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.

Nonbelivers, assemble!

A recent New York Times article by Samuel Freedman [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/18/us/18religion.html] describes how attempts to rally nonbelievers together for political influence have proved largely unsuccessful. Though recent years have shown a surge in popular atheist literature, nonbelief is not functioning as a focal point for identity politics. Lori Lipman Brown, director of the Secular Coalition, estimates that of the thirty million nonbelievers, only a few hundred thousand are actively involved in political action qua nonbelievers. Freedman speculates that reasons include the fact that open atheist support is not generally viewed as a boon by candidates, nonbelievers are difficult to organize, do not make their beliefs visible, and are are more policy-oriented than geared for mobilization.

The most intriguing facet for me is the statement that open atheist support for a candidate or initiative may be a flag for believers. Freedman writes, "As both presidential candidates ardently court religious voters, atheist support is considered so controversial that several Democrats writing on the atheist blog Petty Larseny quipped that the best way to hurt the Republicans was to form a group called Atheists for McCain." If this sentiment is widespread, politically-active atheists, who are already more likely to associate with interest groups not associated with religion, are intentionally avoiding atheist identity groups because advocacy might have iatrogenic effects. The religious-orientation model of voting implemented by Karl Rove in the 2004 elections and by both candidates in the 2008 elections calls for explicit appeals to Christian voters as such, but appeals to the 4-9% of voters who are self-identified as nontheistic [Cambridge Companion to Atheism] are done without reference to their identity as nonbelievers. With Barack Obama's specific mentioning of nonbelievers in his inauguration speech and intentional attempts to endear the faith-based initiative to nonbelievers (see his quote- "The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another, or even religious groups over secular groups,") the nonbelieving bloc has been getting acknowledgment like never before. Especially as awareness of the connectedness between religious participation and political views has risen significantly since 2004, it's likely that nonbelievers will have a more substantial political presence as a group.