There’s an interesting article in the Houston Chronicle, written by Beverly McPhail. I’m sure that the author will find their inbox filled with emails written all in CAPS, quoting their church’s “Yelling at Atheists Until They Run Away” document in whole or in part.
Beverly asks the question of her Texan readers “Suppose we elected an atheist president?”
The presidential campaign is increasing the visibility of religion in public and political spaces. Candidates are scrambling to prove their religious bonafides, on the left as well as the right. Mitt Romney is trying to overcome the perception that Mormonism is a cult while Mike Huckabee, a Baptist minister, flashes the words “Christian leader” on his television advertisements and John McCain refers to America as a “Christian nation.”
Hillary Clinton talks about her long-standing Christian faith, and Barack Obama speaks of reconnecting to Christian principles as an adult after being raised by a spiritual, but religiously skeptical mother, despite rumors that he is a closeted Muslim.
Some days it seems as if candidates are running for the nation’s office of first cleric rather than commander in chief. It is ironic that believing in invisible beings and hearing their voices is viewed as a qualification for an office in the West Wing when traditionally it qualified one for a room in a psychiatric ward. However, the majority of Americans seem to want a candidate who believes in God as well as America.
I tried not to respond, when I followed the link from the Friendly Atheist. I just couldn’t resist when I saw the argument had already devolved to the “Atheists have killed everyone in the world!” argument and its standard counter of “Hitler was a Christian”. Both statements miss the point entirely. Christians aren’t to blame for the Holocaust in Europe any more than Atheists are responsible for Pol Pot. I had to register and comment…
Being an atheist is not simply a matter of ‘faith’ in the non-existence of god nor about being anti-god any more than Christianity is merely the worship of a man who was was executed by crucifixion. There’s more to it than that.
I see no one asserting that left handed people would make bad presidents based on the well known fact that Mao was left handed. Nor accusations that people born in December are evil and bad leaders because Stalin was a Sagittarius. Who killed the most people through history; people with mustaches, or people with high foreheads? It’s a strawman.
It doesn’t matter if Hitler was a Christian or a follower of Krishna.
Hitler did claim to be a Christian, Stalin was leader of a cult of personality with a religion in his brand of communism. There were those Crusades and the sins of the Jesuits, the missionaries in Africa and the New World, and the Pope supporting Hitler and Mussolini, and many more examples that could be dredged up out of the past. These historical items do not make all Christians hypocrites or murderers.
Atheists and theists have killed. Left and right handed people have killed. White and black people have killed. Any one attribute does not a murderer make.
Why is it that when an atheist writes about atheism, people come out to accuse them of ‘religious fervor?’ There’s no fervor in this article, and there’s nothing religious in it either; it sounds reasoned and well thought out. Simply stating one’s position is not fervor or advocacy any more than you speaking of your religion makes you an advocate at all times.
I don’t believe in Thor.
I don’t believe in Mithra.
I don’t believe in Xenu.
I don’t believe in Allah.
I don’t believe in Vishnu.
I don’t believe in Andvari.
I don’t believe in Baal.
I don’t believe in Amon Ra.
I don’t believe in Yahweh.I only believe in one less god than you do; you’re atheistic about all the others already. Try just not believing in one more. That doesn’t mean I eat babies. Additionally, I don’t believe in Satan or his minions or any source of good or evil outside of man’s heart. 12/16/2007 2:35 PM CST
I think that both atheists and theists need to think before they trot out the old standards in online discussions.
BUT but but…
How will you ever tell right from wrong without a big skygod to tell you so? I mean…they don’t hand out those morals and ethics willynilly! …oh wait…they do. Wait. Hey, a minute…nothing makes sense….the cats are dancing with the dogs and the sea is made of jello! madness!
The basis of our Bill of Rights comes from the teachings we get from Exodus and St. Matthew, from Isaiah and St. Paul. I don’t think we emphasize that enough these days. If we don’t have a proper fundamental moral background, we will finally end up with a government which does not believe in the rights for anybody except the State! – Harry S Truman
Statesmen…may plan and speculate for liberty, but it is Christianity and morality alone, which can establish the principles upon which freedom can securely stand. The only foundation of a free constitution is pure virtue. – John Adams
The spirit of man is more important than mere physical strength, and the spiritual fiber of a nation than its wealth. – Dwight D. Eisenhower
And can liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? – Thomas Jefferson
The highest glory of the American Revolution was this: It connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity. – John Quincy Adams
Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, Christianity and morality are indispensable supports…. And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without Christianity. Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds…reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail, in exclusion of Christian principles. – George Washington, Farewell Address, September 1796
[...] wants you to be rich, you know.“ “Really? I’m not a Christian,” (he moved away from me on the group W bench), “but I thought Jesus preached that poverty had an inherent dignity and that wealth could be [...]
[...] wants you to be rich, you know.” “Really? I’m not a Christian,” (he moved away a bit on the group W bench), “but I thought Jesus preached that poverty had an inherent dignity and that wealth could be [...]
Yes, but you do believe in the tooth fairy don’t you?