Conservative, pro-religion newsweekly says atheists a force for good:The August 8 issue of
U.S. News & World Report has a cover,
God and Country - New thinking about the role of faith in America. The main story,
Divided We Stand, is a routine article about the U.S. history of faith and politics. But there was a sidebar,
Rallying the Humanists, which was about that peculiar minority in this country, atheists. In it, we read the following curious passage: (emp add)
Once a force to be reckoned with, secular humanists, who believe in science and rationalism in making moral choices, were behind many major cultural changes in the 20th century, including advances in women's liberation, civil rights, and desegregation. But an increasingly passionate and politically sophisticated Christian right has them on the defensive. "We're in the 21st century," says Jim Sedlak, executive director of STOPP International, an antiabortion group, "and there's a strong backlash."
Which translates to: Atheists were genuine progressives and the Christian right were, and remain, bigots.
posted by Quiddity at 8/13/2005 06:47:00 AM
If you think this life is a "test" or anything other than your only chance to be alive, it's a lot easier to ignore injustice. Of course, if many Christians had not seen a value in social change, nothing would have happened.
It ain't the brand name of the faith that matters here, more the model.
VKW
The Bush administration is fighting Islamic Religious fanatics with Christian Religious fanatics! Sound familiar? I thought the world did the "crusades" thing centuries ago. NO FORM of religious fanaticism should influence governments and politics. If it's OK for the far right Christian religious fanatics to set government policy then it follows that the Islamic religious fanatics should influence their governments. Right? WRONG!
Keep your religion in your church...not in the white house and halls of congress! It is incredibly hypocritical to say we're right and they're wrong in this instance. BOTH are wrong!
