Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What's So Weird About a Conservative Atheist?
The Atlantic ^ | February 26, 2014 | Emma Green

Posted on 02/26/2014 4:35:25 PM PST by lbryce

"It is an attack on God Himself."

This was how Brent Bozell, founder of the conservative Media Research Center, felt about the prospect of representatives from the American Atheists attending the upcoming Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual gathering of conservative leaders and organizations in Washington, D.C. On Tuesday, the Atheists announced they would host a booth at the conference next week; within hours, they had been disinvited. The group "misrepresented itself about their willingness to engage in positive dialogue and work together to promote limited government," a CPAC spokesperson told the Washington Post yesterday.

The American Atheists were invited—and then uninvited—from the Conservative Political Action Conference. Why?

The American Atheists disagree. "America’s religious conservatives can deny it all they want, but soon they’re going to realize that ignoring the growing number of atheist constituents is a losing proposition,” the organization's president, David Silverman, said in a press release. He says his group had been in conversation with conference's planning committee about 2015, offering up ideas for future atheist keynoters. Despite this year's snub, the Atheists are willing to reopen dialogue with CPAC about "the importance of religious equality," Silverman said.

(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: atheists; conservatives; republicans
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-62 next last
To: cloudmountain

Your Faith is no doubt like love — something that’s natural to experience but complicated to describe. The Atheist says your experience in Faith is a fallacy. But the Atheist cannot comprehend your experience in denying its existence, and is therefore a fraud or an idiot.


41 posted on 02/26/2014 9:10:48 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: cripplecreek
Nothing weird about them.

What’s weird is this sudden demand to be recognized as a group to be pandered to.

That's precisely how I feel about it. You don't need to be religious to understand right from wrong and have a fundamental sense of what works in the world. But organizing as a whiny little group around the common cause of not believing in god is just pathetic.

42 posted on 02/26/2014 9:24:15 PM PST by Junior_G (Funny how liberals' love affair with Muslims began on 9/11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: Charles H. (The_r0nin)
The only thing atheists have ever done is degrade and attack the values and traditions that made this country great.

I find it interesting that you can make a distinction between liberal and conservative Jews, but can't form a distinction between liberal and conservative atheists. Alas, other believers in this very thread are at least capable of understanding that we don't require your collective acceptance in order to discern that conservative atheists actually exist.

If you "true Scotsmen" don't want our electoral help, that's fine by me, but you'll get it anyways.
43 posted on 02/26/2014 9:58:14 PM PST by Goldsborough
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: cloudmountain

I ask those questions but I’m happy with the answer: “I don’t know’”


44 posted on 02/27/2014 12:37:03 AM PST by Natufian (t)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Misterioso
Religion is conservatism’s Achilles’ heel.

I have heard this song before....

I'd love to teach
The world to sing
In perfect harmony

45 posted on 02/27/2014 2:05:33 AM PST by itsahoot (Voting for RINOs is the same as voting for any other Tyrant)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Goldsborough
The religious infighting on this site is ridiculous.

Yet here you are engaging in it.

46 posted on 02/27/2014 2:08:57 AM PST by itsahoot (Voting for RINOs is the same as voting for any other Tyrant)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: tomkat
Our Founders would be torn to shreds in here, inasmuch as most of them were 'mere' Deists.

B$.

47 posted on 02/27/2014 2:12:58 AM PST by itsahoot (Voting for RINOs is the same as voting for any other Tyrant)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
Someone who is unwilling to give thanks to his Maker before cramming a double cheese pepperoni pizza down his gullet isn't much of a conservative.

I just don't see how atheists, who are willing or unwilling minions of the devil, who tirelessly work to weaken and destroy Christian civilization and to slander and mock God and His only begotten Son... I don't see how they logically fit under the "conservative' label.

48 posted on 02/27/2014 2:13:52 AM PST by Ethan Clive Osgoode (<<== Click here to learn about Evolution!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: itsahoot
The religious infighting on this site is ridiculous.

Yet here you are engaging in it.

Hardly.
49 posted on 02/27/2014 6:22:04 AM PST by Goldsborough
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
“Can you be a conservative and not believe in God? Yes, absolutely. Can you be a conservative and despise God and feel contempt for those who believe in God? Equally absolutely, no." - William F. Buckley Jr.

Works for me.

50 posted on 02/27/2014 6:49:37 AM PST by Eric Pode of Croydon
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
"America’s religious conservatives can deny it all they want, but soon they’re going to realize that ignoring the growing number of atheist constituents is a losing proposition,”

LOL! Yeah. The concern warms the cockles of my heart.

