Posted on 07/12/2010 10:20:55 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
1. Discuss the Fermi Paradox. Atheists love aliens because they always assume that, a) brainy creatures gushing out of every galactic cranny shows that Earth is low-rent cosmic real estate, and b) the smartest aliens will be atheists. Against this giddy optimism, the famous physicist Enrico Fermi asked a quite innocent question: If Earth is a typical planet, and there are lots of planets in the universe, then why haven’t any extraterrestrial critters dropped by, or even sent us a text message (“ur nt solo, n btw ur nt vry smrt”)?
2. Join Mensa. Atheists are obsessed with their IQs and they love to flaunt their membership in an organization of people dedicated to self-congratulation. The atheist assumption is that religion is a sure sign of evolutionary atavism. A devout believer whipping out his Mensa card is entirely incomprehensible and ultimately indigestible.
3. Bait and Switch # 1. Atheists love to talk about the Spanish Inquisition. Get them, ever so casually, to talk about persecution by zealous believers in general, and then the persecution by zealous Marxists in particular. Finally, since atheists like math, have them compare the number killed by the Inquisition over several centuries (2,000-6,000) with the number killed by devout Marxists in one century (100,000,000).
4. Bait and Switch # 2. Despite their pretence to moral relativity, atheists will still grant that Adolf Hitler was epically evil. Having gotten them to admit this point, offer to read aloud some of the most offending passages from Mein Kamp (a special copy of which you just happened to be carrying). After about a half-hour, suddenly strike a quizzical look and say, “Wait a minute,” removing the dust jacket, “How did that happen? This is my copy of Margaret Sanger’s The Pivot of Civilization! Say, wasn’t she the founder of Planned Parenthood?”
5. Learn to talk like William F. Buckley. A comfortable prejudice for American atheists is that religious believers all speak with a heavy Southern accent and use small words.
6. Have Lots of Children. Atheists love humanity as long as there is less of it. They are especially grieved by biologically prodigious believers who seem to be taking Darwin at his word, but for all the wrong reasons. Nothing is more irksome than to behold their own future self-imposed extinction amidst the swelling tide of the God-fearing.
7. Host a Darwin Read-a-loud. Invite some atheist friends to read and discuss Darwin, and then read some purple passages from his Descent of Man where he waxes eloquently on the importance of eugenics, the biologically based moral and intellectual inferiority of “lesser races,” and the inevitable evolutionary extermination of the “negro” and the “Australian.”
8. Talk about the Impending Crash of the World Economy. Ideas have consequences, and some of the worst economic ideas were hatched by John Maynard Keynes. Make clear to your atheist interlocutor that the wide-scale adoption of Keynes’ conception of government as the grand fiddler micromanaging the economy through narcotic stimulation with freshly printed money is the single most important cause of the current American and European financial implosion. Then mention ever-so-casually, “Wasn’t Keynes an atheist?”
9. Stage a Nietzsche Practicum. Atheists love the nihilistic philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche who famously declared “God is dead.” More exactly, they love it in theory, but invariably cringe at the practical implications Nietzsche quite logically drew out: without God, there is no moral order and the strong should devour the weak, for “life itself is will to power.” Invite your favorite atheist to meet you for lunch to discuss Nietzsche. Order the most expensive meal on the menu, steal his iPhone while he’s in the bathroom, and then at the end, stick him with the check. Then on the way out snatch the keys to his Saab and speed away in it singing at full lung, “I love Nietzsche! He’s really rather peachy. A world devoid of moral qualms is far more fuuunnnn…than one that’s preachy teachy!”
10. Assault Them with Charity (cont’d. from No. 9). Drive around the block to the restaurant again, and pull up to your fuming atheist friend. After returning the keys to his Saab and his iPhone, and shelling out your share of the tab, say “I just can’t bring myself to act as if God doesn’t exist.” Then, forever after treat him with unfailing kindness, as if he were Indian Untouchable and you were Mother Teresa.
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Benjamin Wiker is the author of 10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor (one of the books being C. S. Lewis’ The Abolition of Man), and 10 Books that Screwed Up the World. His website is www.ameaningfulworldaudio.com
Whatever the number, we do exist, we’re here. Better to encourage us than try to turn us away from conservatism with insults.
Why bother saying something like that, of course you are here, we have conservative individualists of many groups that are known as being liberal, but we can’t let people falsely try to change the general image of that typically liberal group, by portraying their rare conservatism as normal for that group.
For someone to attempt that deception is to raise the question of a camel’s nose under the tent, or a fifth column effort.
No, it is not accurate. Just because there is significant overlap in the populations that hold two different ideas doesn't mean the ideas are the same. That's irrational.
BTW, homosexual does include lesbians. The term "homosexual" isn't gender specific.
Put another way, you can’t debunk atheism by arguing against liberalism, and vice versa. Just as you can’t debunk belief in god by arguing for big government. This should be pretty obvious.
Atheists vote democrat and are liberal by an overwhelming margin, that cannot be debunked.
Ahh..not sure that you are directing that to me.
Probably not. Sorry. :-)
No problem...
And are the subject of constant derision and scorn. Have you thought that maybe one reason atheists tend to be liberals is that atheism is accepted by liberals and often derided by conservatives? Why should I join a group that says I'm immoral pond scum?
I know that not all religious conservatives think that way, only a majority. But I don't knock those who would accept a conservative atheist due to that majority.
