Dawkins Launches Campaign to Give American Atheists a Political Voice…
Apparently he’s never heard of this little party we have here called the Democrats….
It is like Daniel going into the lions’ den, though Professor Richard Dawkins might not appreciate the biblical comparison. Britain’s leading atheist is spearheading a campaign in America to challenge the dominance of religion in every day life and in politics, insisting that the millions of US godless deserve to be heard too.
Atheists in the US “have been downtrodden for a very long time. So I think some sort of political organisation is what they need”, he said.
Maybe David and Goliath would be a better analogy. Religion is palpable in US schools, places of work and public institutions. God is invoked by soldiers and politicians in a way that would seem inappropriate in Britain. George Bush used God as one of the reasons for invading Iraq. In Congress, where godlessness can equate with being unelectable, only one representative, Pete Stark, is prepared to admit to being a non-believer.
He admitted he was “a little bit hesitant” about being an Englishman talking to Americans and he showed “a certain amount of deference” when asked about US politics. “But I think that this country is so powerful and what goes on politically here is so enormously influential, the rest of the world is entitled to have a say. (they do? -ed.) We don’t get the vote here but I think people are entitled to express an opinion.”
What did he hope an atheist bloc in the US might achieve? “I would free children from being indoctrinated with the religion of their parents or their community. I would like to free everyone from the assumption you have to be religious in order to be a decent person or to be moral. Obviously the whole creationist interference with education [should stop] but I think, more positively, I would like to see people encouraged to rejoice in the world in which they find themselves, the universe in which they have been born, to take full advantage of the tiny slice of eternity they have been granted.”
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