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Would you vote for an Atheist?

Would you vote for or consider voting for an Atheist for any public office?

  • Yes

    Votes: 62 89.9%
  • No

    Votes: 7 10.1%

  • Total voters
    69
Do you need to believe in God in order to care about other human beings, to be responsible, etc.? I'm an agnostic, as is my wife, and we have two sons who are agnostics as well (although we always told them that it was up to them to believe in God, etc.), and both have moral compasses that any parent, Christian or atheist, would be proud of. What do they base their morals on do you think?[/QUOTE]

What you have taught them I assume.
 
The psychological theory is always there but it doesn't feel that way to me.

when we have hope, we're more likely to act ... praying to a God works for you and that's cool ... but please don't tell people who don't believe in God that they don't have a moral compass ... seriously, think about it ...
 
Umm if you believe there is no god how can you be Christian?

*edit* the golden rule was not an invention of Jesus either it has been around much longer and espoused by many religions

Golden Rule - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Wiki shmiki :lol:I'm using Judeo Christian values because that is what I am most familiar with but good point that other religions profess the same values.
 
Wiki shmiki :lol:I'm using Judeo Christian values because that is what I am most familiar with but good point that other religions profess the same values.

non religious philosophies as well
 
Do you need to believe in God in order to care about other human beings, to be responsible, etc.? I'm an agnostic, as is my wife, and we have two sons who are agnostics as well (although we always told them that it was up to them to believe in God, etc.), and both have moral compasses that any parent, Christian or atheist, would be proud of. What do they base their morals on do you think?[/QUOTE]

What you have taught them I assume.

that's right, and it wasn't based on a belief in God ... tell me something ... if we had absolute proof today that there was no God, would your moral compass change?
 
non religious philosophies as well

It's because the majority of morality that evolved along side human society, in part to help that society run better, can be rather standard across board. There are regional differences and some big breaks with traditional morality in societies that had a different evolutionary path. But generally what helps society prosper and function can be quite similar across the board.
 
Christianity revolves around the acceptance of the one true god and that jesus is our savior come from heaven to forgive your sins. That's the definition. If you don't believe in Jesus and God and all that, then you cannot be Christian even if you share similar morality. Furthermore, the morality reflected in Christianity is just the morality that evolved in our Western cultures and that we wrote into our religions for societal reinforcement.

People interpret the bible in different ways, I am not a fundamentalist bible thumper, the book has been altered to much by man to take literally. You have to look for the root messages in it.
 
Christianity revolves around the acceptance of the one true god and that jesus is our savior come from heaven to forgive your sins. That's the definition. If you don't believe in Jesus and God and all that, then you cannot be Christian even if you share similar morality. Furthermore, the morality reflected in Christianity is just the morality that evolved in our Western cultures and that we wrote into our religions for societal reinforcement.

well put ...
 
People interpret the bible in different ways, I am not a fundamentalist bible thumper, the book has been altered to much by man to take literally. You have to look for the root messages in it.

I think there are quite a few very nice messages within the bible and there's quite a bit of shared morality, but to be Christian I'm pretty sure you have to believe in Christ, and not just as some dude but THE dude. Seems part and parcel to the whole thing.
 
when we have hope, we're more likely to act ... praying to a God works for you and that's cool ... but please don't tell people who don't believe in God that they don't have a moral compass ... seriously, think about it ...

I'll mull it over. I'm just going by atheist I know IRL but that of course is anecdotal evidence.
 
As long as they're not militant about it, sure.

(I wouldn't want a militant religious person, either.)
 
Would I vote for an atheist? I probably have already.


They just couldn't come right out and say so in public.
 
that's right, and it wasn't based on a belief in God ... tell me something ... if we had absolute proof today that there was no God, would your moral compass change?