I don’t know where you are trying to go to, I merely pointed out that atheists are overwhelmingly liberal.
Atheism and liberalism is a natural match, just as religious Americans are overwhelmingly conservative.
I disagree, especially when we are talking about limited-government conservatism. Religious conservatives like to grow government in order to enforce their view of morality, while the liberal religious like to grow government in order to do the Lord's work in helping everybody out (welfare, etc.).
Being an atheist doesn't provide any atheist-specific motivation. There's no natural match because there's no specific ideology that atheists share. Marxists need to be atheists because Marxism can't have any power higher than the state. This is true for any totalitarian government (Marxist or not) that doesn't claim legitimacy from the god of the people, such modern Muslim theocracies. There the rulers welcome belief in God since they are the ones who dictate what God says, so the state still retains ultimate power. This is why Hitler made a deal with the Catholic Church -- religion was acceptable as long as it was under his control. Otherwise, the state is supreme.
But because these modern totalitarian regimes put themselves in place of God in the eyes of the people, atheism is somehow to blame. Although there was no longer a supernatural element, they are effectively religious, as their god is the state. The Juche ideology of North Korea is a quasi-religion (a.k.a., political religion). Kim Il-sung is revered as the deity, and Kim Jong-il is the living prophet.
I wasn’t giving an opinion, I was stating a fact.
Atheists vote liberal and religious people vote conservative, that is the primary voter division between the Democrats and Republicans.
“Atheists vote liberal and religious people vote conservative, that is the primary voter division between the Democrats and Republicans.”
—If that was the ‘primary voter division’ the US would essentially be a single-party nation.
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear." -Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
Jefferson had it right.
Militant atheists and militant non-atheists should just get over it.
Every single Democrat I know is religious. Every atheist I know is Libertarian, Republican or independent. Consider: Almost all blacks and a majority Hispanics vote Democrat. Most blacks and Hispanics are religious, Hispanics being overwhelmingly Catholic. CA Prop 8 was passed with black religious support of 70% vs. about 50% for whites, yet those same blacks vote 95% Democrat. The lines aren't as clean as you think.
Religious doesn't mean a vote for conservative or Republican. The main reason more atheists aren't Republican is because the religious wing of the party purposely alienates them. But remember that Republicans have natural allies (and Democrats and RINOs natural enemies) in atheists who tend towards the Randian ideal of government.
There is actually a much better correlation between higher education and voting Republican instead of Democrat.
You said “religious people vote conservative.” This goes by the relative level of church attendance. Remember, Christianity doesn’t require church attendance. Bible study groups fulfill the requirement to get together for mutual encouragement quite well. I posit that for the vast majority of people, any church attendance equates to being religious to some degree. Thus your chart shows it is likely that that most of the people who voted for Gore were religious. Then out of those who do not attend organized services, you will have even more religious people voting for Gore.
Also note that women and the elderly black tend to be more religious (according to self-profession) and go to church more than white males, yet they tend to vote more Democrat.
You can’t pidgeon-hole. It just doesn’t work. And reality just doesn’t always make sense. Why do blacks overwhelmingly vote for the party whose historic mission was to put them down, and think the party that historically fought for black rights is against them? Why do Muslims overwhelmingly vote for the party that advocates violating most of the social mores of Islam?
No wonder you think as you do since you are so willing to bend reality and truth, see post 77, the more religious, the more likely to be conservative, the less religious, the more likely to be liberal, that is why the left and the media are at war with faith.
Atheists of course are overwhelmingly liberal (being 100% non religious) just as the devout Christians are overwhelmingly conservative. You can see this with Jews also, the Orthodox are conservative, the less strong the faith for Jews, the more liberal.
Who's bending? You said "Atheists vote liberal and religious people vote conservative." You are now changing that to more religious, more likely to be conservative. That is quite different from your initial claim of religious vs. non-religious. Your chart supports your latter claim, not your former.
Atheists of course are overwhelmingly liberal (being 100% non religious)
I'm atheist, yet I count on that "seldom" visit church part of the survey, not the "never" part.
You can see this with Jews also, the Orthodox are conservative, the less strong the faith for Jews, the more liberal.
And like I said you can see with the Muslims, highly orothodox, yet vote Democrat.
Your pidgeon-holing simply doesn't work. There are far more reasons than religion to vote a certain way. There is no natural affinity between modern liberalism and atheism. There is an attraction of highly-religious Christians to the Republican party, which is the same faction that serves to drive conservative atheists away from it and to the Democrats.
I've been on boards with atheists discussing this. Essentially the following is repeated over and over: "Do I stay with my conservative values and vote Republican? But if I do then religious extremists who think I'm immoral scum may be be able to leverage the power of the government against me. I'm especially offended that most of them say they'd never vote for an atheist, no matter how conservative he is. I know the Democrats support my rights as an atheist, but then they support killing babies and exending the power of government over me in other ways." Far too many atheists then come down on the side of voting Democrat. It's easier to vote for someone who at least thinks you have the right to be a citizen, even if you disagree on other things.
Now all this is considering our effective two-party duopoly. A lot of atheists align with the Libertarians -- governmentally conservative, far more than Republicans, with no hatred of atheists. My main problem is they suck on defense and aren't pro-life (they take a non-position on the issue that equates to effectively pro-choice).
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