51 posted on 02/27/2014 6:52:33 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce; TheOldLady
Uh oh.

Another atheist trap. :)

52 posted on 02/27/2014 6:55:23 AM PST by Lazamataz (Early 2009 to 7/21/2013 - RIP my little girl Cathy. You were the best cat ever. You will be missed.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce
"America’s religious conservatives can deny it all they want, but soon they’re going to realize that ignoring the growing number of atheist constituents is a losing proposition,”

Really? Then why don't you have your own Conference at the same time next door? Let's see how many people show up at each.

Oh. By the way. I couldn't help but notice that "atheist Conservatives" morphed into "atheist constituents".

53 posted on 02/27/2014 6:56:33 AM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: lbryce

Atheists and homosexuals are trying to infiltrate the Republican party to dilute the Conservative message.

Let them bleat about what a powerful force their dozens of votes would bring to our candidates. Letting
them in would be a terrible mistake for the Republicans and for the TEA Party.

This is a hard-line issue, and we must not falter.


54 posted on 02/27/2014 7:19:16 AM PST by TheOldLady
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Goldsborough
Hardly.

Thou sayest.

55 posted on 02/27/2014 11:28:48 AM PST by itsahoot (Voting for RINOs is the same as voting for any other Tyrant)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric
But Atheists understand you enough to describe your God as fictitious.

One has to KNOW me to understand me. I don't know any atheists, so how can one understand me? How can ATHEISTS, in general, understand me? Can't have it both ways.

1. By the way, how do YOU know the workings of ANY atheist mind?

2. Also, are you speaking for ALL atheists?? That would be odd.

56 posted on 02/27/2014 1:18:34 PM PST by cloudmountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Natufian
I ask those questions but I’m happy with the answer: “I don’t know’”

Two things:
1. Faith IS a gift. It doesn't SEEM to matter to you if you have it or not. You obviously DON'T but then why would you care?
2. You SEEM to be the poster-child for "ignorance is bliss." I don't mean that in a nasty way. Perhaps you neither know nor care what happens to you after you super-short life. Perhaps you were never taught that being good will allow you to spend eternity with our Creator and being EVIL all the time will allow you to burn in hell for all eternity.

Perhaps you were taught that there is no good or bad except in your very own perception...and maybe you think you are always good.
Children have concepts like this because it was what they were taught. I guess you were taught NOTHING like this. Perhaps you were and you somehow MISSED "getting it."

In any case, it's your immortal soul, not mine. Lots of luck to ya.

57 posted on 02/27/2014 1:24:33 PM PST by cloudmountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Gene Eric
Your Faith is no doubt like love — something that’s natural to experience but complicated to describe. The Atheist says your experience in Faith is a fallacy. But the Atheist cannot comprehend your experience in denying its existence, and is therefore a fraud or an idiot.

My, you say, NO DOUBT, and describe my faith. You apparently can't be aware of how arrogant that sounds. Who are YOU to describe my faith? "NO DOUBT"? Lol. You must be one heck of a long-distance mind/soul/heart reader!

Why is love natural to experience? There ARE people who never experienced it. One Russian mass murderer comes to mind. He was the "red ripper" and was finally put to death. He never did get love. He was a bed wetter and his mother beat him multiple times every single day of his life, RELENTLESSLY. He NEVER knew ANY love from anyone. The story of his life was on "biography" one day. HORRIFIC story.

I would NEVER, EVER, EVER call an atheist a fraud or an idiot. Why would I do that? If s/he called ME that, I would, no doubt, consider the source and let it go. MAYBE I would pray for that person. I dunno. I never met an atheist.

58 posted on 02/27/2014 1:31:10 PM PST by cloudmountain
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 41 | View Replies]

To: cloudmountain

You’re right, I shouldn’t have pointed to you when describing the similar, intangible, abstract nature of Faith and love. I apologize.

But as you point out, to know another person’s “love”, one would have to be a mind/soul/heart reader. Wouldn’t the same be required to know another person’s Faith?

The Atheist says your God does not exist. How many Atheists told you otherwise?


59 posted on 02/27/2014 3:30:09 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: cloudmountain

>> By the way, how do YOU know the workings of ANY atheist mind?

I know what the Atheist says. And when the Atheist says another person’s God is fictitious, the Atheist is violating your obvious sensitivities about personal belief.


60 posted on 02/27/2014 3:36:20 PM PST by Gene Eric (Don't be a statist!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-62 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson