(March 27, 2015 at 9:16 am)QuarkDriven Wrote: I read somewhere that an open atheist cannot run for office in this country.
As far as I know, you can run for office, but you will have an overwhelmingly good chance at failure... Nobody wants to vote for the atheist, and by nobody I of course mean the religious population...
One reason why I think it's so hard is cause it's not easy for atheists to be open about it.. In a world where people view atheists on par with rapists, its difficult to be open about your beliefs, or lack there of...You're right when you say people view atheists as "sub human" or as a second class citizen, even when everyone else is an athiest to all other gods out there... I suppose belief in different god to them is better then belief in no god... There are far more atheists out here (talking about the US) then we know there are... If more of us "come out" then little by little it will be more socially accpetable.
I for one, still am afraid to say anything even in my social circle and to my family.. I just don't have the courage to do that yet and I'm aware I'm a part of the problem I just stated. I don't know how my long term girlfriend is going to react and that scares me...
You had my sympathy and respect right up to the last sentence.
(You can run for office if you are openly an atheist, but you should not expect to win that way, at least for most offices in most areas in the U.S.)
You are being unfair to your girlfriend if you are pretending with her. You need to either tell her or break up with her. And it will be better for you to be with someone who can accept you as you are with your beliefs. You can, if you wish, ease her into the idea, by asking her pointed questions about religion, and see how she reacts. But you should be doing this right away. If you really care about her, you don't want to be suckering her into false beliefs about yourself. How would you feel if she were keeping some great secret from you, that she had reason to believe would be really important to you? You want an honest relationship, don't you?
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
