Will the U.S. ever have an athiest/agnostic president?

[Dis]

I'm talking about publically athiest. I have a suspician more than a few presidents were/are athiest/agnostic and are just faking the religion thing to get votes. Bill and Hillary I suspect of faking it, same with George Bush. I'm sure there have been others.

Why is religious values considered ideal? Can't an athiest/agnostic be just as moral and compassionate?

[Nubclear]

I don't think atheists can be moral, but I could be wrong: I just don't get how you can have morality without God, since if there isn't a God, why should you act moral in the first place?

[Dis]

common decency? I'm agnostic and I'm moral. serious

[Geronimo]

As soon as there are more people who are uncomfortable with people who have religious faith in public office than there are those who are uncomfortable with agnostics/atheists in those offices the pressure to conceal a lack of religious faith will vanish.

Agnostics may take a bit longer to be accepted than atheists due to the perception of agnostics as indecisive.

[Geronimo]

Originally posted by Nubclear
I don't think atheists can be moral, but I could be wrong: I just don't get how you can have morality without God, since if there isn't a God, why should you act moral in the first place?

It always creeps me out when people say things like this.

Are they honestly saying that if they somehow realized or discovered that there was no God they would personally be happy to get away with murder and rape and other heinous crimes simply because they wouldn't have to worry about upsetting some omnipotent being any more?

[Jon Miller]

Re: Will the U.S. ever have an athiest/agnostic president?

Originally posted by Dis
I'm talking about publically athiest. I have a suspician more than a few presidents were/are athiest/agnostic and are just faking the religion thing to get votes. Bill and Hillary I suspect of faking it, same with George Bush. I'm sure there have been others.

Why is religious values considered ideal? Can't an athiest/agnostic be just as moral and compassionate?

Hillary actually seems much more religious than most. She is one of the more actively religious Senators..

Of course, with politics it is hard to divorce what is real and what is for show.

JM

[Dis]

no one called me out on calling Bush athiest? . Okay maybe he's not athiest, just misguided.

I know none of us are without sin, but when you see a man not follow the religion how it was intended, you wonder if they are truelly religious at all.

[Blake]

Originally posted by Nubclear
I don't think atheists can be moral, but I could be wrong: I just don't get how you can have morality without God, since if there isn't a God, why should you act moral in the first place?

Atheists use morality invented by men.

Theists use morality invented by men who invented a story of receiving the morality from gods.

Any questions?

(This is atheist viewpoint, I mean technically, those men MAY have received the morality from gods, but they aren't exactly able to prove that to anyone).

[Aeson]

Yes we will. At least if the US is around long enough.

[Dry]

Originally posted by Nubclear
I don't think atheists can be moral, but I could be wrong: I just don't get how you can have morality without God, since if there isn't a God, why should you act moral in the first place?

By choice.
By love for their children/wive/relatives.
By love/hope for mankind.

Imagine a white sheet. You have a lifetime to write or draw something upon it, but this sheet is the only thing that your beloved/others would keep from you after you died.
What would you write or drawn upon it? Do you need God to tell you what is good or right to write? Isn't it better to write something that really comes from you, that IS you, that is your essence, your most intimate soul? And not something told or inspired by someone else?
What worth would your painting/poem/whatever be, if it was not coming from your heart, without fear, without hopes?

What would you write on that sheet? How would you write your life?
Do you need someone else, god or man, to tell you how to do that?

How would you rate someone who makes a nice drawing because that's what he WANTED to draw, by choice?
And how would you rate the same drawing by a man who draw it because he was told to, because he feared some dark consequence if he didn't, because he was promised a reward if he did?
Which drawing would you think is the most worthy?

Yes, if there is no one to tell people what they have to paint, what to sing, why in hell would they want to make nice paintings, music?

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Nubclear
I don't think atheists can be moral, but I could be wrong: I just don't get how you can have morality without God, since if there isn't a God, why should you act moral in the first place?

I get so tired of hearing this retarded and insulting viewpoint. It is quite possible to be moral without having a god, thanks very much.

It actually says more about the person expressing it, than it does about atheists, as by admitting that their god is required to make them act with morals, it shows that without the fear of divine retribution they see no reason to behave decently. They clearly cannot imagine a principled value-system of basic human decency, nor any reason why they should not trample other people if they think they could get away with it.

In fact, certain socialised animals, such as meerkats, can be observed to have their own moral systems, based on the reproductive 'laws' of the tribe - which involve sexual taboos and voluntary childcare of other parents' offspring. This demonstrates a obvious biological root to morality, rather than a theological one.

[Wezil]

Originally posted by Aeson
Yes we will. At least if the US is around long enough.

I don't think there is a "long enough" for that.

[Ari Rahikkala]

Originally posted by Nubclear
I don't think atheists can be moral, but I could be wrong: I just don't get how you can have morality without God, since if there isn't a God, why should you act moral in the first place?

I was originally going to give this a very low troll rating, but seeing that many good people have already bitten... I can only commend you for your wonderful trolling skills

[Lorizael]

Guys, Tassadar5000's point isn't that atheists can't be nice people or that they're always serial killers or mean or anything like that.

His point is that their actions cannot be considered objectively good in the absence of God. They may be actions that help people or benefit the world and such, but that does not necessarily make them good from the standpoint of the universal moral system that rules the universe, which he believes can only come from God.

Btw, I have no idea if this is actually his point, but it should be.

[Spec]

Will the U.S. ever have an athiest/agnostic president?

Its bound to happen.

Religion is dying.

Spec.