From: David MOREY (us@divadeus.freeserve.co.uk)
Date: Sat Jan 03 2004 - 16:42:48 GMT
Hi Platt
To answer your question, an atheist would
be electable in UK, but at a time when people
were looking for someone to trust, Tony Blair
was partly elected because of his religious beliefs
and clear family values.
regards
David M
----- Original Message -----
From: "Platt Holden" <pholden@sc.rr.com>
To: <moq_discuss@moq.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2004 1:27 PM
Subject: Re: MD In God we trust
> Hi JoVo
>
> Happy New Year to you, too. I was in bed by 10PM and slept right through
> the celebrations. Mostly a sign of my advancing age.
>
> > Now the followig is rather a question. Would you think that Pat Boone's
> > (guest-)commentary in the Wash.-Post under the title "One nation 'under
> > god' " ( jan 3. ) is an example of the political center of the american
> > people - mainstream so to say.
>
> Far be it for me to identify the political center of the American people.
> As in Europe, political beliefs in America based on religion run the gamut
> from those who believe in a literal interpretations of the Bible to pure
> atheism. I do think it's fair to say that generally speaking, Europeans
> tend to be more atheistic and thus more secular than Americans. Would you
> agree?
>
> > Especially I would like to know, whether
> > you would subscribe to the following '[...] As wise as our forefathers
> > were, even they recognized that Divine Providence influenced their every
> > move[...]'. It may be that I was quite mistaken on some aspects about
USA.
>
> No, I do not subscribe to that statement. Our forefathers "every move"
> was influenced by any number of factors including down and dirty politics
> and selfish commercial interests. They did, however, use God as an excuse
> to override the power of government, claiming that individual human rights
> are God-given rather than government-granted. To what extent they actually
> believed that I have no idea. (Attributing motives to others is mighty
> risky business.) But, the assertion that people "are endowed by their
> Creator with certain inalienable rights" turned the world on its ear.
> Never before in history (to the best of my knowledge) was freedom
> acknowledged by any government to be the natural heritage of every human
> being starting at birth. I liken it to DQ. As Pirsig says, every human is
> born with DQ. To the newborn It predominates everything. The connection to
> the assertion of our forefathers is that freedom is DQ's highest value.
>
> I hope this addresses your question, but if I'm off the mark please let me
> know. To paint a very broad brush of the difference between Europe and
> America, no American can be elected president today who admitted to being
> an atheist whereas in Europe it probably makes little or no difference as
> to the electability of a national leader. Am I wrong?
>
> Again, wishing you the best for the New Year,
> Platt
>
>
>
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