Friendly Atheist

I’m trying not to remember those right now. But since this is likely to be a fairly depressing thread, I’d like to start it off with the most positive statement for atheists I heard during the campaign season:

Romney is totally wrong [when he said, "Freedom requires religion"]. Vast numbers of Americans are atheists or agnostics. Other Americans honor essentially every faith known around the globe. I reject the demands of some Americans that our government should persecute other faiths and beliefs, for example by barring abortions or regulating which marriages are valid.

I do not believe, as some of my Republican opponents do, that a particular religious work is ‘inerrant’ and trumps the Constitution.

–George Phillies, Libertarian primary candidate, Phillies Will Swear Oath on Constitution, Not Bible

Technically not in 2008 but pertinent:
Governor Mitt Romney’s speech on Dec. 6, 2007 at the George Bush Presidential Library had several cringable passages about liberty coming from God rather than from our Constitution, but this one made me stand up and scream: (emphasis mine)

“We separate church and state affairs in this country, and for good reason. No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong.

“The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation ‘Under God’ and in God, we do indeed trust.

Whereupon Romney made a transparent attempt to create a secular scapegoat, a common enemy against which he and the Evangelical right would unite to defeat. Fortunately they didn’t buy it

Romney: “When I place my hand on the Bible and take the oath of office, that oath becomes my highest promise to God.”

When Romney said this, did he cross his fingers behind his back, and think: ‘only insofar as it is translated correctly’?

(Mormons ‘… believe the bible to be the Word of God only insofar as it is translated correctly’)

I’d say this made me cringe

Don Miller, an author and social conservative who delivered a prayer at the Democratic convention, said, “Senator Obama has a policy director and an advisor for many different faiths. He has nothing on atheists or agnostics. There’s not this grand effort for the Democrats to reach out to a group of pagans to try to get them to vote for Senator Obama.”

D. Paul Monteiro, Obama’s National Deputy Director for Religious Affairs, then said, “Senator Obama has a twenty-year history, a twenty-year testimony” and described Obama’s support for Bush’s “faith-based partnership program” and how Obama said “no” to those who distributed flyers at the Democratic National Convention urging him, on the basis of church-state separation, to oppose public funding of faith-based initiatives.

Then, referring to Sen. Obama, Monteiro proclaimed, “This is not some crazy wacko atheist trying to make sure that your children grow up to marry trees.”

http://www.atheists.org/nogodblog/index.php/2008/10/30/obama_aids_diss_atheists The very existence of Sarah Palin also made me cringe.

The passing of prop 8. As someone with no god belief, I cannot comprehend how it can cause harm if 2 people who love each other get married. This was the tipping point off the religious beliefs are ok for other people fence. Now that religion has forced its way into the government so overtly, I no longer think anyone should hold any religious beliefs without question.

You probably don’t care, but we had a federal election up here in Canada. The Christian Heritage Party ran in fewer than 1/5 of the ridings in the country, and got 0.2% of the popular vote. They elected nobody, but the fact that there’s an actual theocratic party in my country that gets over 26,000 votes makes my ass twitch.

The bill themselves as “Canada’s only pro-Life, pro-family political party”. They’re odious.