re: #316 PT Barnum

I don’t neccesarily think it holds that Atheists think that Government is the ultimate authority on everything.

It doesn’t hold at all. The demonization of athiests really grates on me. I’m not an athiest, but I loathe the mumbo-jumbo that one must believe in a higher power to have a moral compass. It’s paranoid bigotry and brutally, shockingly stupid. As if a person would just spin out of control and become a raving werewolf unless he believes in God. America overwhelmingly distrusts athiests as leaders, I think in this country the only major belief system that would be more distrastrous in a campaign would be Muslim.

Athiesm has nothing whatsoever to do with socialism, and can coexist just fine with conservatism. Most of the athiests I personally know are actually quite opposed to central authority, whether it comes from government OR organized religion. They’re far more likely to vote conservative/libertarian, they’re more along the Penn Jillette/Cato Institute axis than anything. They sure as hell aren’t socialists.

Maybe it’s a generation gap, that these associations don’t make any sense to me? I’m probably among the youngest people here, my friends are almost universally in their 20’s and 30’s.