Obama still making the right secular noises

Comments (23)

1. Of course Obama is doing his best to spread the idea that the Godless are somehow normal. Religions that are not centered upon himself are anathema to Obama.

   1. I find that rather hard to accept. I have seen no evidence that he sees himself as a messiah or god figure.

      1. There’s plenty of evidence that Obama sees himself as a messianic figure. Whether he takes that to a Divine level or not is admittedly open to debate.

         In any case – and leaving my sarcasm aside for the nonce – Obama is no friend to any religion with the possible exception of Islam (and that only for current political expediency).

         I’m sure that makes the Godless happy, but it’s a poor stance for anyone claiming to be an American.

2. I have seen no evidence that he sees himself as a messiah or god figure.

   Well, you don’t read enough American wingnut sites, then ;-).

   1. Oh, I read them. I just don’t see evidence. On the other hand I’m totally with Maher’s latest Rules: the bastard has the greatest hand ever dealt a reforming president. He should do something.

      1. Oh, I read them.

         You shouldn’t. Bad for the blood pressure and general mental health.

         I’m totally with Maher’s latest Rules: the bastard has the greatest hand ever dealt a reforming president. He should do something.

         …like repealing the worst of his predecessor’s excesses. And DADT. And winding down the War On Drugs. All that stuff Ed Brayton is always on about.

3. Here’s another quotation from the same speech.

   As I look out at this audience, I’m reminded of the power of faith in America — faith in God, and a faith in the promise of this great country. Each of us come from many different places. We trace our roots back to different nations, and we represent a broad spectrum of personal and political beliefs. But all of us pray to God.

   1. At a prayer breakfast, I’m betting that has a fair chance of being right.

      1. I agree. I just wonder what he would say if he was invited to address a breakfast for atheists. That would be the real test of his convictions.

4. Jonolan – whatever “normal” means, right? Nor sure your religion, but Christianity is the most selfish of the eastern religions.

   1. I haven’t really notice Christianity to be any more selfish – or jealous – than any either of other two branches of the Abrahamic faiths, Mike.

      As for “normal,” in this context one could use normative instead but most people get offended by that so I chose the less “connotatively charged” word.

5. Really? Ask about “Salvation” sometime.

   1. Ask essentially that same question to Muslim or Jew sometime. I’ve found them to have similar sorts of responses to those of Christians.

      1. No, you haven’t.

      2. Jews don’t discuss salvation, you know. Muslims don’t either. They are smug, sure, about the whole heaven thing and of course they are another of the “one true religions.” No, what I mean by the selfishness of Salvation is the whole “Personal Relationship with Jesus” and the meaning of the Parable of the Talents” thing. They evangelize because if they don’t then God will punish them for not sharing their salvation.

         It’s not my hide they are trying to save, it’s theirs.

      3. Ahhh, Mike, now I understand what your saying. 😉 Yeah, I’d have to agree with that.

6. Talk is cheap. I’ll believe him when he treats gays like regular people and abolishes the Prayer Department…

   1. On that, I can only agree.

7. @Jonolan:

   There’s plenty of evidence that Obama sees himself as a messianic figure.

   Isn’t that pretty much true of any politician? “Who better than I to lead the people…”

8. There’s plenty of evidence that Obama sees himself as a messianic figure.

   Uhuh.
   Are you going to present that “evidence”? I won’t hold my breath.

   To even mention non-believers in his speeches is a huge step forward,and a real political risk for the first black President of a factual theocracy.

   And jonolan,

   Of course Obama is doing his best to spread the idea that the Godless are somehow normal. Religions that are not centered upon himself are anathema to Obama.

   This just does not follow.One could say,its bullshit.

9. “But all of us pray to God.”

   I don’t “pray to [a] God; I pray to Virginia Woolf, who provided Jerry Coyne with his “first ‘supernatural’ experience” on June 5:
   whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/the-face-of-in-the-dirt/

   I wish Woolf would appear to me; I would like to ask her for the exact words of a statement she makes in one of her books, which I remember as “there is no Beethoven; there is no Bach and there definitely is no God.”

   Any help from Woolf scholars would be much appreciated.

   1. No scholar of lit, I, but wikkid Google fu exponent:

      “”Hamlet or a Beethoven quartet is the truth about this vast mass that we call the world. But there is no Shakespeare, there is no Beethoven; certainly and emphatically there is no God; we are the words; we are the music; we are the thing itself.”

      (Virginia Woolf, Moments of Being 72)”

10. Wow, John, you are the best. I’m no slouch at Google myself, but I couldn’t find the quote. I even tried going through _Room of One’s Own_ and _Three Guineas_ line by line. I never even thought to check _Moments of Being_.

    Thank you; thank you

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