Re: atheism and political orientation

Steve Kelley <skelley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

> Being a conservative in the traditional sense means that the person is
> opposed to the government getting involved in regulating society and
> that government should be small.

I think we have adequately established that the terms "liberal" and
"conservative" are not very useful, particularly when one tries to use
them with any precision. I think we have also established that they are
irrelevant to atheism per se. So, I'd like to suggest that instead of talking
about liberals and conservatives, we find a way to refer to specific issues
and specific positions people might take on them. If we must use labels,
I'd like to suggest that we find some standard reference containing a
taxonomy of political points of view. For example, I think the New York
Times Magazine a few weeks ago articulated 7 distinct flavors of
conservative judicial philosophy. Most likely, no one wants to read
a more thorough taxonomy and, even if it turned out to be adequate (which
I doubt), this is a newsgroup for atheism, not for politics.

All I'm asking is for people to make necessary distinctions instead of
painting people and issues with broad brush strokes. For starters, instead
of trying to demonize a group, and call that group the problem, I think it
would be a lot healthier to articulate the problem that the individual or
group is causing, and to focus on that problem. Otherwise, there is a very
real danger of everyone forgetting what the issues really are.

The war in Iraq is not an atheist issue. Separation of church and state is.
The lack of secular analogues of community centers such as the YMCA is an
atheist issue. The nonexistence, in certain locales, of shrinks who do not
optionally offer faith based therapy is an atheist issue. The penetration
of religious propaganda, such as "The Power of Prayer", into the evening
news (reports of recent miracles occasioned by prayer) is an atheist issue.
Discrimination against atheists is an atheist issue, but I think that
discrimination on any religious grounds is an atheist issue. The actions
of the Kansas school board in regard to evolution is an atheist issue.
In each case, there is a specific problem having to do with rights and
resources. Of course there are people involved in the problem, but defining
the problem to be the people, instead of the problem the people are causing
you, is the path to bigotry and faction.
--
Allan Adler <ara@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
* Disclaimer: I am a guest and *not* a member of the MIT CSAIL. My actions and
* comments do not reflect in any way on MIT. Also, I am nowhere near Boston.

.

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