Monday, August 27, 2007

The Ordeal of Voting as an Atheist



Welcome to the world of voting as an atheist. I was listening to a podcast this afternoon about the religious stances of the presidential candidates. The page is exactly how I felt while I was listening to it.

I'm not against someone who is religious and wants to run for President. Really, I'm not. It just saddens me when these folks feel the need to sully their integrity by pandering to the worst instincts of people.

I don't believe for a second that Hillary Clinton is that interested in the Bible. Yet, she has claimed that she reads it and prays every day. She doesn't just read it, she studies it and studies various commentaries by other people on it. I call bullshit.

Edwards and Obama have both made an effort to wear their religion on their sleeve. John Edwards has also stated that the theists have a right to force their nonsense on me. (Sorry, Mr. Edwards, but you can't have freedom of religion without freedom from religion.) Obama is sort of on the right track but he doesn't dare state the truth that America is NOT a christian nation. He'd rather mollify the sensibilities of a rabid electorate than teach Americans the truth. None of them want to give the impression that they won't be guided by the superstitious nonsense of ignorant sheepherders who have been dead for thousands of years.

The rest of the Democrats don't matter. They're vanity candidates.

The Republicans, of course, surprise no one with their stance. And frankly, I wouldn't trust any of them to safeguard my rights.

Just once, when asked a question about their religion, I'd like to hear a candidate say, "I'm running for President, not Pope."

2 comments:

NomDebPlume said...

I think it's one of those annoying realities an atheist must endure as part of their minority status; since 63% of voters would not support a candidate who does not believe in God (http://thenewsroom.com/details/639364?c_id=wom-bc-dv) and the public show interest in the subject, the questions must be asked.

Me? I'd rather see these people walking the walk, instead of needing to talk the talk - "reads, prays and studies daily"? How does she find the time? :-/

- Debi from The Political Desk at TheNewsRoom.com

Master Plan said...

I think it's one of those annoying realities atheist snobs have to deal with that:

In order to get elected you MUST get elected.

Yes, pandering. Yes, "special interests" (like, oh, atheists?). Yes, compromise and promises and deals and "sullying" your ethics.

Welcome to politics. This is how the game is played.

You MUST get elected to get power to do anything. Getting elected is the first step and always will be.

Most people don't seem to have thought about this much, which seems funny to me given the amount of time "most people" spend complaining about politics. You'd think, like people that complain about cars, and computers, and such, that eventually people would actually want to learn and understand more about the actual process involved. Right?

oh, and the strange irony of being bigoted and hateful toward people atheists feel are bigoted and hateful...hilarious.