Atheists Right at Home at Democrat Convention

Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx spoke yesterday at the Democratic National Convention, welcoming attendees to North Carolina’s largest city.

Two hours later, the Charlotte Atheists and Agnostics, a local affiliate of American Atheists, held a convention protest, at which they reiterated their demand for absolute “separation of religion and government.”

So what does that have to do with Foxx, Charlotte’s first Democrat mayor in 22 years?

Well, back in May, Foxx proclaimed “A Day of Reason,” in a bow to the city’s atheists and agnostics. And he “commend(ed) its observance to all citizens.”

Sounding very much like the speakers ranting against God yesterday at the Charlotte Atheists and Agnostics’ protest, Foxx’s proclamation declared that, “the application of reason, more than any other means, has proven to offer hope for human survival upon Earth, improving conditions within the universe, and cultivating intelligent, moral and ethical interactions among people and their environments.”

Why this is significant is that it provides context to what Mayor Foxx said yesterday during his remarks at the Democrat convention. “I live by the values,” he said, “this community taught me.”

And that’s not all, Foxx continued. “I have seen President Obama at work,” he said. “And these are his values too.”

That both he and President Obama believe, as do atheists and agnostics, that “reason,” more than God, offers the best hope for human survival upon Earth. And that both he and President Obama believe that the nation’s founders were as godless as they.

Indeed, I think it no oversight by the Charlotte Democrats that there is no mention of “God” whatsoever in the party’s 2012 platform (compared to 10 mentions of the Almighty in the Republican Party platform).

Just as I think it no oversight that not one Democrat leader uttered a word of disapproval when American Atheists put up a billboard, just before the Democrat Convention, which blasphemed, “CHRISTIANITY: Sadistic God; Useless Savior; 30,000+ Versions of ‘Truth;’ Promotes Hate, ‘Calls it Love.’”

No true Christ follower would be a member of a political party that refuses to acknowledge God in its platform; that embraces a hateful constituency that rants against the Lord Almighty.

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers,” the Scripture warns. “For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?”

Not surprisingly, atheists “skew mostly Democratic,”

While I certainly agree that the majority of atheists (80%?) vote Democratic, that means there's still a significant amount who vote Republican. The "non-believers" (atheists & agnostics) who are part of the Republican party should not be disparaged.

I don’t fully understand why so many take the religious beliefs of others so personally. I was an atheist for most of my life. After the death of my father, my emotional state was such that I tried to find God. I honestly did my best to be a Christian and to believe. Ultimately, I could not, no matter how hard I tried to convince myself. Now, I believe in a higher power than man, but I don’t believe in any of the earthly religions.

What I don’t get is why others take it as a personal insult. I would love nothing more than to be able to genuinely believe in the divinity of Christ, and that there is an afterlife where I would live forever washed clean by the blood of Christ. It sure beats the knowledge that approaching 50, I’m in the twilight of the human lifespan with more years behind me than in front of me. As attractive as it may sound, I can’t believe it, I’m not capable. No amount of prayer or anything else has been able to shake the powerful skepticism that it’s just primitive superstition like all the other religions, and that if there is a higher power, it’s incomprehensible to the 3 pounds of neurons and synapses that I have to work with.

Contrary to what the devout may believe, my lack of belief is not an attack on their belief. I envy them. If they’re right, I’m screwed. If they’re wrong, then at least they found comfort in the belief while they were here. That knowledge however, does not provide me with a magic switch that I can turn on to actually accept it as fact.

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