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The 111th Congress is being sworn in today. The Los Angeles Times reported that while this Congress “reflects greater religious diversity in the U.S.” atheists are underrepresented.
It was reported that 1% of the new congress did not specify religious belief on the survey but that
because of how the question was worded, it was unclear whether the lawmakers were atheist or agnostic or simply didn't want to answer the question.
It isn’t surprising that there aren’t more atheists in political positions. After all, many states have in place religious restrictions on holding political office. That is to say that no atheist is allowed to hold office in certain states. It makes sense that atheist would not seek careers in politics.
Until states recognize that it is wrong to require that someone profess a belief in God as a prerequisite to holding office, atheists will likely continue to be underrepresented in the political arena. According to the US Constitution
…no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
Comments
Thanks for the article. I heard Pelosi swear in the new Congress today, and it made me cringe when she said "so help me god." I continue to be outraged that "separation of church and state" is an empty phrase.
What a stupid article. Anyone of intelligence knows that everything in life has to be based on something – why do we do what we do? Why do anything? Why not kill or steal whenever we feel like it.? If you base a constitution on something, it has to have some kind of moral code for the citizens to adhere to. Your atheistic moral relativism will just give rise to ambiguous morality. Remove God and you will have a million moral relativists fighting for control of the law. Intelligent reasoning proves this venture untenable. Imagine it, NAMBLA arguing for the right to date your 9 year old son. Disgusting.
Calling an article stupid because you disagree with the views of the people the article talks about is rather...what's the word...ah yes, stupid in itself.
"Why not kill or steal whenever we feel like it?"
Perhaps this'll come as a surprise to you, but most people aren't especially inclined to kill or steal under normal circumstances. What's more, everyone has a personal interest in not being killed or stolen from. Which is why we have organized ourselves into societies and put a framework of laws and law enforcement into place to prevent such things from happening, and to discourage those who consider committing them.
Cooperation does not require religion. I don't consult the Bible before doing something nice for my neighbor - I do it because I like to. And I don't need to consult the Bible in order to not kill or steal from my neighbor, either.
"Remove God and you will have a million moral relativists fighting for control of the law."
You mean like the way millions of Christians have been fighting for millions of different interpretations of the Bible ever since the first manuscripts were written? In secular nations, we don't massacre each other to settle a disagreement on a point of law. Seems those "moral relativists" are more moral than the most devout of believers.
"Intelligent reasoning proves this venture untenable."
"Intelligent reasoning" sure as hell doesn't support your rosy vision of a theocracy. Democracy, for all its shortcomings, works much better and with less bloodshed.
"Imagine it, NAMBLA arguing for the right to date your 9 year old son."
Don't need to imagine it, you can just go to their website. What are you going to do - suspend the right to freedom of speech just to shut them up?
The atheists are relatively more moral and law-abiding citizens. They are much less likely to commit a crime. (Only 0.23% of the prison population are atheists, considering 16-18% of the general population are atheists.)
Unfortunately, they are also underrepresented in our so-called democratic representative system, due to the tyranny of religion. (We only have freedom of religion, but no freedom of no religion.)
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