Prsident Obama: Secret Atheist...

[uriel1972]

Somehow I don't think so. How about you?

[JoeyT]

1. I don't think it's very likely.

I think the closest he'd be would be more along the lines of an indifferent cultural Christian. Not really a true believer, but still adhering to ritual and rite because it's what he grew up with. I think he's probably just a Christian.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Also: secret liberal.

Meanwhile his regime governs frm the center-right and he acts as a christian in public. So whatever he is "in secret" is irrelevant.

[trotsky]

3. +1 n/t

[FiveGoodMen]

6. +2

[enlightenment]

13. +3 nt

[Rob H.]

4. Six people have actually voted "Yes" so far

Holy shit. (No pun intended.)

Gotta love the so-called logic some people appear to use, though: "He does things I don't like, therefore even though he says he's a Christian and goes to church every Sunday and has prayed at public events, he's not really a Christian. Waah!" See also: Bush, President George W.

Edits: Apparently I can't type today.

[Mr.Bill]

5. I've always had a theory

that the people most likely to be secret Atheists are the clergy. Seriously.

[Arugula Latte]

7. That happens a lot.

I've heard many anecdotes about people attending theology schools and coming out atheists. The more immersed in it they get, the more they see it's all variations on mythologies. A friend was married by a crusty old "minister" who absolutely loathed religion (he'd lost his "faith" over decades) and would say things like: "This Bible crap really chaps my ass." He was hanging in there until he could retire, though.

[Mr.Bill]

8. I just don't see how someone

could be intelligent enough to talk a crowd of people into believing this crap and at the same time be stupid enough to believe it themselves.

[Curmudgeoness]

9. But they don't have to be intelligent

because they are not really talking anyone into believing it. The people who believe were taught to believe from infancy, and through all the rituals and rites they went through every week, if not daily.

I think about the Catholic Church when I was young. They had mass in Latin and there may have been two people in the pews who understood half of what was "preached". It wasn't even preaching, it was all ritual....kneel now, say "amen" now, sit, kneel, stand. They didn't have to be talked into it.

[Mr.Bill]

10. I also was raise Catholic.

And while the Mass may have been in Latin, the sermon and the appeal to put money in the basket were in English.

The Clergy are the greatest salesmen in the world. I have worked some in sales myself, and they are selling the most difficult thing in the world to sell - nothing but a good feeling. The closest thing in the real world would be insurance, and that's not easy to sell either. That's why the insurance industry lobbys for laws to force you to buy it.

I do agree with you that they have the advantage of the flock being conditioned from birth, that's a good point. But they also do convert those of other beliefs or non-belief.

I do know I've never had a Catholic priest try to talk me back from Atheism. I honestly think that although they won't admit it openly, they know that I have found the truth.

[Curmudgeoness]

11. You are right. Catholic priests

are not like the fundamentalist and evangelicals. They don't seem to push Catholicism, or any religion, on anyone. And as one who has been around priests in casual settings, they are usually rather fun to be around. (No, I am not Catholic, so I don't know about how they push it at church.)

[Mr.Bill]

12. When I was a kid, we lived across the street from our Catholic church.

The priests in the rectory were our neighbors. The pastor would come over in street clothes, sit there and drink beer and watch a ball game on TV with my dad. You would never know he was a priest.

Catholicism does have the luxury of being a pretty wealthy entity. They are not burdened, in most locales,
with recruitment and asking for money. I never heard the word tithe at a Catholic church in the 50s and 60s. I don't know how it is now.