Consider: Religion and Politics

[TechBear_Seattle]

Why would you vote for a president who has a different religion than you? If you are certain of the rightness of your own beliefs, and equally certain of the wrongness of a presidential candidate’s belief, that proves the candidate has, in your opinion, bad judgment about the most important question in reality.

For this discussion, I think you would have to say that someone who believes in a literal interpretation of the bible, complete with devils and angels, has a different religion from a Christian who believes much of the bible is not literal. The point is not whether the two have much in common, but how good they are at determining truth from nonsense. That’s exactly the sort of skill you want a president to have.

Arguably, sorting truth from nonsense is the biggest part of being president. Every big question has multiple possible solutions. The president’s job is to pick the right one.

You wouldn’t vote for a candidate who believes in Ouija boards or horoscopes, because such beliefs would be a reliable indication of simple-mindedness. So why would you vote for a candidate who can’t figure out what version of God is right? If he can’t get that right, according to you, how good is his judgment? You probably think picking the right religion is not a hard challenge, because you got it right without much struggle. You want your leader to be at least as smart as you.

Scott Adams stirs the pot yet again at http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2008/01/religion-and-po.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. If you believe all paths lead to God,

then there's no problem. Check my sig line.

[JerseygirlCT]

6. LOL. I like this, unsurprisingly! nt

[trotsky]

9. Did Branch Davidianism lead to god?

Heaven's Gate?
Jim Jones?
Catholicism in the middle ages when Jews and heretics were tortured and killed?

[John Gauger]

16. Catholicism today

when the church is actively aiding and abetting pedophiles?

[Warpy]

2. I've always had to vote for someone of a different faith

because I'm a Buddhist and no Buddhist has run for public office anywhere I've been registered to vote.

People who belong to a majority and are so afraid that some day they'll have to step outside it scare me.

[JerseygirlCT]

7. Well, actually, there are a number of Christians who scare me

(a Christian) a whole lot more than most Buddhists, atheists, or Jews I've come across.

It's really more about how eager or willing they are to impose their beliefs on the public than about exactly what those beliefs are.

[uberllama42]

3. Learning about Kucinich's penchant for New Age superstition threw that into focus for me

Why should I vote for any of the other candidates? I think that by buying into Christianity (or Mormonism) they are displaying a lapse in judgment as significant as consulting a horoscope to determine policy questions. I feel more disenfranchised than ever. I don't really know what the hell I'm going to do, since I don't expect an atheist to run any time soon.

[Silent3]

4. I don't have a religion, and don't ever get to choose...

...a candidate like me who doesn't have one. All American candidate must loudly proclaim faith and religion in order to be considered.

But I'll vote for any candidate who upholds separation of church and state, who isn't trying to foist their religious so-called values on me, and whose beliefs aren't so bizarre as to call into question the candidate's grasp on reality.

[JerseygirlCT]

5. Depends mostly on his/her view of how his/her religion ought

to impact public policy.

Let's take the Biblical literalist -- which I'm not. If this literalist held those beliefs, but didn't seem to think they ought to impact public policy choices, or that this belief had to be imposed on others, then I don't think I'd care.

Should we be talking about a Huckabee, for example, who most certainly uses his religious beliefs to guide his policy choices, and limit the choices of anyone who believes differently... then we're talking about something different.

[Random_Australian]

8. ... does that seem really contrived to anyone else? (contrived = wrong here)

"If you are certain of the rightness of your own beliefs"

Even leaving aside the whole "I vote for people based on policy & don't care about religion" thing, it has to be said that there is a difference between believing something and believing that no rational person could possibly come to a different conclusion than you; and furthermore you would have to believe that in no way could you possibly be wrong on the matter.

Finally, you'd have to believe that they think about every task in exactly the same way.

Which is stupid. Ever seen a scientist who is religious? It happens in other people in a less extreme way, but it is most noticeable in that case that people deal with different things in different ways.

[TechBear_Seattle]

10. You've never read Scott Adams' blog before, have you?

This is the guy who created Dilbert. In his blog, he likes to stir things up; typically he will start with a topic (such as religion in a political context), take a commonly held assumption about that topic (such as "My religion is the only correct one") and twist every last drop of sarcasm and satire he can out of that assumption. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Personally, I think this one worked perfectly in the way it skewers certain obnoxious segments of American political society.

[Random_Australian]

11. Aaaah, I get it know.

The score for me realising something is satire:

Me: 3 Satirists: 48379

Damn.

:)

[Bad Thoughts]

12. Problematic Interpretation

I rests largely on the Christian notion that one must be able to identify with precision who the deity is. Not all religions are so obsessed.

[mac2]

13. It appears the politicians in DC are turning off people

We don't want to go to church since it is so full of hypocrites.

Here's the lastest survey:

http://www.ucc.org/news/survey-un-churched.html

The "unchurched" are the majority when they make us think they are a tiny minority.

[anacreon]

14. Interesting

Being an atheist, I am left without any candidate matching my religious views. If I were Christian, however, so long as a candidates logic lined up with my morality, I would not have an issue voting for a non-Christian.

I think that it is ridiculous that people are looking to the religious views of candidates to determine their potential abilities as president. My main concern is that being Christian, especially in politics today, is rarely more than a label. If you are not Christian, you are not in the running. It's easy to call yourself Christan and to thank God after speeches, but these people are campaigning.

As an atheist, I would love to see an atheist run. However, if this Atheist was an idiot or if his plans for the country were not what I wanted to see, I would vote for someone of a different faith.

Anyway, faith is a tricky thing. I would care less if my candidate believed in psychics so long as he is not dialing up his psychic friend to determine international policy.

[Dorian Gray]

15. I, of course, would vote for someone with varying religious beliefs...

our Constitutional law does not have anything to do with religion. Politics and Religion should NOT be in bed with one another, and a President SHOULD be able to divorce his faith in order to make fair political decisions.

I would never vote for someone of ANY faith who would marry his religion to his politics. That would truly bother me.

[mac2]

17. Me either

[skepticscott]

18. Trouble is, you never know that they wouldn't

Lots of candidates SAY that they won't let their religious beliefs override secular considerations in public policy decisions, but even if they actually mean it when they say it, we have no way of knowing if they'll stick to it when push comes to shove, other than electing them and then crossing our fingers. I feel like we'd be doing that with Obama...he sucks up to the religious right a little too easily for my comfort.

[Dorian Gray]

19. I think then it's up to our own moral compass and our intuition to support a

candidate that we believe in. We may sometimes fail, but that is more because a candidate misrepresented themselves.

Huckabee is an example of a candidate whom I can't fathom anyone taking seriously because of this very issue. Obama is different. He's had a quasi political/religious run, and I can't quite put my finger on his pulse yet.