A recent Pew Research Center poll claims that half of American voters are hesitant to support Atheists. Why on flat earth is that so?
Despite our secular Constitution, and Article VI’s wording against religious tests for public office, our country remains stuck on old religious hang-ups, the only western nation lagging behind in that respect. The Western countries in Europe are pretty much post religion, having evolved beyond superstition and false ideals. While religiosity declines with higher and better education, atheism is on the rise, especially among the young and better educated.
Why this irrational fear of atheism in the US and distrust of Atheists, who statistically are better educated than believers, and under-represented in crime statistics and among prison population?
Atheists are honest about their position on religion! No believer would claim lack of faith and try to pass off as Atheist! But what about the other way around? With American voters so obsessed with religion, especially in the South and among Republicans, it is dangerous to go public as a non-believer, but very advantageous to claim religious affiliation, real or not. Has religion become a cover-up for incompetence? Because of religion, people are elected to public office for the wrong reasons, and often despite lack of competence and understanding government’s role. Why extra points for claiming religiosity? Shouldn’t candidates be judged by capabilities, character, honesty and trustworthiness, not what they claim to believe?
Religion has a very disturbing history and nothing to be proud of. Even in our modern, more enlightened world, faith continues to cause problems, contaminate politics, retard science, and cheapen education. Without religion infested politics, someone like George W. Bush would not have made it to the White House, and the Supreme Court wouldn’t have been so dominated by Catholics, with their own personal agenda. Congressional science committees would be staffed with people understanding science, instead of revering religion. What purpose does religion have in politics, and what good does it do? If anything, it keeps the most qualified out, and others dishonest, while appealing to gullible voters. Does it do more damage than good, and at what cost?
If religion has such positive impact on morality, as claimed, why then the wide spread pedophilia among Catholic priests? Why the notorious sexual abuse within the various religious fundamental sects? Why the endless atrocities committed in the name of religion?
Just think about all the wars throughout history, and still today, being fought on religious belief. But, please, don’t counter with non-believing communist and other dictators who also start wars and all kinds of conflicts. Those are not fought in the name of atheism! Stalin was religiously trained and positioned himself for all practical purposes as a monopolistic god, – in line with the First Commandment, where the Christian god demands monopoly for himself. Hitler was a devoted Catholic who persecuted Atheists and, according to his own “Mein Kampf”, did God’s work by exterminating Jews. Then we have Islam and that religion’s destructive message. While Christians by and large are somewhat embarrassed by their religion’s bloody history, hard-core Muslims advocate an even bloodier future.
Why do they call Obama a “Muslim” and accuse him of not being “Christian” enough? What if he is an Atheist, but has to cover up because Americans aren’t yet ready for secular leaders? What difference does it make?
We should get religion completely out of politics, out with prayers in Congress, out with swearing in on the Bible. If the Founding Fathers had wanted ours to be a Christian nation, and not a secular one, they would certainly have written that into the Constitution, – instead of the preamble “We the People …”. Even if they had based the nation on Christian or any other religious grounds, we could evolve beyond that on a background of more enlightened understanding.
Don’t forget, that even the most faithful among us have rejected all the other gods as non-existent, hanging on to their very own, preferred deity. By rejecting all gods, Atheists are just a single god ahead of the believers! In reality, the difference is imaginary!
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It would appear that American’s are not ready to put their trust in a person without religiously inspired morals. That humans fail to keep to those morals is the nature of the game. But why expect anything else but failure from one who has no inspired morals?
It is a statistical fact that Atheists by and large have higher morals than religious people, or those who claim to be religious. It is also a fact that the more secular countries, for example the Scandinavian nations, have less crime, better behaved population, and greater equality than the more religiously oriented countries, like for example the US. Respect for nature is also more prominent among secular societies. With or without religion, bad people will do bad things, while good people will do good things. But for good people to do bad things, requires religion.