JCC JCC Atheism Thread

Current discussion topic:



will we ever see an atheist president?

 

Hopefully. Religious beliefs shouldn't be an issue.

 

Well, that's encouraging. Ever? Of course. Soon? At least past 2024. But that's mostly because it's probably all about Hillary in 2016 and possibly two terms. We need another generation at least.

 

We've probably already had an atheist president. Probably several.

 

I'd argue a closeted-atheist president doesn't count since the spirit of the question the OP was asking is if people will vote for someone they know doesn't believe in god.

 

Yeah, our current president didn't really go to church until he started his political career. For all the bigots who speculate he's a secret Muslim, I think it's reasonable to speculate he's actually a "secret" atheist.

 

plus he's smart

 

Exactly. Jefferson wrote a version of the gospels in which he removed all references to the supernatural.

 

Frankly, it's hard to imagine a religious president.

Do those malignant narcissists really believe in a power greater than themselves?

 

This is radically incorrect. Obama was a member of Trinity United for over two decades, which dates him back to the late 80s. Obama's political involvement dates, at very earliest, back to Alice Palmer's retirement from the Illinois State Senate in 1994, over half a decade later.

 

I don't doubt Obama is a religious person. The previous admin is another matter.

 

I thought he didn't become a member of Trinity until 1992. Either way, the fact is that he started going to church because he realized it was a tool he could use to reach the black community, whether to affect positive change as a community organizer or further his political ambitions. As an outsider-- a non-Chicagoan and someone with an African name and without slave ancestors-- involvement in the church helped him immensely. Many politicians use religion as a tool, but most of them didn't start practicing well into adulthood.

 

Jefferson and Lincoln were two atheists that I know of. There may have been others, but for various reasons chose to hide their atheism.

 

Jefferson was a deist, a kooky Enlightenment-era movement that sought to make Christianity more "rational." I don't think he was an atheist, and the modern concept of atheism was really in its relative infancy at the time.

 

I'm actually a nontheistic pagan. Servitude is bull$*#*t.

 

Jefferson likely would have been an atheist today. Deists believe the only thing God ever did was create the universe, then go back to sleep, basically.

 

What about a president who believes in The Force?

 

I'd argue one shouldn't, as I tend to take people at their word on their religion. Besides, there is no real reason to suggest he doesn't actually believe in a deity.

 

im a gaytheist. i believe a male god exists and prefers the masculine form to all others. which is another way of saying im mormon

 

Depends if they are a man or women, black or OTHER, Jewish or not Jewish, and/or Gay/Lesbian or straight.

 

While you're correct that his first serious introduction to religion was during his time as a community organizer, Trinity United was outside the sphere of influence he was trying to reach with the Developing Communities Project. If he was simply trying to make himself more palatable, one imagines he would've joined one of his partnering churches.

That besides, as Vivec notes, he's written and spoken pretty extensively about his faith. I see little reason to construct some grand conspiracy, outside of wishful thinking. Finally, I must ask if my reputation has really fallen so far that people think I'm not going to know facts about Barack Hussein Obama. Guys, really?

 

It's not a conspiracy if it's only one guy. And it's not "wishful thinking." You know I have less-than-charitable opinions of the man and his presidency.

 

Actually, I would concur with the late Gore Vidal, who averred that it's very important to know whether the man/woman who presides over a nuclear arsenal believes in (or worse, anticipates) the End Times.

On edit: It's also my business to know whether a nominee's apathy towards climate change is predicated on some wish fulfillment fantasy involving their Sky God coming to our rescue.

 

I hope to see an atheist president within the next 50 years.

 

I personally don't hope that an atheist becomes president just because he or she is an atheist (there are plenty of atheists who have beyond repulsive views and are all around repulsive people). Instead, my hopes are that if an atheist runs against a Christian (or any other religious person), he or she isn't losing or gaining votes just based on his lack of religion.