Comments on: News Roundup

By: Karen

Karen — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 18:18:54 +0000

I’m with you, Siamang. I walked precincts until my feet were sore for that guy only to be told now that I “don’t believe in anything.” I find that insulting and woefully ignorant.

By: Siamang

Siamang — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 17:29:48 +0000

I spent hundreds of dollars of my own money, and plenty of my own time supporting Kerry’s presidential bid.

During none of my support of Kerry did I once insult the religious beliefs of others.

All these politicians know how to do is take, take, take.

By: olvlzl, no ism, no ist

olvlzl, no ism, no ist — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 14:01:12 +0000

John Kerry was merely stating the facts. Those facts are frequently bemoaned on this very blog, atheists are members of an unpopular minority. If you are going to get mad at Kerry, why not get mad at yourselves? Or at least those of you who think the way to get the majority of people, who believe in one God or more, to support you is ridicule, condescension, stereotyping, vicarious blame and the contents of most of neo-atheism.

Would Kerry’s statement make you less likely to support him? I’d suspect that the tendency would be that it would. And all he was doing was stating facts that you, yourselves have repeated endlessly. Now imagine how likely it is that even a politician sympathetic to your legitimate civil rights gripes has to be more supportive of you when you slam the majority of voters. A politician has a lot more to lose by standing up for you than he does ignoring you. You want to change that it won’t be by converting people to atheism, it’s going to depend on making friends with religious believers who will support you. But I see almost no interest among neo-atheists in building an effective coalition necessary to secure their civil rights and there isn’t any time to waste on the willfully ineffective.

By: Freelancer

Freelancer — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 09:13:21 +0000

Sounds like Kerry needs to be approached by the atheist lobby. He sounds just like my mother: “Well, you have to believe in Something!” logic inherent in the mindset of Christians whose concept of atheism is nothing but pure Nihilism. “there are people who don’t believe in Anything?! I don’t get that. And I don’t vote for that.”

Sounds like Kerry populist bullshit, too much listening to the pollsters.
Atheism=Hitler
Christians=George Washington.

sometimes I don’t even need bulimia to puke.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:50:52 +0000

I’m reading The Golden Compass now – not because of the movie, but just because I keep seeing people on the Interwebs talking about it. It’s pretty good, and I respect Pullman’s opinions on these matters. Naturally, there’s a lot of knee-jerk Christian responses against him and his trilogy, but they’re free to not read the books and not watch the movie(s).

By: Aj

Aj — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 01:04:13 +0000

I borrowed Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) from my cousin yesterday, it’s one of her favourites from when she was young.

It’s great to see all the atheist writers having their novels made into big movies, first Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker’s…), now Neil Gaiman (Stardust, Caroline), then Philip Pullman (The Golden Compass), and hopefully Terry Pratchett (Wee Free Men) will be next with the story being licensed by Sony and produced (possibly directed) by Sam Raimi.