Ann says Obama is an atheist not a Muslim

[MattusMaximus]

Seems to me like Ann Coulter is getting a bit jealous that Glenn Beck and Quitter Palin are stealing all of rightwing crazy spotlight of late, so she's making her own outlandish statements.

Maybe she has a book coming up she's attempting to promote?

 

[Psi Baba]

Good point. Every time we even acknowledge her deliberately controversial outbursts, she wins. On an internet forum we would call her a troll. Everything she says is calculated to push our buttons and make us want to rebut her as an almost knee-jerk reaction.

THIS. She is such a see-you-next-tuesday.

Frankly, I wish Obama was an atheist. Ol' horse-face needs to read this:
No need for president to have religion.

 

[bit_pattern]

Ol' horse-face needs to read this:

What does Amy Winehouse have to do with anything?

 

[GreNME]

Could be selection bias in the article I read, but it does not come off that way...

Are you talking about the original post's article or something else?

Part of the number of times Obama has mentioned his faith has to do with the constant questioning of his faith by folks. However, in almost every speech he gives he has some mention of his god or his faith or something similar. Any selection bias is most likely due to political partisan perceptions that Coulter (apparently unintentionally) parodies in her "liberals are atheists" comment-- the political right is seen as highly religious while the political left is seen as areligious or anti-religious.

 

[Number Six]

And yet, many homosexual politicians have come out of the closet, even if it did mean the end of their political career. AFAIK no atheist has.

I think that one reason for that is that homosexuality in a politician is more accepted by the people than is atheism. Homosexuality really has come a long way the past few decades as far as being publicly accepted. (And this may sound dumb but I wouldn't doubt that the TV show Three's Company had something to do with it, even though Jack Tripper only pretended to be gay instead of actually being gay.) Atheism OTOH may have made small gains in public acceptance but not much.

 

[ravdin]

I certainly hope that Obama isn't secretly an atheist. If he is paying lip service just to appease voters, than he's much more cynical than I've taken him for.

I'd like to see a nonbeliever serve openly as President. Maybe one day our President won't have to close every speech with the magic words "God bless America". But I'm not interested in supporting any politician if they see their atheism as something shameful that must be lied about.

 

[thatguywhojuggles]

I don't care that she calls him an atheist. I've thought that he might be myself. What bothers me is that she says it as if it were a bad thing.

 

[TubbaBlubba]

Wait, what?

I'm really fascinated by this type of opinion-- some variant being pretty prevalent in the US-- considering just how much the dude seems to talk about faith, his faith in particular, and what it means to him. Obama has given more speeches referencing or directly talking about his faith in just two years than George W Bush gave in his whole first term.

It was just my general impression. I'm not American, so I don't follow his every step. I certainly fold to the apparent contrary fact.

 

[Pardalis]

I certainly hope that Obama isn't secretly an atheist. If he is paying lip service just to appease voters, than he's much more cynical than I've taken him for.

I'm not sure. If I wanted a job real bad I'd have no problem pretending to be a theist.

 

[aggle-rithm]

Whenever someone brings up the "Obama is a Muslim" thing, I always say that it's far more likely that he's secretly an athiest than that he's secretly a Muslim.

If you're Muslim and you attend Christian church services, that's a big problem. If you're athiest and do the same thing...meh. It's meaningless.

 

[aggle-rithm]

I certainly hope that Obama isn't secretly an atheist. If he is paying lip service just to appease voters, than he's much more cynical than I've taken him for.

But he'd pretty much have to be if he's an athiest and wants to be president.

 

[Ian Osborne]

Ann Coulter is Sarah Palin without the brains. And if that's not scary, I don't know what is.

 

[ravdin]

But he'd pretty much have to be if he's an athiest and wants to be president.

Then he should do something else. It's not an endorsement of his character to say that he's lying about who he really is so he can get elected and gain power. I hope that's not true- so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he really is a believer.

 

[Earthborn]

I assume you mean American politicians? Here, I found one http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Lipman_Brown

Presumably the one that Dunstan cites is Pete Stark.

