The Atheist Hordes

I expect the Christian conservatives to go as apeshit over this as they did over Keith "Muslims are taking over Congress" Ellison, but we'll see:

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.

Stark represents CA-13 in the East Bay on the other side of San Francisco (map), and he's been in office over 30 years, so one wouldn't expect this to damage him politically. But it's a little amazing to me that atheism is having this kind of "coming out" moment in 2007. In fact, there are at least as many secular voters as there are regular church-goers. There are approximately 15 times more atheists and agnostics nationwide as there are Jews, and worldwide that increases to 60x (worldwide there are almost as many atheists as Hindus). Only 26% of this country attends religious services once a week. Those who do are free to practice their religion; such freedom is a bedrock fundamental tenet of American life. But those who don't, a significant portion of the population, ought not to have had to wait 230 years before one of their political leaders dare say that he's one of them.

The media only addresses this divide in one direction - Democrats have a God problem. But in fact, that may not be nearly as crucial as the conservative problem with secularism:

Lots of ink has been spilled about how Democrats and liberals suffer from a "religion problem" -- a perceived hostility towards Christianity and religion in general. But Pew Research Center exit poll data from the 2006 midterm elections shows the opposite.

Democrats crushed Republicans among secular voters, broadly defined as those who attend church seldom (favoring Democrats 60% to 38%) or never (67% to 30%). Republicans retained strong support among those who attend church more than weekly. But among those who only go weekly -- the larger portion of the religious vote -- the Republican lead shrunk from 15 points to 7.

In short, Republicans failed to be competitive among secular voters, while Democrats were at least competitive among regular churchgoers. And since the secular vote is roughly equal to the regular churchgoing vote, according to the last several national election exit polls, that means Republicans and their conservative base have a far bigger secular problem than their rivals have a religion problem.

My personal view on religion hews closely to George Carlin's bit about it being like a lift in your shoes.

If you need it for a while, and it makes you walk straight and feel better - fine. But you don't need it forever, or you can become permanently disabled. Religion is like a lift in the shoe, and I say just don't ask me to wear your shoes. And let's not go down and nail lifts onto the natives' feet.

"I don't care if you have it, I don't want to take it away from you, just don't give it to me" is essentially my credo. I have a strong belief in morality and ethics, I use the faith in which I was brought up (Judaism) as a blueprint for my moral and ethical life, and I respect those who get strength from their faith to advance moral causes, but I don't demand that everyone think the same way I do. And most people with such a view get very touchy when they see fundamentalist Christians trying to impose their beliefs on every aspect of American life. They call it "defending the free exercise of faith," but they actually do the opposite by demanding that their faith be ensconced into law. This is why the GOP has a real problem with secular voters, who perceive that the Christianists have hijacked the party.

I'm glad Pete Stark has "come out" as an atheist but it's really no big deal, just as it wouldn't be if he came out as a Methodist or a animist or a Zoroastrian. I'm glad when anyone is allowed to give full expression to their beliefs without fear of reprisal. The religious right should be happy for that as well.