I think we need another atheist in more offices. It's been a while since atheists have held a majority of posts in Washington.
I think it would be great if politicians wouldn't feel compelled to adopt a religion as a way to bolster their ratings. I get that atheists aren't exactly popular right now, but by the same token I think it would be a refreshing change of pace to see a politician state his real religion rather than one he decided on in order to make his potential constituents happy. Although the person may lose some potential votes from outing himself this way, I think that he would actually gain a few votes; more Americans are accepting of atheism as a legitimate philosophical leaning every election year (this is not to say an atheist should feel he needs public legitimitization, I just thought it was nice to see that it was more accepted).
I just think that we need more diversity of beliefs in Washington, and that it would send a strong message to the rest of the world that we really are accepting of different faiths. I also think it would be an interesting counterpoint to religious right in the halls of power already. It would also be interesting to see what those same religious right would do, especially as they are busy trying to tear the president down. With atheists in both houses it could get interesting as they would have to necessarily split their efforts; they would need to go into attack mode in order to prove that the atheists are invading Capitol Hill. It would make for some interesting battles...especially when they claimed that the Founding Fathers would not have approved of atheists as political leaders.
And that would make things interesting. You see, a good percentage of the Founding Fathers were Deists. This means that although they followed the Christian belief system, they treated it as a philosophy rather than a religion; for the God was either dead or had left the universe to its own means. This means that, by extension, a number of the original senators and representatives were also Deists, and therefore atheists.
Like I said: It would be interesting to see more atheists elected. It's been a while since there any real numbers of atheists on The Hill.
I think it would be great if politicians wouldn't feel compelled to adopt a religion as a way to bolster their ratings. I get that atheists aren't exactly popular right now, but by the same token I think it would be a refreshing change of pace to see a politician state his real religion rather than one he decided on in order to make his potential constituents happy. Although the person may lose some potential votes from outing himself this way, I think that he would actually gain a few votes; more Americans are accepting of atheism as a legitimate philosophical leaning every election year (this is not to say an atheist should feel he needs public legitimitization, I just thought it was nice to see that it was more accepted).
I just think that we need more diversity of beliefs in Washington, and that it would send a strong message to the rest of the world that we really are accepting of different faiths. I also think it would be an interesting counterpoint to religious right in the halls of power already. It would also be interesting to see what those same religious right would do, especially as they are busy trying to tear the president down. With atheists in both houses it could get interesting as they would have to necessarily split their efforts; they would need to go into attack mode in order to prove that the atheists are invading Capitol Hill. It would make for some interesting battles...especially when they claimed that the Founding Fathers would not have approved of atheists as political leaders.
And that would make things interesting. You see, a good percentage of the Founding Fathers were Deists. This means that although they followed the Christian belief system, they treated it as a philosophy rather than a religion; for the God was either dead or had left the universe to its own means. This means that, by extension, a number of the original senators and representatives were also Deists, and therefore atheists.
Like I said: It would be interesting to see more atheists elected. It's been a while since there any real numbers of atheists on The Hill.
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