I stand corrected.

So there have been members of Congress coming out as atheist. I don't think though that is evidence that "many in Congress are atheist" and are all pretending to be Christian. Did Lipman-Brown and Stark actively pretend to be Christian, or did they just never mentioned it because no one asked?

I don't have a link but will try to find one if necessary, Earthborn.

No need.

 

[shadron]

A while back I was declaiming to someone that christians had more divorces than atheists, and he begged to differ: according to a magazine published in the 80's called something like Marriage and Divorce, the true Christian divorce rate was something like 1 out of 1200 marriages. The only reference I found was a reiteration of the same argument in another website. So, I maintain that the only christians in America are those who fit within the size of a random sample which supports that statistic: there are only 8 of them, as far as I can tell.

But I do like the fact that Ann has raised the number of atheists to around 60% or so of the US.

 

[GreNME]

It was just my general impression. I'm not American, so I don't follow his every step. I certainly fold to the apparent contrary fact.

Well that can certainly make more sense. Most of Obama's statements about faith or his beliefs tend to be in speeches given to Americans. It's essentially the American sentiment that he's rather un-religious that confounds me given his speeches.

 

[Earthborn]

24/7 ? Please , he is a christian even in his sleep ?

Isn't he? I would be surprised if a person stop belonging to a religious movement just by sleeping. It would be bad news for boring priests.

I have seen nothing from his interview or article on him which shows him as the devotional deep christian you seem to say he is. More like a hand off christian, which is one little step away (one small lie) from being an atheist.

Note that: "He became a Christian when he was in his 20s while working as a community organizer in Chicago. Obama said the churches there impressed him with their commitment to social justice and the hope they gave to the poor". He also has a background that is both secular and multi-faith. His religion is certainly different from Christians who go to fundamentalist mega-churches that preach prosperity theology. It seems he believes that Christianity should be about "good works" instead of unquestioning faith.

IMHO it is more probable it is a question of lying.

So it is true then that atheists have no morality?

 

[Pardalis]

Then he should do something else. It's not an endorsement of his character to say that he's lying about who he really is so he can get elected and gain power. I hope that's not true- so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that he really is a believer.

He wants to serve his country, so if he is an atheist, he just figured he had to spout some religious nonsense every once and again to keep up appearances because the job requires it (I hope for the moment). Who cares if he doesn't really believe? It's a victimless crime.

Presidents and heads of states have to lie about much more important things all the time. I imagine we'd be really disappointed in most if not all former presidents if we knew all the things they lied about or misrepresented about themselves while they were presidents. Lying and faking are all part of the job, aren't they?

 

[ravdin]

He wants to serve his country, so if he is an atheist, he just figured he had to spout some religious nonsense every once and again to keep up appearances because the job requires it (I hope for the moment). Who cares if he doesn't really believe? It's a victimless crime.

Presidents and heads of states have to lie about much more important things all the time. I imagine we'd be really disappointed in most if not all former presidents if we knew all the things they lied about or misrepresented about themselves while they were presidents. Lying and faking are all part of the job, aren't they?

We're all saying we would like an atheist to be electable to high office. That will never happen as long as nonbelievers are obliged to spout platitudes that are meaningless (to them) as a ploy to sway voters. If Obama is an atheist, he's not doing the rest of us any favors!

If Obama is lying about his beliefs, that means he isn't in politics to serve us- his goal is to acquire power for himself by whatever means are necessary. It's pure cynicism. As I said before, I will give him the benefit of the doubt as long as there's no compelling evidence to the contrary.

 

[DC]

Whenever someone brings up the "Obama is a Muslim" thing, I always say that it's far more likely that he's secretly an athiest than that he's secretly a Muslim.

If you're Muslim and you attend Christian church services, that's a big problem. If you're athiest and do the same thing...meh. It's meaningless.

except it turns out we were wrong and God is waiting for ya to have some serious words with you about your faking religiosity.