Charles Deemer writes an interesting blog The Writing Life II It's about writing, films and life really. I thought his post yesterday was meant to be shared, so here it is.
Saturday, February 25, 2012
The last hurdle
OK, the country elected a black President. It's only a matter of time, I would hope, before we elect a woman President, a Latino President, and so on. But will we ever, ever elect ... an atheist President?
If I were the campaign manager for an atheist running for President, I think I'd want to emphasize:
Wait for the returns. Get 20% if you're lucky. In other words, never happen, the myth of our origins is too strong. American culture's distrust of "thinking" is too strong.
If I were the campaign manager for an atheist running for President, I think I'd want to emphasize:
- humanist ethics and values
- use selected Founding Fathers as models -- Jefferson, Madison, Franklin, discuss religion, free thinking, tolerance in our founding concepts
- emphasize what the Constitution actually says, and doesn't say, about religion
- emphasize Nature and Nature's laws (and Russell's argument about First Causes, if it comes to that)
- put the Bible in historic perspective
Wait for the returns. Get 20% if you're lucky. In other words, never happen, the myth of our origins is too strong. American culture's distrust of "thinking" is too strong.
He always seems like a gentleman to me. And a good one, at that.
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