(May 13, 2012 at 9:49 am)Ultraviolet Cat Wrote:(May 13, 2012 at 8:58 am)StatCrux Wrote: I'm not talking about any specific country, just in principle. What if 80% of the society wanted a theocracy?
Ahhhhhh . . . the tyranny of the majority question.
You can't remove this question from a specific political structure. If you have a country in which the citizens have decided that all rights are open to a vote, then this would be acceptable. However, most modern democracies are founded on the idea that the individual has rights that cannot be taken away by a general vote. So, the idea that someone could be forced by a vote to support a particular religious view would violate the individual's right to religious freedom in some countries (such as the United States).
I do feel the need to point out an obvious issue with your original post - atheism is simply a statement about a particular knowledge claim. There is no atheist political view. I am an atheist and I believe that the secular constitutional republic the most brilliant form of government ever created, and that it has provided far more individual religious freedom than any theocracy could ever hope for. I'm sure that there are atheists who would disagree with me -- such is the nature of atheism!
Great first post!
