On Apr 17, 2019, R.S. wrote:

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On Apr 16, 2019, S2000magician wrote:

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On Apr 16, 2019, R.S. wrote:
There is a common bumper sticker that I’ve seen that says “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” That proves my point.

Only if your point is that some people have stupid bumper stickers.

No, it proves my point that It frees some believers from having to engage in intellectually honest conversations by declaring the matter settled.

Ron

On Apr 17, 2019, R.S. wrote:

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On Apr 16, 2019, S2000magician wrote:

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On Apr 16, 2019, R.S. wrote:

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On Apr 15, 2019, S2000magician wrote:

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On Apr 15, 2019, landmark wrote:
And often those believers have institutional power.

I'm not sure how many there are, and I'm not sure what the threshold is for "often", so I'll leave that one to your judgment.

Virtually all our higher elected officials. Of the current 535 members of congress, I don’t think there is even ONE openly atheist member! Historically, our Presidents, Senators, Congressmen (and women), Governors, etc. have pretty much all extolled the virtues of their religious faith. But I’ll be extremely generous and say that 10% of our elected officials have been atheists. That’s still a huge imbalance.

Sounds like evidence that the atheists don't care.

How is that evidence that atheists “don’t care”? If anything, it’s evidence that the deck is stacked against them in the general electorate.

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Because, of course, if they did care they'd have mounted a campaign to get many more atheists elected.

You're presuming that a) atheists don't care, and b) there have not been campaigns to support atheists.

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Out of curiosity, what percentage of the US population is atheist? (Feel free to use any definition of "atheist" here that suits you.)

That’s a good question and the polls do vary on that. I think a reasonable estimate is anywhere from 3-9%.

On Apr 17, 2019, R.S. wrote:

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On Apr 16, 2019, S2000magician wrote:
Are you suggesting that, as believers, magicfish and I are not allowed to disagree?

Nope. Just pointing it out, that’s all.

On Apr 17, 2019, R.S. wrote:
Are you referring to this? (just want to make sure):

“It is because it frees many believers from having to engage in intellectually honest conversations. There is a common bumper sticker that I’ve seen that says “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” That proves my point.”