Will a Non-believer/Atheist/Agnostic ever sit on the SCOTUS?

[stopbush]

Seems strange that the highest court in the land is handing down real-world, 21st-century decisions while allowing the make believe of religion to inform said decisions.

What’s with all the Catholics on the SCOTUS?

[Bettie]

1. Not in our lifetime

the religious folk run the show.

Did you know that there are still states in which you MUST have a religion to run for office?

[onenote]

4. There are around a half dozen states that have such provisions in their constitutions

But they're unenforceable and I can't recall them being used to block someone from holding office.

[Bettie]

7. The fact that they are on the books

at all is disturbing.

I expect that these laws will eventually be used to make the case for theocracy once the Right Wing gets the SC they want.

[onenote]

9. Those laws are derelicts.

For example, the Maryland Constitution still has such a provision, even though the US Supreme Court unanimously affirmed the principle that there can be no religious test for holding office in a 1961 case involving that provision.

And the South Carolina constitution still has such a provision even though more than 20 years the South Carolina supreme court (not exactly the most liberal court in the land) unanimously held it violated the US constitution.

No one is trying to enforce these facially unconstitutional provisions and no one is going to.

[Bettie]

10. A lot of things are happening now

that no one thought ever would.

You may be right. I hope you are, but I no longer say "that will never happen".

[lark]

2. One is right now - he just lies about it.

[maxsolomon]

3. Yes.

By the time my children are elderly, the majority of Americans will be Atheists.

America 2100 will be a very different place. I hope.

[onenote]

5. And on what do you base your prediction

that a majority of Americans will be atheists in the foreseeable future (your children's lifetime is the foreseeable future).

[maxsolomon]

8. the rate of increase in atheism over the last quarter century.

I could be wrong, sure.

[LanternWaste]

6. You probably do not notice the irony.

"strange that the highest court in the land is handing down real-world, 21st-century decisions..."

Law, nations, politics, economics, et. al., are just as imaginary as religion. They simply do not exist any more or any less than religion exists.

The pretense that one imaginary constructs is more valid, or more "real" than another, wholly imaginary construct, is at best, misguided. Then we further enhance that pretense by pretending one imaginary construct should have nothing to do with another.

They exist only because we believe in them, place our faith in them, and abide by their tenets as good parishioners of politics, or a certain nation-state, or because the red and blue lines on a map tell us to.

We predicate daily decisions on the imaginary, we plan our lives based on the imaginary, we hope against hope because of the imaginary.

Try not to get caught up in the imaginary. Or do get caught up in the imaginary. Your choice, of course. Yet admit to yourself (if to no one else) that it's all sand-castles, unicorns and magic thinking-- something humans have been deluding ourselves about since we picked up our first stick.

[stopbush]

11. Not really. Not at all.

But if it works for you, fine.