Why Did Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg Say He's Not an Atheist? Maybe to Help His Political Ambitions

[rug]

Just after Christmas, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg casually told a commenter that he wasn’t an atheist. Not now, not ever. He said he was “raised Jewish,” went through a period of questioning, and now thinks “religion is very important.” It was a response that reeked of the old joke, “I don’t believe in God, but don’t you dare call me an atheist.”



The fact that he responded at all was pretty odd: Why would someone with Zuckerberg’s fame and money go out of his way to answer that particular question? It wasn’t entirely clear.

But we may be getting closer to a response after another statement he made this week about how he planned to visit every state in the U.S. this year.

My personal challenge for 2017 is to have visited and met people in every state in the US by the end of the year. I’ve spent significant time in many states already, so I’ll need to travel to about 30 states this year to complete this challenge.

After a tumultuous last year, my hope for this challenge is to get out and talk to more people about how they’re living, working and thinking about the future.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/01/05/why-did-facebooks-mark-zuckerberg-say-hes-not-an-atheist-maybe-to-help-his-political-ambitions/

That must be it. It couldn't be taken at face value. There must be a craven reason.

[HoneyBadger]

1. Having a child changes people

[rug]

2. True. Mainly it matures them.

[okasha]

3. Yep.

Reality 101.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Why would you call that 'craven'?

I would say 'tactical'.

[rug]

5. To some people cravenness relates to tactics.

To most it relates to integrity.

Hemant is engaging in rank speculation.

[AtheistCrusader]

6. Perhaps.