Comments on: You’ll Never Guess How Many Members of Congress Do Not Believe in God

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:04:06 +0000

"...lobby group like the SCA..."

The Society for Creative Anachronisms has a lobby?

By: martymankins

martymankins — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:46:01 +0000

We need more elected officials like this. Not so much devout atheists, but ones that are willing to stand up for keeping church and state separate.

By: Catie

Catie — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:28:29 +0000

I saw Religulous yesterday and was rather impressed by the statistics Bill Maher provided. This is a nice addition to that, and it gives me a bit of hope for this country, in the face of the frightening religious right.

By: Morgan-LynnGriggs Lamberth

Morgan-LynnGriggs Lamberth — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:26:27 +0000

Liberals? May they come forth soon! What about the Unitarians?

By: Milena

Milena — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 20:47:21 +0000

I don’t think it’s so impossible/improbable for politicians to reveal their religious beliefs “off the record”. For reporters, it’s a matter of reliability and reputation, meaning that if you get potentially damaging information from a source that wants to stay off the record, you keep the source anonymous or you risk having more difficulty coming up with interviewees next time around, because you have this reputation of embarassing your sources. The same principle can be applied to a lobby group like the SCA — if you want the support of Congresspeople, which is what lobby groups want after all, you don’t go around spreading damaging info about them when they explicitly asked you not to.

By: The Science Pundit

The Science Pundit — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:38:21 +0000

Haha, I also missed one math question.

By: QrazyQat

QrazyQat — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 17:31:08 +0000

Look, we have a counbtry where the Democratic VP candidate recently did a pushback speech against the GOP VP candidate’s suggestion that there are states which are “unAmerican”. In it he pointed out that all the states are patriotic, which is apropos. But he also felt the need to add “under God” in that speech.

It’s that bad, that if you’re running for high office you feel you have to add “god” to comments that have no religious connection whatever. Where even meeting with an atheist group is ground for attack. You don’t think people would stay in the closet with that kind of attack waiting for them if they come out?

By: Autumnal Harvest

Autumnal Harvest — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 16:03:40 +0000

Epitaxsis, I’m not implying that all those things are equally bad. (I’m an atheist.) Just that they’re all things that Congresspeople would like to keep secret, and are unlikely to just announce to an interviewer who asks them, even in confidence.

llewelly, Justin, like I said, I can believe that there are lots of secretly atheist Congresspeople. But I think they would want to keep this potentially devastating political secret under tight wraps. They’re not going to tell this to an interviewer, even one who seems trustworthy, just so that he can get an accurate head count.

By: Justin

Justin — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 14:31:17 +0000

The ratio seems low to me: 22 out of 60. I’d not be surprised if the actual split was more like 50/50 or better in favor of not believing.

Sure, some of those people are like the Senator from Arkansas that Maher interviewed for Religulous, but I would think that more of them are educated enough and honest enough to know better. (Maybe not honest with us, but honest with themselves, you know?)

I mean, these are the rulers. When have the rulers been so clueless about religion’s role as a political lubricant?

Atheism only matters when deliberately contrasted with theism. So there’s not a god: so what? They have a political agenda to carry out. Talking about there not being a god all the time makes about as much sense as talking about how there aren’t mermaids all the time. That is, if you are living in a deity-free world, which I am of the opinion is the world the politicians and the wealthy mostly live in.

Unless they’re Marky Mark.

By: Frodo Saves

Frodo Saves — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 11:08:52 +0000

It makes me sad that overt non-believers don’t generally stand a prayer of getting elected, if you’ll excuse the pun. Heh.

It might not be as bad as the US, but the UK is pretty bad too.