Why is atheism so poorly represented in American politics?

[Chris]

Chris, are you telling me the TEA PARTY is secular???? What happened? Did they bind and gag Sarah Palin? Has the Tea Party changed?

Going by this definition of Secularism (Wikipedia):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secularism


Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries. In one sense, secularism may assert the right to be free from religious rule and teachings, and the right to freedom from governmental imposition of religion upon the people within a state that is neutral on matters of belief. (See also separation of church and state and Laïcité.) In another sense, it refers to the view that human activities and decisions, especially political ones, should be unbiased by religious influence.^[1] (See also public reason.) Some scholars are now arguing that the very idea of secularism will change.^[2]

Secularism draws its intellectual roots from Greek and Roman philosophers such as Marcus Aurelius and Epicurus; medieval Muslim polymaths such as Ibn Rushd; Enlightenment thinkers such as Denis Diderot, Voltaire, Baruch Spinoza, John Locke, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and Thomas Paine; and more recent freethinkers, agnostics, and atheists such as Robert Ingersoll and Bertrand Russell


Chris, are you trying to tell me that the Tea Party is composed of Logical Positivists, and Deists? AND atheists? If so, they certainly have fooled me into believing the opposite.

Please do not attempt to tell me that the Evangelical wing of the Rightwing is also secular. That would really be LOL!

Chris, are you telling me the TEA PARTY is secular????

Let me go back and look...why, yes, that's exactly what I said.

Did they bind and gag Sarah Palin? Has the Tea Party changed?

That the tea parties are secular does not imply the religious are a part of the movement. On social issues Palin is consistently for resolution from civic society rather than government.

Chris, are you trying to tell me that the Tea Party is composed of Logical Positivists, and Deists? AND atheists?

There are those as well.

If so, they certainly have fooled me into believing the opposite.

One wonders where you get your information, the left that worships the State?

[Peter1469]

Let me go back and look...why, yes, that's exactly what I said.



That the tea parties are secular does not imply the religious are a part of the movement. On social issues Palin is consistently for resolution from civic society rather than government.



There are those as well.



One wonders where you get your information, the left that worships the State?

This is an excellent example of a non-religious person explaining the American government to heathen atheists.

And I don't think that a religious person could have done a more effective job.

Thanks you Chris.

[Chris]

Except I left out a "not" in "That the tea parties are secular does not imply the religious are NOT a part of the movement."

[Awryly]

Latest surveys show that 53% of Americans would not vote for an atheist, up from 48% a few years ago.

Whatcha got against these guys?

[wingrider]

Latest surveys show that 53% of Americans would not vote for an atheist, up from 48% a few years ago.

Whatcha got against these guys?

nuttiin.. just ain't gonna vote for em..that simple

[Awryly]

nuttiin.. just ain't gonna vote for em..that simple

Why not?

[wingrider]

Why not?

if a person can't believe in something greater than themselves, I can't trust that person to care about me.

[Awryly]

if a person can't believe in something greater than themselves, I can't trust that person to care about me.

Huh? How is a belief in the humanity of man less than a belief in some fairy scuttling around in the aether?

[wingrider]

Huh? How is a belief in the humanity of man less than a belief in some fairy scuttling around in the aether?

because man is the most inhumane critter on this planet,,

[Awryly]

because man is the most inhumane critter on this planet,,

True. So he needs to be saved by an invention that would not occur to my terrier in a month of Sundays?

Speaking roughly of which, radical Muslims must be even more loony than Americans.

They actually seek what they hopefully describe as martyrdom in order to live in the arms of a bunch of virgins.

The lunacy of religion knows no bounds.

But, as you are finding out, it makes those guys dangerous. As they try to escape the humdrum lives inflicted on them by their earthly, and largely ugly, consorts.