> I can't speak for William, but as a non-believer
> myself, I find a lot to be angry about in the relationship
> between society and religion. Personally, I am sick and
> tried of hearing "atheistic" used as a synonym for
> evil, I'm sick of hearing political candidates of both
> sides pander to a small minority of fundamentalist believers
> when surveys consistently show that the second largest
> "religious affiliation" in the United States
> (after the combined Christian denominations) are those who
> consider themselves non-religious or secular. Where are our
> candidates? Where are the politicians that speak for us?
> Secular voters, if organized, would be larger block than
> Jewish voters, or any of the other non-Christian religions
> combined -- but when was the last time you saw a
> representative of atheists or agnostics included in some
> politicians ecumenical service? And can you imagine any
> candidate for national office in the US saying openly that
> they don't believe in god? And yet, Christian groups
> constantly present themselves as an oppressed
> minority battling against the evils of secularism. I'm
> very very tired of hearing politicians talk about their
> faith -- as if unquestioning, unsupported belief in anything
> was something to be proud of. The greatest sins in history
> -- and certainly almost all the crimes of the Bush
> administration, from Guantanamo to the war on science and
> the deliberate suppression of global warming information --
> are the crimes of men who believe so totally in a certain
> point of view that facts are not only unnecessary, not only
> irrelevant, but an evil that must be suppressed. Anything
> that we believe in unquestioningly -- and we all have some
> of these -- is a liability, not a virtue. I'm tired of
> people telling me that evolution is an "open
> question" or that there is no real evidence to support
> it. I'm tired of living in a country where, in the
> first decade of the 21st century we have a major party (at
> least one -- Democrats don't have much
> more courage here) where every single
> candidate will openly avow that he doesn't believe in
> evolution. Who cares? You might not believe in gravity
> either, but step off a ten story building and see how much
> good your belief does you. I'm tired of being told that
> I have to be tolerant of beliefs that, in any other context,
> we would label delusional and maybe outright insane. (Last
> year an Orca whale trapped in Puget Sound here in Seattle
> died because scientists couldn't get close enough to it
> to rescue it, because local Indians were convinced it was
> the re-incarnation of their ancient Chief and blocked all
> the scientists attempts. We have to respect that because it
> is their culture and their religion? It could just as
> easily have been fundamentalist Christians convinced that
> the whale was an instrument of Satan, or that it once housed
> Jonah, or whatever. Its still insane thinking.) Finally,
> I'm tired of being told that America is a Christian
> country and that the Founding Fathers
> were Christian heroes when I know
> that most of them couldn't get elected today to save
> their lives. They'd be further out on the fringe than
> Dennis Kucinich. Thomas Jefferson was working on a version
> of the Bible that eliminated all references to miracles or
> the supernatural while living in the White House. The
> founding fathers deliberately left all mention of god out of
> the constitution because they intended to set up a secular
> government, founded on the idea of reason and rationality.
> Like I said, I can't speak for William, but I can
> understand how a non-believer can be very angry about a lot
> of things going on in the world, and though I hope we all
> try not to, I can understand how someone can become so
> disillusioned that they start to tar all believers with the
> same brush.
brilliant olin. i guess what taught me tolerance was when i fell in love with
a christian girl who exemplified the better side of her faith. i still harbor
a lot of hatred toward the "moral majority", but i don't let them affect how i
run for office. i have lost eight elections, but i will NEVER pander to
religion. i have even made speeches denouncing corruption in church and state,
and identified myself as a neo-marxist revisionist.
i am in seattle right now visiting a friend who is waiting for a liver
transplant. on wednesday, august 6th, i leave for world con. i would love to
continue this discussion at denvention!
jon
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