This week politics will dominate the minds of most Americans. As an Englishman I get to look on with a small amount of wry amusement as the candidates and their supporters vie for public attention and their votes. It’s not that I’m not interested it’s just that I’m detached from the whole thing. Despite that I know who I would vote for if I had the opportunity. Unsurprisingly for a die-hard atheist like me it is the candidate who seems to be most secular.
Why is that important? The USA is made up of diverse states with diverse people as citizens. Many are indeed Christian but some are Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or atheist. To represent all the people the President must treat all citizens as if they hold the same faith and none. He must treat them equally. Certainly he should not ignore the religious concerns of the people (or any concerns really) but his own faith should not be the deciding factor. He must weigh up the needs of the people in representing them and treat them as fairly as he is able.
A selective reading of scripture can also support just about any view and my own preference is to dispense with this sort of fallacious argument and concentrate on things that can be supported by reason. If scripture supports the reason in some way (and it probably will if you read it in the appropriately selective way) then so much the better.
11-03-2008 |
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