RE: Why Does Atheism and Left-Wing Politics Usually Go Together?
September 30, 2012 at 9:29 am
(This post was last modified: September 30, 2012 at 10:14 am by DeistPaladin.)
Regarding the OP and trying to re-frame its raving and hyperbolically-worded questions in a coherent and rational manner:
You won't find many social conservatives in the ranks of free thinkers because one of the principle motives for social conservatives has been taken away. While there are some anti-abortion or homophobic atheists, these positions are harder to justify when there isn't a personal god to appease.
That said, atheists can be expected to run the gambit on economic or foreign policy issues. I've found in the polling I've seen that freethinkers are more likely to identify as libertarian than as conservative.
From my own experience, the social conservative stances I once held were the first to go. Once the facts turned against them, I had no religious reasons to continue holding on to them. However, I remained a libertarian for a long time and even today I'm somewhere between liberal and libertarian.
Back to the way the OP was worded...
Why has the Republican party gone completely insane?
You see, this is the problem with our political discourse in America. I'd like to have a rational conversation about politics with the other side but what can you do when the other side lives in an alternate reality?
I mean, just look at Blackrock's posts in this entire thread. And this is typical for what I find from those on the other side of the table these days.
Obama passes a watered-down, pitiful excuse for health care reform of our monstrously inefficient and inhumane health care system, leaving the for-profit health insurance companies in charge but placing a few new regulations on them and the other side screams non-stop about "this is socialism!" and "freedom is being taken away by the nanny-state!" And then there's all the shrieks about "death panels" that don't actually exist in reality.
How can I have a rational conversation with these people?
Gotta run but I'll post more on this later...
@ 'The_Germans_are_coming'
Remember what I said about the Catholics being the liberal ones?
Maybe it's just the ones I know.
You won't find many social conservatives in the ranks of free thinkers because one of the principle motives for social conservatives has been taken away. While there are some anti-abortion or homophobic atheists, these positions are harder to justify when there isn't a personal god to appease.
That said, atheists can be expected to run the gambit on economic or foreign policy issues. I've found in the polling I've seen that freethinkers are more likely to identify as libertarian than as conservative.
From my own experience, the social conservative stances I once held were the first to go. Once the facts turned against them, I had no religious reasons to continue holding on to them. However, I remained a libertarian for a long time and even today I'm somewhere between liberal and libertarian.
Back to the way the OP was worded...
(September 25, 2012 at 11:57 pm)Blackrook Wrote: Why are most atheists hard-core leftists who want to turn our nation into a European nanny state?
Atheists claim to be "free thinkers" and yet they fight for more and more control of every aspect of our lives until there is no freedom left for any of us.
Kind of a contradiction if you ask me.
Why has the Republican party gone completely insane?
You see, this is the problem with our political discourse in America. I'd like to have a rational conversation about politics with the other side but what can you do when the other side lives in an alternate reality?
I mean, just look at Blackrock's posts in this entire thread. And this is typical for what I find from those on the other side of the table these days.
Obama passes a watered-down, pitiful excuse for health care reform of our monstrously inefficient and inhumane health care system, leaving the for-profit health insurance companies in charge but placing a few new regulations on them and the other side screams non-stop about "this is socialism!" and "freedom is being taken away by the nanny-state!" And then there's all the shrieks about "death panels" that don't actually exist in reality.
How can I have a rational conversation with these people?
Gotta run but I'll post more on this later...
@ 'The_Germans_are_coming'
Remember what I said about the Catholics being the liberal ones?
Maybe it's just the ones I know.
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
