Can Atheists Be Good Citizens?

[Robin]

I doubt that Neumann, as you may be implying, thought that Democrats and Republicans (for instance) were what he would consider political enemies. Both accept the underlying premise of the United States of America as a propositional nation even if they differ on particular applications of that premise. It's only in so far as one rejects the premise that one becomes an enemy.

I was implying nothing of the sort (and I am puzzled why you would think I thought that). Democrats and Republicans are all but indistinguishable to anybody living outside the United States.

I was referring to genuine political enemies, for example those who supported the Soviet model of Communism and sought to expand it to the rest of the world. That was pretty inimical to the idea of the United States.

Yet someone holding those ideas could express them freely in a democracy and discuss them openly and peacefully and still be friends who thought the idea crazy.

It is, as I said, profoundly undemocratic to say that people in a democracy cannot be friends with someone who advocates a different form of government. Undemocratic, obtuse and counter-productive.

The Muslim clerics who want to promote extremism also tell their followers that they cannot be friends with their political and religious enemies. Because they know that such friendships promote understanding, tolerance and moderation.

As I said, it is the genius of democracy that such friendships can happen and thrive. It is often our best protection against extremism.

 

[Furi]

Who are the atheists who aren't skeptics?

I suppose non of the wiccans, spiritualist astrologers, Gaeans, Raeliens, shamanists, newages, Buddhists, Taoists, and infact all the other peops that do not believe in a deity but accept something like pre determinism, ESP, homepathy, posession, channeling etc without question and do not enquire as to the nature of claims don't count as atheist non-skeptics

I know plenty of atheists that are far less skeptical then theists, and one or two that think the phrase open minded means every bit of info has equal merit, and wouldn't recognise any critical thinking if it possessed a Titanium Clue bat in one hand, and a big blue neon sign that flashed "THINK!" every time you got spanged for spouting sumtin stoopid.

or do you mean atheists that are not skeptical towards god. in which case that would be almost as many as theists that are skeptical to the existance of god.