That is a hypothetical that I just can't get ,my head around right now. I have enjoyed this conversation with a couple of you guys but I have to get to work. :2wave:
 
Given the fact that "Christian" leaders all around the world have taken bribes, had affairs, targeted innocents, rigged elections etc...Yeh I think i'm ok with an Atheist
 
I'll mull it over. I'm just going by atheist I know IRL but that of course is anecdotal evidence.

thank you ... let me add that although I'm an agnostic, in my life some of the most extraordinary people I've known have been deeply religious people who have dedicated their lives to helping others in the name of a deity, and they've also managed to respect and embrace those who didn't believe as they did, including atheists ... religion is a very personal thing and that's one reason I don't want it in politics ... when presidential candidates have to discuss their religious beliefs with some pastor, it turns my stomach ... I don't need to know their religious beliefs, just their positions on a wide range of issues ...

I took a trip to the Amzon once and they took us to a meeting with some missionaries who had brought some modern things, including medicine, to Indians that made their lives better ... that was good, but it came with a price tag -- the Indians had to convert to Christianity and the missionaries had them believing that there was a connection between Christianity and these "things" ... I got into a heated discussion with them ... there was one funny part ... one of our guides was a guy from Belgium and he whispered to me that I was wasting my time, but at one point, one of the missionaries said that these Indians were afraid to go out at night before they had arrived ... at this point the guide had had enough, and blurted out - "People in New York are afraid to go out at night too!"
 
I would like to ask as a DP poll though, would you vote for or consider voting for an Atheist in any public office, not just the Presidency.

As a discussion point, I believe there are six states that do not allow Atheists to hold public office, even though that is against the US constitution.

No. Atheist are not fit to hold office. Our rights are from God. And since our rights come from God man cannot take them away. But when people stop believing that our rights come from God they start believing that our rights are "granted" by the state. And if the state can "grant" rights it can take those rights away. Atheist will have no philosophical aversion to stripping us our our individual, God-given rights.
 
Given the fact that "Christian" leaders all around the world have taken bribes, had affairs, targeted innocents, rigged elections etc...Yeh I think i'm ok with an Atheist
Change that to "religious" and I'm with you. There's nothing distinctly Christian about being corrupt.
 
No. Atheist are not fit to hold office. Our rights are from God. And since our rights come from God man cannot take them away. But when people stop believing that our rights come from God they start believing that our rights are "granted" by the state. And if the state can "grant" rights it can take those rights away. Atheist will have no philosophical aversion to stripping us our our individual, God-given rights.

Well what if an atheist believes in natural rights then, is it OK to vote for them?
 
Well what if an atheist believes in natural rights then, is it OK to vote for them?

The Declaration of Independence
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impelthem to the separation.”

The term “the law of nature” was a very specific term coined by Sir EdwardCoke…

Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
“The law of nature is that which God at the time of creation of the nature ofman infused into his heart, for his preservation and direction…the moral law,called the law of nature.”

This same term was later used by William Blackstone who wrote a law textbook. If you were a lawyer, as was Thomas Jefferson, you studied Blackstone.

William Blackstone
“…as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should, in all points, conform to his Maker’s will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature…This law of nature…dictated by God Himself is, ofcourse, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe,in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity incontrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority…from this original.”

“Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation,depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.”
- Commentaries on the Law (A lawtextbook / 2,500 copies sold in America prior to the Revolutionary War)

"Natural law" is God's law.
 
The Declaration of Independence
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impelthem to the separation.”

The term “the law of nature” was a very specific term coined by Sir EdwardCoke…

Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634)
“The law of nature is that which God at the time of creation of the nature ofman infused into his heart, for his preservation and direction…the moral law,called the law of nature.”

This same term was later used by William Blackstone who wrote a law textbook. If you were a lawyer, as was Thomas Jefferson, you studied Blackstone.

William Blackstone
“…as man depends absolutely upon his Maker for everything, it is necessary that he should, in all points, conform to his Maker’s will. This will of his Maker is called the law of nature…This law of nature…dictated by God Himself is, ofcourse, superior in obligation to any other. It is binding over all the globe,in all countries, and at all times: no human laws are of any validity incontrary to this; and such of them as are valid derive all their force, and all their authority…from this original.”

“Upon these two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation,depend all human laws; that is to say, no human laws should be suffered to contradict these.”
- Commentaries on the Law (A lawtextbook / 2,500 copies sold in America prior to the Revolutionary War)

"Natural law" is God's law.

Yes, so you would have no problem voting for an atheist who accepted natural rights. Yes?
 
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