Politics and Atheism

In his article “Barack Obama on Injecting Religion into Politics: What Role for Religion?” Austin Cline argues from the viewpoint of an agnostic. He condemns the growing tendency of politicians to use religion as a means of garnering support and feels that under no circumstances should it be acceptable for a political figure to preach on how religion connects to political issues.


I can see his point on the importance of the separation of church and state and how it may be inappropriate for a political figure to advocate environmental friendliness because the Bible says that God entrusted us to care for the earth. However, I think Cline’s judgment of religion is overly harsh. He basically considers political arguments based on religion as childish and immature. Personally, I think he has missed the point entirely. For example, the issue with abortion isn’t that God doesn’t think you should kill unborn children or that God thinks you should have a choice. What makes it religious are the moral values derived from religion which guide our decisions. Separating religion, and therefore the moral arguments, from politics is completely impractical.


In his book, “With God on Our Side,” Martin explains the rise of the Religious Right, detailing how certain leaders realized all of the untapped voting power and strong opinions of evangelicals. This could lead to the conclusion that religion may not have played a huge role in American politics previously, although it is important to remember that, as we mentioned in class the other day, many feel that our nation was founded on Christian values. Regardless, complete separation of church and state is no longer an option. Once the evangelicals got involved in the political system, they are there to stay. As Martin described, there are always more battles to fight and issues for the people to rally behind. Likewise, as Robinson pointed out to Reagan, the evangelicals don’t base their allegiance on certain people or parties, they base it on moral stands. In other words, if it weren’t for the opinions generated by religion, they would not really have set political standpoints, illustrating the inherent ties between religion and politics. Our religious beliefs, or lack thereof, help shape who we are and our political ideologies. Chances are, Cline has let his contempt for religion influence his views just as much as Christians let their religion influence their views.