Religion
Related: About this forumRichard Dawkins endorses atheist to fill DeMint’s seat
December 10, 2012
by Paul Bowers
This just in from the Department of Long Shots: Herb Silverman, South Carolina's most famous atheist, is in the running to fill U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint's seat when the conservative legislator retires partway through his term in January. And Richard Dawkins, the English biologist and author of The God Delusion, has started a letter-writing campaign to put him in office.
Silverman, a former math professor at the College of Charleston and current president of the Secular Coalition for America, knows he doesn't have a snowball's chance in South Carolina. Republican Gov. Nikki Haley will appoint DeMint's replacement, and likely candidates include prominent Republicans like U.S. Rep. Tim Scott and former S.C. Attorney General Henry McMaster.
If Haley were to pick him, Silverman says, "It would shatter my faithlessness. I might reconsider my belief in miracles." He says Dawkins approached him about the idea, and the point is to raise awareness for the causes of religious (and non-religious) equality and the separation of church and state. "I really hope there's enough publicity about my willingness to become a senator so that at least Nikki Haley has to acknowledge this and make a comment about it," Silverman says.
This isn't the first time Silverman has run for office to make a point. In 1990, after learning about a state law that denied public office to anyone "who denies the existence of a Supreme Being," he made a run for governor and lost spectacularly to Republican incumbent Carroll Campbell. In 1997, after Silverman attempted to become a notary public without saying "so help me God" in his oath, the S.C. Supreme Court unanimously struck down the law as unconstitutional.
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/richard-dawkins-endorses-atheist-to-fill-demints-seat/Content?oid=4246039
He ran third party in 1990.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Both, it seems, are unlikely to get the job, but are making a point.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)that just won't do!
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I love the way he talks about his catholicism, by the way. And his mom.
He's a treasure.
struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)AnOhioan
(2,894 posts)longship
(40,416 posts)There are many libertarians in the atheist community.
I have no info on Silverman, but Dawkins may have a chance to get his wish if Silverman is.
This speaks against putting somebody in an office based solely on their religious beliefs, or lack thereof.
And I am an atheist who likes Dawkins. But I do not agree with him on this, and some other issues.
Please, Richard, stick to biology.
rug
(82,333 posts)He describes himself as a liberal and has been progressive in some areas but he strikes me mainly as a one issue gadfly.
struggle4progress
(118,282 posts)... why would a liberal, Yankee, Jewish atheist like me run for governor of South Carolina? ... In 1990 a colleague .. pointed out that the South Carolina Constitution prohibited atheists from becoming governor ... I asked a local ACLU lawyer how this obviously unconstitutional provision could be removed. He said that to mount a legal challenge, an open atheist would have to become a candidate ...
Does this candidate have a prayer?
By HERB SILVERMAN - THE WASHINGTON POST
Added: Saturday, 02 June 2012 at 8:33 PM
http://old.richarddawkins.net/articles/646109-does-this-candidate-have-a-prayer
I guess he can promote himself as the liberal, Yankee, atheist candidate -- and it might even be a shizzload of fun -- but it might also be about the most losing strategy possible for South Carolina, a state that still has the so-called rebel flag flying on public property
LeftishBrit
(41,205 posts)And even speaking as a Brit with a strong interest in American politics myself, I think Dawkins needs to worry about the religious-right infiltration in his own backyard (I believe he's in the same Oxford constituency as I am, and I've expressed my concerns about some of what's been going on here before now), before he gets involved in South Carolina.