Could Barack Obama be an Atheist?

[thesummerqueen]

Maybe there's just something about Obama that makes everyone want to think he's not a Christian.

I'm not here to argue Obama's policies. I am going to point out the above statement and also this:

atheism has always been about "us" rather that than " we and them"

Obama is, whether you agree with how it's being done or not (or whether it's being done perceptibly), dragging the presidency and congress into the 21st century. Hell, in some ways, it's only being dragged out of the 19th and into the 20th. To be "traditional" in this country is to put on a white Christian front, or to be white and Christian. For everyone who holds these values dear, it's better to paint Obama up as NOT a Christian so as to show how he's attacking everything good and traditional and American. For everyone who doesn't care if those traditions continue, it's cool to think of Obama as not a Christian (and hopefully an atheist) because then he's on their side, and sticking it to The Man, as it were. We all want someone hip and famous on our side, making us seem more legit, no matter what it is we're doing. Obama doesn't need to be an atheist in order for secularists and atheists to be recognized and given full rights. He only has to be a decent human being. As the god he professes to believe in preached peace and mercy and kindness, I'd say he's at least paying better lip service to his god than the fundies who are screeching against him. He doesn't seem to want to fuck over our school system with his god either, and so I don't give a fuck what he believes.

Now please, Meylis, I don't know where on the internet you have been hanging, but this thread alone - never mind the rest of the forum or the rest of the internet - displays "us vs them" tendencies from atheists. I wish it were so, but being an atheists is no guarantee of: accepting tolerant behavior, compassion towards fellow humans, inclusive feelings or behavior, or even intelligence. Obama appears not to be a cock on a national or personal level (argue all you want about international level). Religion or lack thereof has nothing to do with that. It just means he's not a cock, and that he wants to see this nation move forward in a way that it hasn't for at least the 8 years prior to his presidency, and has only inched forward in the first four years.

You do realize that we are behind in a LOT of stuff, right? There's a great speech at the beginning of the first episode of the Newsroom which exemplifies exactly what's wrong with America right now. We have always had our problems but this country deserves to have a feeling of hope back about it. We deserve to have pride in what we do and what our country can accomplish. I'd love to see this change into a more global feeling, but that's generations away, considering what the rest of the world is still like. At least in my lifetime, I'd like to see presidents bring back a national pride in education and industry and exploration and frontierism. We fucking lost that along the way thanks to "real" Christians like fucking Bush. You don't have to be atheist to be dismayed by all this - you just have to be humanist, and you can still be that AND Christian. The reason I voted for him and a bunch of other people I know voted for Obama is because we thought he was our best shot at getting a foot in the door for the future, regardless of his religion.