There is only one member of Congress who is on record as not holding a god-belief. Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.), a member of Congress since 1973, acknowledged his nontheism in response to an inquiry by the Secular Coalition for America (www.secular.org ). Rep. Stark is a senior member of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and is Chair of the Health Subcommittee. Although the Constitution prohibits religious tests for public office, the Coalition?s research reveals that Rep. Stark is the first open nontheist in the history of the Congress. Recent polls show that Americans without a god-belief are, as a group, more distrusted than any other minority in America. Surveys show that the majority of Americans would not vote for an atheist for president even if he or she were the most qualified for the office. Herb Silverman, president of the Secular Coalition for America, attributes these attitudes to the demonization of people who don?t believe in God. ?The truth is,? says Silverman, ?the vast majority of us follow the Golden Rule and are as likely to be good citizens, just like Rep. Stark with over 30 years of exemplary public service. The only way to counter the prejudice against nontheists is for more people to publicly identify as nontheists. Rep. Stark shows remarkable courage in being the first member of Congress to do so.?
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From the dozen Unitarian gatherings I’ve been to,It seems their prominent message is “Can’t we all just get along”. Theres a definatly a “wacky new age” element to it. I dont think they would approve of any suicidal “Heavens Gate” behavior. Some are strict logic and science types. So when you hear unitarian it can mean almost anything.
As an atheist and someone who attends UU services I completely understand why he goes. It’s a very liberal religious education. God is mentioned but most times it’s not anything connected to the bible. We have a UU xian group and I have no idea what they talk about in their meetings. There are some new age loons I’m sure but I don’t know any in my congregation. We had a open house for vendors one time and someone was there with a massage table and special rocks for soothing. I didn’t see anyone use that vendor or his services. Every UU I know embraces humanist values and thinks evolution is a fact. I’m unaware of any “supernatural” or “wacky” beliefs, just humanist values. I’ve yet to meet a fundy there in my 3 years of attendance.
Any more questions are welcomed.
Phreedm
I don’t mean to speak for Spanders, but good grief. He is a member of United Church of Christ, not Unitarian Universalist. Big difference.
Your listening skills could use some improvement.
Reason,
No prob. and no it wasn’t a stupid question.
Flying Weasel,
Gay people can deny and suppress their feelings like Ted Haggard did, but they will always be there no matter how much in denial a person is.
Religion is more of an acquired trait whereby we know there’s no god but people choose to believe there is anyway. I happen to believe in science, that is my supreme autority and no I wouldn’t go back to believing in an invisible man in the sky. But I was trying to explain the “coming out” process and the difference between coming out gay and coming out atheist.
phreedm said:
phreedm is a dumbass said:
As well as your reading comprehension skills, phreedm.
Hmm… Looks like not all Silvermans are heathens:
http://tinyurl.com/34v6ft
But you do have a point.
sorry about being away from the blog(WEATHER and LAZINESS).Anyway,when I heard abot PETE STARK,I just had to say DUDE WHAT TOOK YOU SO LONG.YOU ROCK PETE.
I took a look at Netscape’s homepage today and they are discussing this topic. It some ways it’s similar to what is said here, but the atheists are in the minority. The few atheists that are on there make some good and concise arguments. As you know, I’m not an atheist, but I do appreciate you taking the time to help me get an idea of where you come from.
Check it out on:
http://religion.netscape.com/story/2007/03/14/rep-stark-applauded-for-atheist-outlook/#comments
Also, Elaine Pagels was just on NPR talking about the book of Judas. Fascinating stuff. I love Elaine Pagels. If you’re interested, you can check it out here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=8892042
Rainbows, yes, I go to a United Church of Christ. Thanks for the correction. I haven’t been on the site much lately as I’m just nutty busy.
By the way, do you know anyone who does search engine optimization? I’m doing some work for Planned Parenthood and I’m having a tough time finding someone who will do the work.
Thanks!
Spanders,
Damn I thought it was a Unitarian Church too that you attended.
I live a literal stone’s throw from both Planned Parenthood and Chapel Hill Bible Church so I always joke that my neighbours can get an abortion and forgiveness without parking their car twice.
Alex, all you need now is a bar in there and your neighbors wouldn’t even need cars.
Comment from: alexatheist
Careful Alex…the thought police will get you for not paying attention in class…
Dickus said: [Careful Alex...the thought police will get you for not paying attention in class...]
were you trying to be funny, asshole?
Insufferable Maggot spewed: [Alex...I'm curious...which came first...coming out about your atheism or coming out about your homosexuality?]
Hey Phreetard, ***deleted (HZ)***
TXatheist,
Thanks for trying to tone down Phreedm Is A Dumbass. It’s not often that a poster becomes more offensive than the the poster s/he is protesting, but this is an example of such an incident.
Phreedm Is A Dumbass – don’t you see that your ‘cure’ is worse than the disease?
Phreedm is a dumbas,
Would I be able to ask you nicely to take the high road and realize Phreedm is not going away and to not call him names? I haven’t blogged in about a year and when I came back he was still here. I understand his comments are frustrating but you probably realize where he’s coming from and that’s why he’s doing it the way he does. Please.
