Would we still have freedom of religion, if we had a atheist majority?

[ChristJudgeOfAll]

Would atheists have done the same as christians and granted freedom of religion in the constitution?

If all our founding fathers were atheists, do you think we would have the freedom of religion? Would atheists give christians the same freedom we gave them?

 

[The Cadet]

I'm currently not aware of any major figure in the atheist movement who does not favor freedom of religion and who does not hold freedom of speech and freedom of conscience as crucial to a functional society. Anyone voting "no" on this knows absolutely nothing about atheists or atheism.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I'm currently not aware of any major figure in the atheist movement who does not favor freedom of religion and who does not hold freedom of speech and freedom of conscience as crucial to a functional society. Anyone voting "no" on this knows absolutely nothing about atheists or atheism.

I don't know Cadet...

I generally view religion as something that retards human development.

 

[The Cadet]

I don't know Cadet...

I generally view religion as something that retards human development.

So is reality TV, but I don't think we should ban that either.

 

[Larniavc]

As long as religionists don't hurt anyone but themselves and keep out of the classroom I say let them do what they want.

The Amish seem to be able to abide by these stipulations and they seem happy enough.

 

[Ana the Ist]

As long as religionists don't hurt anyone but themselves and keep out of the classroom I say let them do what they want.

The Amish seem to be able to abide by these stipulations and they seem happy enough.

The Amish have some rather troubling inbreeding problems.

 

[Larniavc]

The Amish have some rather troubling inbreeding problems.

I did not know that. Are their communities too small to have a viable population?

 

[Ana the Ist]

So is reality TV, but I don't think we should ban that either.

Well hear me out here...

If an adult chooses to believe in a religion, that's on them...but is it really fair to do this stuff to children? Tiny humans whose brains aren't developed fully?

There's a guy on the science section of this website who thinks that the earth is flat. He's serious too. I don't know that it's necessarily wrong to tell these lies to yourself...but when you do this to a child, you've robbed them of so much potential.

Perhaps it should be a crime...that's all I'm getting at.

 

[Ana the Ist]

I did not know that. Are their communities too small to have a viable population?

There's one Amish community where basically every member can trace their ancestry back to the same three founding families. No joke.

So it's basically a geneticists dream in these places. Extraordinarily rare genetic diseases that shouldn't appear more than once in millions appear once in hundreds...or even less. They have genetic disorders that don't have names yet...

I read about this awhile back. There's one where the head comes out all tiny and they usually die relatively quickly. There's one where some protein isn't made by your body and your urine comes out smelling like maple syrup....which sounds funny, but if I remember it's entirely fatal.

 

[Larniavc]

There's one Amish community where basically every member can trace their ancestry back to the same three founding families. No joke.

So it's basically a geneticists dream in these places. Extraordinarily rare genetic diseases that shouldn't appear more than once in millions appear once in hundreds...or even less. They have genetic disorders that don't have names yet...

I read about this awhile back. There's one where the head comes out all tiny and they usually die relatively quickly. There's one where some protein isn't made by your body and your urine comes out smelling like maple syrup....which sounds funny, but if I remember it's entirely fatal.

Thanks, that's all new to me.

I hope CRISPR research can forge ahead to enable them to practice their religion in their preferred way.

 

[DogmaHunter]

Would atheists have done the same as christians and granted freedom of religion in the constitution?

I'ld say that one has no other choice. The alternative is mind control. The idea of "prohibiting" someone to believe a certain thing is pretty non-sensical.

It's a free society. You are free to believe whatever nonsense you wish.

If all our founding fathers were atheists, do you think we would have the freedom of religion? Would atheists give christians the same freedom we gave them?

Weren't quite a few of the founding fathers, atheists and deists?

 

[genestealerbroodlord]

I think atheists respect freedom. They value logic, reason and most of all physical evidence.

I think religious freedom, even under an atheist government would be a fundamental right. Although I also believe that religious people, especially those whose beliefs are more fundamentalist in nature will be mocked without mercy with an atheist majority.

I do think though that pretty much all religions would eventually die in a majority atheist country. Not because atheists would ban it. More a cultural shift would make young people embarrassed to be associated with it.

 

[pakicetus]

Would atheists have done the same as christians and granted freedom of religion in the constitution?

I don't know what atheists were like in the 18th century, but I have no doubt most atheists support freedom of religion today (as much as theists support it, anyway). Most of them don't even want to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance or the money—which makes them more tolerant than most Christians, who would go ballistic if "In Atheism We Trust" was on the money or "one country under atheism" was in the Pledge. Yeah a lot of atheists believe and say condescending things (like that education or intelligence leads to atheism, which isn't really true), but the idea that a large number of them would legally persecute religious people is unthinkable. After all, they usually have religious friends or loved ones.

