necessarily true. I want a government that works for people and not Big Business.
I think Socialists and Libertarians would get along on a lot of social issues but definitely not on economic issues.
Is there any "conflict" between conservative atheists and liberal atheists?
Of course there is disagreement between atheists on political grounds, just as there is among virtually all other distinctions of human kind. But, we really don't disagree much on theism, as a general rule of thumb, a lot of us consider it to be mythology. But, we generally do not believe in the veracity of any of the theistic constructs.
Perhaps is questionable whether there is any meaning in 'liberal atheists/conservative atheists'. Atheism is what it is and one can't say that it signifies anything more than no god - belief. One might as well as 'are you a left wing airline pilot or a right wing airline pilot?'
Meaningless apart from giving them an obvious feed - line.
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