I guess the crazy xian backlash has begun…
http://christiansenior.org/press/031407.php
Then again there is hope.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/martin-varsavsky/what-happens-when-a-count_b_43069.html
From the article:
Way to go, Spain!
Wish we could be more like them. And they did it with Roman Catholicism as the main religion. Maybe that’s part of our problem; we have too many different protestant sects of fundamentalists. They aren’t even united on what they think or what they want. But they are more into putting religion into the govt. than catholics seem to be.
——
As for the backlash from the religious on the Pete Stark announcement…just more of the same martyr complex coming out. One person denies god and they have to circle the wagons. And they say it’s
“sad but not surprising that the current Congress has produced this historic first”. Well, it’s not like there was a conspiracy to get someone to come out now, or Stark was leaned on to come out now. He’s held office for what, 30 years?
The handwringing was to be expected though.
Spanders:
Re: SEO
My opinion is that the best you can do these days is to have relevant content within a standards compliant framework. Put as many action words within the main body copy as possible, have a good, concise description in both the title and meta, and allow all robots to view the page.
You probably have most of these bases covered, so I wouldn’t try to hire someone just for SEO. The company we go through is always pushing pay-for-click, and they don’t seem to know anything about web standards – kind of a waste of money if you ask me. You also have to keep in mind that there are probably hundreds of planned parenthood sites out there so it might be prudent to make the location prominent in your title and action words – ex: Raleigh, NC Planned Parenthood.
Does that help any?
thanks for the info TXatheist.
My info was a sketchy at best, I have read a few articles and maybe a Documentary of some sort. It is good that evolution and science has a role in the beliefs of your church. Perhaps without a standard dogma, the beliefs vary from location to location. Is there a national publication that discusses Unitarianism nationwide? Still a bit curious on the effects of open ended belief. Who is drawn to it? What are the most widely accepted ideas in the religion, that kind of stuff. I am sure google would be more help. Gotta go out of town tonight will look later.
Thanks again.
There is no dogma so I couldn’t begin to say. I think the UU website said 75% of members are nontheists of some sort. I hope you’ll pop into one some time. They won’t ask you to convert:) I went to the one I go to now about 5 years ago, got up, introduced myself and told them out loud I was just here to check it out. They regularly ask if there are visitors who want to be recognized. You don’t have to. I got a few welcomes and that’s the extent of the prostelytizing. I think UU is for people who were brought up going to services and enjoy the socialization aspect without the bible or dogma. The most widely accepted idea is humanist values. You will hear god mentioned probably but I remember the President of UU tried to change our statement of beliefs to include the word god about 4 years ago and man did the sh*t hit the fan. The best way to find out is to read and just go one time. It may not be for you and that’s cool. My wife’s best friend came with her husband and haven’t returned. He’s pro-science and agnostic but doesn’t care for the sitting through the blah-blah sermon part.
Rainbows, thanks for the input. I do create the sites with CSS standards, but am finding that there are some clients who really, really want to be at the top. I’ve been dealing with http://www.capturecommerce.com/ a bit. Seems like a decent and straightforward guy. He does a lot of analysis first on the keywords and their competition and then works on directory listings, cross linking, content generation and so on. So far he seems to be the best I’ve talked to. He just seems a little reluctant to work on PP stuff. I always appreciate your input.
Spanders,
You can try the company we go through if you like:
http://www.anvilmediainc.com/
If you already have the standards dialed in, they’ll be able to help you with the rest. I’m sure they’ll have no problem working on a PP site. We’re all a bunch of commie liberals up here.
Heathenz said: [Phreedm Is A Dumbass - don't you see that your 'cure' is worse than the disease?]
Sometimes you have to elimenate the patient to eliminate the disease….
Phreedm isn’t going anywhere so you can’t eliminate him from this blog. If he’s still here after all the logic he can possibly receive, he’s staying. Please refrain from stooping to a level beneath us all.
Tarma pointed out that congressman Stark was a member of board of trustees of the Starr King seminary. I can tell you that Starr King is a Unitarian Universalist seminary and that many Unitarians are Atheists, Agnostics, or Secular Humanists.
Spanders, I used to work full time at a search engine optimization company as a web developer. I just left that position this past October. If you’d like some help doing Optimization work let me know.
Those of y’all that do not believe in God,or at least a higher power than the laws of man are in for a very rude awakining when Democracy takes full effect.
As Atheists you would have done well to stay in the closet and let no one know of your religious or non-religious orentation,because in democracy your rights and the Constitution are not the law of the land any longer. You see our TRUE form of government is NOT democracy,it is Representative Republic,the Constitution under this form of government the majority(those in power) is strictly controled to protect the rights of the minority(those not in power)enumerated in the articles and sections of the Constitution.This is done by a means of reverance not only to a higher power but also with respect to ones understanding that he is owing to God for those inaleinable rights given him and thus shows moral,and vertous manners when allowed to govern the people through those “just powers” given them by the people. This democracy y’all are living in will not stand.Your corrupt intentions will come to surface and there will be “Hell”to pay.
I for one am not a believer in God,but must adhear to those principles that made America great and those principles include those words and ideas provided by the word s of a higher life influance than man.
We all know that the Bible was written as a governmentle inspiration for the use of man in order to curtail the influances of anarchy.
“Vindiciamus”