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	<title>Comments on: God&#8217;s President</title>
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	<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/</link>
	<description>by Hemant Mehta</description>
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		<title>By: Darryl</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314622</link>
		<dc:creator>Darryl</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 May 2009 19:37:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314622</guid>
		<description>What makes me worry about our country are the number of citizens that are okay with torture, and okay with our profit-driven and aimless militarism.  These are the same people that reelected the dumbest President in history and got scared by the likes of that madman Dick Cheney into going to war in Iraq.  These folks are still out there, and are still untrustworthy.  They also happen to make up the 90+% of folks that believe in God and think that to teach creationsim alongside evolution would not be a bad idea.  Forgive me, but this bears repeating: Bush is not to blame for the last eight years (once a dumbass always a dumbass)--we are!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>What makes me worry about our country are the number of citizens that are okay with torture, and okay with our profit-driven and aimless militarism.  These are the same people that reelected the dumbest President in history and got scared by the likes of that madman Dick Cheney into going to war in Iraq.  These folks are still out there, and are still untrustworthy.  They also happen to make up the 90+% of folks that believe in God and think that to teach creationsim alongside evolution would not be a bad idea.  Forgive me, but this bears repeating: Bush is not to blame for the last eight years (once a dumbass always a dumbass)&#8211;we are!</p>
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		<title>By: Shannon Vaughn</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314595</link>
		<dc:creator>Shannon Vaughn</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 May 2009 16:18:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314595</guid>
		<description>&lt;blockquote&gt;Seriously, how the hell did we survive the last 8 years? We are lucky that he didn’t get fired on The Spirits and decide to launch some nukes.
&lt;/blockquote&gt;

I think it remains to be seen whether we &lt;em&gt;will&lt;/em&gt; survive the last eight years.  We are far from seeing the end results of some of the plans and policies enacted by the Bush administration.  The wars he started are far from resolved, the torture he ordered/allowed has spawned new generations of terrorists, some of whom may not even be born yet, he did NOTHING to rid the world of the continuing nuclear threat, and he absolutely wasted eight years when we could have been making some real progress on climate change, and all of that only scratches the surface of the devastation he left in this country.  Don&#039;t get me started on the economy!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>Seriously, how the hell did we survive the last 8 years? We are lucky that he didn’t get fired on The Spirits and decide to launch some nukes.
</p></blockquote>
<p>I think it remains to be seen whether we <em>will</em> survive the last eight years.  We are far from seeing the end results of some of the plans and policies enacted by the Bush administration.  The wars he started are far from resolved, the torture he ordered/allowed has spawned new generations of terrorists, some of whom may not even be born yet, he did NOTHING to rid the world of the continuing nuclear threat, and he absolutely wasted eight years when we could have been making some real progress on climate change, and all of that only scratches the surface of the devastation he left in this country.  Don&#8217;t get me started on the economy!</p>
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		<title>By: Shannon Vaughn</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314591</link>
		<dc:creator>Shannon Vaughn</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 May 2009 16:05:45 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314591</guid>
		<description>I saw something interesting that relates to this recently on Keith Olberman.  He had on Reverend C. Welton Gaddy, who is the president of the Interfaith Alliance.  Although he is a Baptist minister, he is a staunch advocate of the First Amendment and the separation of church and state, which makes him one of my heroes.  

Anyway, he said that the actual meaning of &quot;taking the Lord&#039;s name in vain,&quot; which is prohibited by some commandment or other, is not saying things like &quot;god dammit,&quot; as most people believe it means.  Rather, it is claiming to have heard directly from god and using those claims to justify doing what you want to do; this is exactly what W. did when he claimed that god told him to run for president and to start the war.  

Obviously Bush isn&#039;t the only christian who is guilty of this behavior--people of Pat Robertson&#039;s ilk make claims like these all the time.  

Personally, I still think they&#039;re wacko and/or con artists, but according to christian doctrine, they&#039;re sinners too!!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I saw something interesting that relates to this recently on Keith Olberman.  He had on Reverend C. Welton Gaddy, who is the president of the Interfaith Alliance.  Although he is a Baptist minister, he is a staunch advocate of the First Amendment and the separation of church and state, which makes him one of my heroes.  </p>
<p>Anyway, he said that the actual meaning of &#8220;taking the Lord&#8217;s name in vain,&#8221; which is prohibited by some commandment or other, is not saying things like &#8220;god dammit,&#8221; as most people believe it means.  Rather, it is claiming to have heard directly from god and using those claims to justify doing what you want to do; this is exactly what W. did when he claimed that god told him to run for president and to start the war.  </p>
<p>Obviously Bush isn&#8217;t the only christian who is guilty of this behavior&#8211;people of Pat Robertson&#8217;s ilk make claims like these all the time.  </p>
<p>Personally, I still think they&#8217;re wacko and/or con artists, but according to christian doctrine, they&#8217;re sinners too!!</p>
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		<title>By: DicePlayGod</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314518</link>
		<dc:creator>DicePlayGod</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 May 2009 03:31:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314518</guid>
		<description>&quot;... But unlike Bush, there is no indication that he thinks he communicates with God ...&quot;

If my experience growing up in a Christian church is any guide, &lt;strong&gt;all&lt;/strong&gt; Christians believe they are communicating directly with god during prayer. And they believe that god speaks directly to them in a &quot;still, small voice&quot;.

