Posted on 03/13/2007 6:32:47 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
Secular groups applauded Rep. Pete Stark for publicly acknowledging he does not believe in a supreme being. The declaration, they said, makes the California Democrat the highest-ranking elected official - and first congressman - to publicly claim to be an atheist.
The American Humanist Association took out an ad in the Washington Post on Tuesday, congratulating Stark's stance.
"With Stark's courageous public announcement of his nontheism, it is our hope that he will become an inspiration for others who have hidden their conclusions for far too long," the group's executive director, Roy Speckhardt, said in a statement.
Stark's beliefs garnered attention after the Secular Coalition for America offered a $1,000 prize to the person who could identify the "highest level atheist, agnostic, humanist or any other kind of nontheist currently holding elected public office in the United States."
Associate director Ron Millar told the Los Angeles Times that the group wanted to highlight the difficulty that politicians have declaring they don't believe in God.
A member of American Atheists California nominated Stark.
"We didn't think we'd have any member of Congress come forward," Millar said.
Stark confirmed his belief in a statement to The Associated Press late Monday. He said he was "a Unitarian who does not believe in a supreme being."
"I look forward to working with the Secular Coalition to stop the promotion of narrow religious beliefs in science, marriage contracts, the military and the provision of social services," he wrote.
Unitarian Universalism describes itself as creedless, allowing members to shape their beliefs based on personal experience rather than an authoritative statement of religious belief. Some members believe in God, but not all do.
Stark has represented Fremont in Congress since 1973 and chairs the health subcommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee.
You said it -- and it has been obvious for many years that the lefties in this state are indeed Godless.
I guess this is what passes for bravery now on Capitol Hill.
If he really had balls, he would have made the announcement on Fox News :)
Stark, is a very angry man - you just have to spend any time with him and there is something just wrong with him.
This announcement does not surprise me but I tend to wonder why he is putting his religion in our face.
In the fifties, being an atheist was something shocking. Opting out of the group superstition just wasn't done.
It is now met with underwhelming indifference.
What a hard, hard life they have.
Can't imagine living thinking this life was all there was and then nothingness.
Who do they turn to for comfort when tragedy hits?
Who gives them solace, salvation and eternal life?
No one.
They do not even know the peace and comfort they are missing here and especially in life after death. What in the world do they have to look forward to?
20 years of earthly life? 40 years of earthly life?
Believers are blessed, given purpose, given comfort in sorrow and given one that paid for their sins so that they can have eternal life with God.
So little asked of man, so much given by God. And, they, in their "wisdom", choose nothingness.
And the weird thing, they do not even realize what we receive here on earth by accepting God - we have the Holy Spirit living in us and a partner for all of life.
"If there were no God, there would be no atheists." - G.K. Chesterton, Where All Roads Lead, 1922
sorry.
pre-coffee morning dounle tap.
One has to feel a bit sorry for the avowed athiest. For them, death is the end. For those of us who believe in God and the Afterlife, the adventure continues.
As the pope has written, religion takes three forms: monotheism, polytheism and atheism. But as a leading cardinal has recently said, open atheists are less a threat than dissenters in the Church. And it is not just the Kennnedy s who worry me but the possibility that there are priests who are secret atheists. Such as one was Talleyrand, a bishop in the Church who dofffed his robes to be a leading minister in the Revolutionary government.
I'm no Stark supporter, but he was basically just answering a question.
Starke wrote he wants to work with others to stop the
promotion of "narrow beliefs", blah, blah, blah,
What could be more narrow than your own "personal"
experience? And if you talk in public about it, or
use it to make law, or run your family that way,
isn't that promoting it?
"If there were no unicorns, there would be no people who don't believe in unicorns."
Hmmmm...
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