Xpost from GD - Why do atheists face bias in office holding?

[Synnical]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=7426423&mesg_id=7426423

Posted January 8, 2010 at 3:19 p.m.

Why do atheists face bias in office holding?

Community columnist Al Westerfield picked some good examples of discrimination against the religiously impaired in his Dec. 6 column, "No more discrimination?

In a 1987 interview, George H.W. Bush revealed his true wish to see atheists denied all of their constitutional rights. Like many of strict religious faith, he assumes that without religion, these people lack a moral compass.

Apparently Bush sees no duplicity in his post-presidential work for the Carlyle Group. This private equity firm got its start exploiting inside information about America's war planning to invest in the defense industry.

Carlyle and other private equity firms have contributed to the destruction of American businesses to generate huge profits for a few individuals while causing tens of thousands of Americans to lose their jobs.

They owe much of their very existence to the exploitation of a major tax loophole that has cost the U.S. government tens of billions of dollars in lost corporate tax revenues.

When running for governor of Texas in 1994, George W. Bush revealed to reporters that he thought non-Christians would be going to hell. It would be naive to assume that his attitude as a religious fundamentalist did not contribute to gross ignorance of the Islamic culture and later impact his decision to invade Iraq.

On the eve of the Iraq war, senior U.S. Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., the only avowed atheist in Congress, stood on the floor of that body and argued passionately against the invasion.

There are now as many self-identified atheists in the U.S. as Episcopalians. As a group, they have higher levels of education, are more gainfully employed and accordingly pay more taxes than other Americans.

They also have lower rates of crime, especially violent crime. How is it that they face such discrimination to hold public office based on moral issues?

William H. Culbert Jr.

Oak Ridge

[EvolveOrConvolve]

1. I was hoping for some interesting conversation in the thread

But so far there isn't any.

Thanks for posting it. :hi:

[Warpy]

2. I've noticed some threads are radioactive to believers

That's especially true of any thread that challenges them to think about things they've simply compartmentalized into the true/false areas of their brains.

I just used a stick to rattle the bars of their cages should any of them actually read that thread.