Quote of the day
Commenter rb responding to my question about why atheists try to convert:
I stopped associating with atheist groups years ago because the vast majority were liberal. I also stopped trying to convert people years ago because:
1) It’s a waste of time, and
2) There’s a danger that a newly converted atheist will become a liberal.
heh.
February 16th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Nice!
Maybe that’s why so many of us libs are turned off by religiousity–religious types all too often sound like this rb fellow. As though there should necessarily be some sort of connection between your politics and your faith (or lack thereof).
I can see it now…”I like you athiest types, but I can’t hang around you because you don’t abhor the New Deal and worship Ronnie Raygun. Oh, and while I’m at it, I love Jesus because I’m a Republican.” 🙂
February 16th, 2007 at 12:57 pm
“As though there should necessarily be some sort of connection between your politics and your faith (or lack thereof).”
I may not have been clear. I am an atheist, and I reject the idea that atheism necessitates adoption of liberal politics. (I lean strongly toward Objectivism, in the ‘interest of full disclosure’.)
Most atheists I’ve known were liberals, not libertarians. The slants of most atheist websites and publications were also slanted left. Except for a brief period around the 2004 elections, I haven’t kept up with them since the mid 90’s, but I doubt this has changed.
(Interestingly, I did stumble upon a couple of right wing atheists in the last couple of years: The Other Side of Kim and the Smallest Minority.)
Anyway, politics always came up, and I often disagreed with my fellow-atheists. If they had kept liberal politics out of it, then I would not have been turned off. In other words, political philosophy was more important to me than religious philosophy.
February 16th, 2007 at 3:22 pm
rb:
Don’t forget Hitchens.
February 16th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
[Mike waves his hand.] I’m a conservative atheist!
It’s just my experience, but a lot of religious folks (NOT ALL!) are simply looking for a substitute for the childhood image of a parent; someone who can make everything right, can explain it all, can take care of you, can make problems go away. It seems most liberals who are atheists just substitute government for god as a magical parent-figure. It would explain why so many liberal causes take on the aura of religious crusades.
February 18th, 2007 at 12:56 pm
I’m a conservative atheist!
That’s got to be a tough road, considering the extent to which the modern conservative movement and the modern fundamentalist Christian movement are joined at the hip. Which always seemed like an odd marriage to me, given that the things conservatives seem to love — pursuit of earthly wealth above all else, unnecessary wars, executing the retarded, taking a giant crap all over the poor at every opportunity, etc. — seem to be at direct odds with the things Christians are supposed to love, but whatever….
February 19th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
Jeez, Tom, talk about replacing actual thought with slogans.
February 19th, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Oh, I’m not saying that’s all that traditional conservatives endorse, but they do tend to endorse most of those things. OK, I admit that the “giant crap all over the poor” bit was a weee bit out of line. 🙂