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The World's Largest Coalition of Nontheists and Nontheist Communities!
http://news.yahoo.com/report-us-protestants-lose-majority-status-04...
The trend also has political implications. American voters who describe themselves as having no religion vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Pew found Americans with no religion support abortion rights and gay marriage at a much higher-rate than the U.S. public at large. These "nones" are an increasing segment of voters who are registered as Democrats or lean toward the party, growing from 17 percent to 24 percent over the last five years. The religiously unaffiliated are becoming as important a constituency to Democrats as evangelicals are to Republicans, Pew said.
i found this passage telling. while it's nice to hear that demographically the non-religious are important, it's disappointing that we get no real political play. perhaps i'm grousing over nothing. what would i like to hear a politician say about us? for the Evangelical base, they get pandered to ad naseum, but largely ignored once they get into office. some of this has changed in recent years - Republican lawmakers have been busy passing abortion restrictions and trying to get creationism into science classrooms. otoh, not much has really changed there. just how would a political figure pander to "the nones"? we know it's political suicide to deny the Christian deity, so what else would we want from them?
Permalink Reply by The Flying Atheist on I don't necessarily want to be pandered to by anybody. To have a politician who publicly denies a christian deity would be great......awesome, in fact, but I'd be just as happy being represented by fair-minded religious politicians who respect the separation of church and state and do not have, as a prerequisite, the need to publicly acknowledge a deity while in governmental service.
We had Pete Stark, but who, really, these days has the electability and necessary larger-than-life personality to buck the system and set a new tone on the presidential level? I'm talking about eliminating "so help me god" at an inauguration or "god bless the United States of America" following speeches, etc., etc. That's going to take strong-willed but likable and respected personalities such as Teddy Roosevelt, Franklin Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson and (across the pond) Winston Churchill.
hey, it happened in Australia!
i don't care about a politician's religious beliefs UNTIL they use them to deny the age of the earth or someone's rights. i'd prefer if all politics was secular. i'd like to propose the Noah's Ark test - if a pol believes it really happened then he/she is disqualified from public office! believe in your religion and God all you want, but if you can't separate fact from fiction you're gone!
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