Most democratic first world countries are majority atheist, and none of them have abolished religious freedom. These are all the majority atheist countries I could find: China, Japan, Vietnam, Germany, France, the U.K., South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Hungary, Sweden, Belarus, Switzerland, Austria, Bulgaria, Hong Kong, Denmark, Finland, Norway, New Zealand, Lithuania, Albania, Slovenia, Latvia, Estonia, Luxembourg, and Iceland. By my count, three of those countries are tyrannies, and two of them are officially atheistic, but all in all, it's an extremely tolerant and free group of countries. (Addendum: I was expecting to include Russia, but it was majority-theist in every poll. North Korea calls itself atheistic, but it's an incredibly religious country, probably the most religious in the world.)

 

[pakicetus]

If all our founding fathers were atheists, do you think we would have the freedom of religion?

I don't know if any of the founding fathers were atheists, but a lot of them were deists, and some of them even openly hated Christianity.

Thomas Paine wrote the first major work of Biblical criticism, The Age of Reason. It's actually a clever book that he wrote in two days while in a French prison—where he wasn't allowed a Bible, so he had to quote everything from memory. It says at the beginning: "All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." Another quote from the book: "The whole religious complexion of the modern world is due to the absence from Jerusalem of a lunatic asylum." In a 1790 letter to a Christian friend, he wrote, "It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine, and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man." He didn't even like the morality of the New Testament, which he thought was a morality of pacifism and surrender to injustice (and most Christians seem to agree with him—how many people do you think would really "turn the other cheek" for someone who struck them, or give things to someone who tried to steal from them?).

Thomas Jefferson produced the famous Jefferson Bible by cutting out every passage in the Gospels that mentioned miracles or the supernatural—leaving only the morality of Jesus, which he admired. He believed Jesus was a brilliant philosopher who never claimed to be God, whose legacy was perverted by priests and the apostles (who he called "a band of dupes and impostors"). In an 1814 letter to Horatio Spafford (who wrote It Is Well With My Soul), he said, "In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."

Benjamin Franklin deeply respected Christianity and thought religion might be necessary for public morality, but he called himself a deist. He said in his autobiography that when he was a teenager, "Some books against deism fell into my hands. It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations." A month before he died, he wrote, "As to Jesus of Nazareth, my opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the system of morals and his religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in England, some doubts as to his divinity; though it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing the truth with less trouble."

 

[quatona]

Would atheists have done the same as christians and granted freedom of religion in the constitution?

Can´t speak for anybody else, but I would defend everyone´s right to their favourite superstitions.
Christianity, however, might not remain as privileged as it has come to take for granted, under my governance.

If all our founding fathers were atheists, do you think we would have the freedom of religion?

Yes -unless you conflate atheism and anti-theism.

Would atheists give christians the same freedom we gave them?

Who is "we" in this sentence?

 

[Belk]

Would atheists have done the same as christians and granted freedom of religion in the constitution?

If all our founding fathers were atheists, do you think we would have the freedom of religion? Would atheists give christians the same freedom we gave them?

We? You were one of the founding fathers?

 

[He is Risen 72]

No, the atheist agenda is to completely destroy both the One True Christian Faith and the United States of America and replace both with a godless agrarian communist society like they did in Cambodia with Pol Pot. The new gods will be Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho, Tito and Hitler.

 

[pakicetus]

I'm currently not aware of any major figure in the atheist movement who does not favor freedom of religion and who does not hold freedom of speech and freedom of conscience as crucial to a functional society. Anyone voting "no" on this knows absolutely nothing about atheists or atheism.

This is true. Actually the major atheist figures are much more negative about religion than most atheists. Most atheists just ignore religion; two thirds say they almost never talk about it.

 

[pakicetus]

No, the atheist agenda is to completely destroy both the One True Christian Faith and the United States of America and replace both with a godless agrarian communist society like they did in Cambodia with Pol Pot. The new gods will be Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho, Tito and Hitler.

^ the cadet i'm curious how many germans talk like that?

 

[The Cadet]

No, the atheist agenda is to completely destroy both the One True Christian Faith and the United States of America and replace both with a godless agrarian communist society like they did in Cambodia with Pol Pot. The new gods will be Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Ho, Tito and Hitler.

Hmm, really? I must have missed the memo. Lemme make some calls.