If Obama calls himself a Christian, I think we can be almost 100% certain that he believes he communicates with god. However, the improvement over Bush is that he doesn&#039;t justify his decisions with reference to that communication. He uses normal reasoning about secular criteria in all his statements.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>&#8220;&#8230; But unlike Bush, there is no indication that he thinks he communicates with God &#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>If my experience growing up in a Christian church is any guide, <strong>all</strong> Christians believe they are communicating directly with god during prayer. And they believe that god speaks directly to them in a &#8220;still, small voice&#8221;.</p>
<p>If Obama calls himself a Christian, I think we can be almost 100% certain that he believes he communicates with god. However, the improvement over Bush is that he doesn&#8217;t justify his decisions with reference to that communication. He uses normal reasoning about secular criteria in all his statements.</p>
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		<title>By: Iason Ouabache</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314472</link>
		<dc:creator>Iason Ouabache</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 May 2009 00:03:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314472</guid>
		<description>Seriously, how the hell did we survive the last 8 years?  We are lucky that he didn&#039;t get fired on The Spirits and decide to launch some nukes.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Seriously, how the hell did we survive the last 8 years?  We are lucky that he didn&#8217;t get fired on The Spirits and decide to launch some nukes.</p>
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		<title>By: David D.G.</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314446</link>
		<dc:creator>David D.G.</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 May 2009 22:01:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314446</guid>
		<description>Egad!

=^O

Man, G.W. Bush has got to be one of the scariest political leaders of the last 50 years --- right up there with Kim Jong Il, and for some of the same reasons.  I&#039;m starting to be grateful, however, for all the damage he did &lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;not&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/strong&gt; do, such as using nukes on anyone.  Let&#039;s hope that Korea&#039;s fanatical leader doesn&#039;t decide to outdo Bush in that regard!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Egad!</p>
<p>=^O</p>
<p>Man, G.W. Bush has got to be one of the scariest political leaders of the last 50 years &#8212; right up there with Kim Jong Il, and for some of the same reasons.  I&#8217;m starting to be grateful, however, for all the damage he did <strong><em>not</em></strong> do, such as using nukes on anyone.  Let&#8217;s hope that Korea&#8217;s fanatical leader doesn&#8217;t decide to outdo Bush in that regard!</p>
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		<title>By: littlejohn</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314445</link>
		<dc:creator>littlejohn</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 May 2009 21:54:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314445</guid>
		<description>Reginald: I agree, and I tend to place myself in the second group. Obama is politically savvy and knows he has to go through the motions to get elected. It&#039;s hard to believe someone that intellectually accomplished hasn&#039;t noticed the logical problems with god-belief. In addition, Obama&#039;s comfort with modern science -- he just appointed a cyber-crimes tsar, ended the ban on stem cell research, etc. -- suggests a secular mind-set.
I think it&#039;s no coincidence that Dubya, the worst president in American history, may also have been the most religious.
Like the old joke goes, when you talk to god, it&#039;s called praying. When god talks to you, it&#039;s called schizophrenia. Bush has said that god told him to run for president. I think that explains a lot.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Reginald: I agree, and I tend to place myself in the second group. Obama is politically savvy and knows he has to go through the motions to get elected. It&#8217;s hard to believe someone that intellectually accomplished hasn&#8217;t noticed the logical problems with god-belief. In addition, Obama&#8217;s comfort with modern science &#8212; he just appointed a cyber-crimes tsar, ended the ban on stem cell research, etc. &#8212; suggests a secular mind-set.<br />
I think it&#8217;s no coincidence that Dubya, the worst president in American history, may also have been the most religious.<br />
Like the old joke goes, when you talk to god, it&#8217;s called praying. When god talks to you, it&#8217;s called schizophrenia. Bush has said that god told him to run for president. I think that explains a lot.</p>
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		<title>By: Jeff</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314443</link>
		<dc:creator>Jeff</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 May 2009 21:51:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314443</guid>
		<description>Perhaps NonStampCollector should make a new version of his &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt66kbYmXXk&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;Jephthah cartoon&lt;/a&gt; and make Bush the character asking for God&#039;s help in fighting his enemies.  

In Bush&#039;s case, I wonder who would Bush need to sacrifice to appease God at the end?</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Perhaps NonStampCollector should make a new version of his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pt66kbYmXXk" rel="nofollow">Jephthah cartoon</a> and make Bush the character asking for God&#8217;s help in fighting his enemies.  </p>
<p>In Bush&#8217;s case, I wonder who would Bush need to sacrifice to appease God at the end?</p>
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		<title>By: Reginald Selkirk</title>
		<link>http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2009/05/29/gods-president/#comment-314438</link>
		<dc:creator>Reginald Selkirk</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 May 2009 21:45:11 +0000</pubDate>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://friendlyatheist.com/?p=12031#comment-314438</guid>
		<description>&lt;i&gt;With the exception of a certain type of conspiracy theorist, Obama is widely considered to be the type of Christian who finds his faith very important.&lt;/i&gt;

There are &lt;b&gt;two&lt;/b&gt; types of people who think Obama may not be a genuine Christian. The first is inbred yokels led by the Religious Right who believe the rumours about Obama being a secret muslim.

The second suspect Obama may be a &quot;Christian of convenience&quot; who is actually a freethinker. Well, they do acknowledge that Obama considers his faith to be very important - politically.</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><i>With the exception of a certain type of conspiracy theorist, Obama is widely considered to be the type of Christian who finds his faith very important.</i></p>
<p>There are <b>two</b> types of people who think Obama may not be a genuine Christian. The first is inbred yokels led by the Religious Right who believe the rumours about Obama being a secret muslim.</p>
<p>The second suspect Obama may be a &#8220;Christian of convenience&#8221; who is actually a freethinker. Well, they do acknowledge that Obama considers his faith to be very important &#8211; politically.</p>
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