Why Are Politicians Urged To Hide Their Atheism?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30848534
I would have thought not believeing any of the brands of fairy tales would be a good thing for an MP.

[andy-hughes]

Gromit - "Tora / andy-hughes,
Have you ever done Jury Service? Did you swear on the bible?"

I have not, but I would affirm rather than swear - I think the difference is important in that instance, rather than simply rocking up to church and singing along.

[jim360]

On my recent Jury service I affirmed as opposed to swearing on the Bible. So did one other person. We were also the only two who'd chosen two before the ballot, and we both ended up on the Jury. The Clerk of the Court said "Typical..."

[naomi24]

Andy-Hughes, well you did ask. ;o)

[andy-hughes]

Indeed I did xx

[sp1814]

Just to backtrack a little...despite the fact that I don't believe in the constructs of organised religion...whilst watching a recent David Attenborough documentary, it struck me that as a machine, how does the world actually function as well as it does?

It seems like a miracle that evolution has determined the relationship between different animal and plant species and that everything in nature is held 'in balance'.

The niggle that I have with my atheism is that without a governing 'power' how the hell did the world become such an efficient machine?

And then I watched the recent 'Noah' movie and it all comes tumbling down again.

[naomi24]

I tried watching that recently, sp..... 20 minutes later I gave up.

[atalanta]

To return to the original subject - the reason people prefer to vote for a "god-fearing" politician. People do not like to think of a leader being beyond control. If a politician claims to be a believer, s/he accepts the control of ( and obedience to) a higher power. Those who accept no higher power have ( apparently) no duty or reason to behave themselves, since they have no fear of out-of-this-world punishment or retribution.
So people feel. Some of them.

[jim360]

"I tried watching [Noah] recently, sp..... 20 minutes later I gave up."

Pity, I've been wondering if in the end credits there's the usual disclaimer featured in movies: "The characters and events portrayed in this motion picture are fictitious...."

[naomi24]

I do hope so Jim.

[brionon]

We are ALL atheists. A none believer in the tooth fairy is an atheist.

[brionon]

I just believe in one fewer God than you-Gotit ?

[whiskeryron]

//
Perhaps it is because this is a Christian country and all our pageantry hinges on this, so when they are called upon to attend Westminster Abbey or St Paul's Cathedral for example, they would show themselves up to be hypocrites?

Just the same as those devout atheists who choose to marry in church.//

Well said aog

[andy-hughes]

whiskeyron - "Just the same as those devout atheists who choose to marry in church.//

Well said aog"

I would respond to you in the same way that I responded to AOG -

I do not feel a hypocrite because I married in church (and a Catholic church at that, which seems to have further raised AOG's ire) simply because in order to view an action in terms of hypocrisy, it is necessary to have something approaching a position from which to argue.

As far as my lack of faith is concerned, it is - as others have advised, the absence of a belief, rather than an equal and opposite belief.

This absence in turn leads to vast swathes of utter indifference to the concept of religion, and its support structures, so I had no problem at all with marrying in church, it does not go against my 'beliefs' because there are none to go against, therefore nothing to compromise or betray, or pretend about, so I continue to maintain that I am not a hypocrite.

[ToraToraTora]

SP: "The niggle that I have with my atheism is that without a governing 'power' how the hell did the world become such an efficient machine?" - It's known as the weak anthropic principle - the basic idea is that it works because we are here. Essentially, given the vastness the universe it's a statictically certain that somewhere the correct conditions will exist for what we have here now.