Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker began a recent column with the following:<\/p>\n
“In a nation where 91 percent of citizens profess to believe in God, it’s a safe bet we won’t see an atheist in the White House any time soon.”<\/p>\n
I don’t doubt her assertion, but it did raise a few questions in my mind. I’m an atheist, but I’ve voted for Christians , Jews, god-believers of all sorts, without hesitation. I’ve counted among my friends ministers, priests, rabbis, and wiccan priestesses. Is there something about the belief in God that prompts religious intolerance? Clearly, if her numbers are right, there must<\/em> be people in that 91 percent who murder, commit treason, steal, lie to the American public. Clearly belief in God is no guarantee of anything. Kropotkin in his Ethics<\/em> and in Mutual Aid<\/em> lays out but one moral system that doesn’t depend upon God, and Taoism is a moral, but godless religion. So what’s your problem, God-believers? Don’t you believe in religious tolerance? Should the pledge read “One nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all\u00e2\u20ac\u201dexcept atheists”? Or maybe Kathleen is wrong and belief in God doesn’t close people’s minds. Maybe someday there will be an atheist president. What do you think?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker began a recent column with the following: “In a nation where 91 percent of citizens profess to believe in God, it’s a safe bet we won’t see an atheist in the White House any time soon.” … Continue reading