Poll: Fewer See Democrats As Friendly Toward Religion

[sabra]

http://www.thenewmexicochannel.com/news/4917500/detail.html

Poll: Fewer See Democrats As Friendly Toward Religion

WASHINGTON -- Democrats' efforts to improve their image with religious voters after the 2004 presidential election don't seem to be working.

A new Pew Research Center poll finds only 29 percent of those surveyed view the Democrats as friendly to religion, down from 40 percent at this time last year, while 55 percent say the Republicans are religion-friendly.

But a majority of those who identify themselves as independents say they believe religious conservatives have too much control over the GOP.

[Carolab]

1. Define "religion". n/t

[Fovea]

2. But how many see religion

as friendly to democracy?

[nicknameless]

38. Exactly!

:thumbsup:

[Nite Owl]

3. Maybe that's a good thing

and they should stop trying. This friendly towards religion crowd has brought us death and cruelty.

[cloud_chaser1]

4. I suggest we....

get our act together regarding the democratic view of religion and its relationship to government. This could be a rather serious problem for us.

[ridgerunner]

7. What exactly is

the democratic view of religion and its relationship to government?

[personman]

18. IMO

That no one has any more right to their religion then anyone else. You should have the right to practice whatever religion you want, or no religion at all, and shouldn't be treated any differently regardless.

And as far as it's relationship to government, I don't think there should be one. Government should neither promote nor condemn religion in general, nor show any preference for a particular religion over any other.

What do you think?

-personman

Edit: So when you look at it that way, we are actually much friendlier to a far wider variety of systems of belief then they are. We want true religious freedom. So in many ways we are the party more supportive of religion in general.

[ridgerunner]

29. I'm in complete agreement with you

What get's me the most is when people try to infuse their religion into government by claiming that they are in the majority, so the minority just better suck it up. What they fail to understand is that things change. What if 50 years down the road Islam was practiced by 75% of Americans. How would these same people feel about their coins bearing the words "One Nation Under Allah"?

[personman]

34. Can you imagine the indignation...

if one of these right-wing christians had to swear on a Koran?
I can literally picture the face reddening, veins swelling, blood pressure skyrocketing...

Or if a judge told them they weren't allowed to teach their children christianity?

I should also mention though that I view secular folks who hate the religious pretty much the same way I view the religious folks who hate the secular. Anyone who wants anything less then an equal playing field are part of the problem IMO.

Don't believe in abortion? Don't get one! Don't believe in gay marriage? Don't marry some gay dude! I thought the rights of one person were supposed to stop at the rights of another person? Why then are people denied their right to NOT conform to a right-wing christian moral view? That doesn't sound like religious freedom to me.
Wasn't that supposedly the reason this country was founded?

-personman

[ridgerunner]

37. Well, you know

I would love it if we lived in a world where it was live and let live, but a lot of folks seem to want to live in a world where's it more do as I say, not as I do.

[leftchick]

51. that is exactly how I feel

I imagine they have interviewed the fundie freaks for this poll.

[Joyce78]

8. Religion

I'm what I refer to as a "recovering" Catholic ... raised as a strict Irish Catholic. I'm dealing with my own views concerning organized religion; however, strongly uphold the separation of Church and State.

[lvx35]

11. Agreed. The majority of America is religious.

I hate to quote Fox, but its the first thing up when I google it, and I have seen similar results (90%) elsewhere:

Fully 92 percent of Americans say they believe in God, 85 percent in heaven and 82 percent in miracles

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,99945,00.html

Interestingly, the majority believes in Evolution. There are many like me, who believe intensely in God while while rejecting fundamentalism and embracing science.

Edit: oops! correction. What I'm reading now tells me that statement about evolution may be wrong, the majority may be creationist.

[politicat]

32. Check those numbers....

in 2000, the ARIS study from the Graduate Center of the University of New York (google ARIS study to bring the whole thing up) stated that 14% of the nation said they had no religion, and those not of a judeo-christian-muslim background (including the non-religious above) brought the total up to 1 in 3. Many buddhists, shintoists, confuscianists, taoists etc do not believe in a "god" or a "heaven" as is likely defined by Faux. Miracles? Define your parameters, and even this hard-headed agnostic is likely to agree that some things are miracles. (Like how sub-atomic particles behave....)

The ARIS study is the most complete study on the nature of religious belief in the US ever created; Faux's non-scientific, Margin of error +/-10% polls are about as reliable as my cat's degree from the Universal Life Church.

[lvx35]

36. Thanks for the link, though the the faux numbers may be close to right.

Thanks for the link, I was looking for something like that. But the ARIS study was concerned with "are you religious", putting it around 83%, the faux study asked "do you believe in God". I think its fairly accurate that about 90% of people believe in God, while 83% consider themselves religious...Especially if you consider people with an abstract concept of God like Einstein who considered God a "super-personal" "cosmic intelligence" but said nasty things about religion.

STill, lotta religious folks out there, eh?

[shanti]

68. bull

believing in god doesn't mean that you're "religious". maybe you should find a different word - spiritual, perhaps?

as long as someone isn't trying to put their brand of spirituality on me, i'm cool.

[Arkana]

73. Why, exactly, is it a crime to want America to be kept secular?

[punpirate]

5. When an organized religion...

... and its leaders becomes a threat to society, should we be friendly toward it?

Maybe the PRC isn't asking the right questions.

[kodi]

6. it ain't religion, its religious folks slamming their minds into my face

THAT I reject.

[lumpy]

13. It seems to be that liberals

are not supporting specifically fundamentalist churches who preach against liberal concepts, right to choose, anti-Bushco and infiltrating religion into politics.

[Erika]

9. The GOP rejects Christ's Golden Rule

and accepts the pre-emptive strike policy of Bush.

More and more religions are seeing that the GOP says one thing than does another. Such as take from the poor and middle class and give to the rich.

Pat Robertson is the poster boy of the GOP's view on religion.

[Carolab]

10. Oh, THAT religion.

The one that condones hypocrisy.

Yes, as a matter of fact, I DO disagree strongly with that one.

[silvermachine]

65. I hope this is true...

...<<<More and more religions are seeing that the GOP says one thing than does another. Such as take from the poor and middle class and give to the rich.>>>

It's pretty obvious isn't it? But a lot don't seem to understand or care.

[Fridays Child]

12. Dems are less likely to mix religion and politics...

...unlike repukes, who do so in the most cynical and self-serving fashion.

[Old Mouse]

14. We on the left

are quick to dismiss the pious with sarcasm and disdain with little or no empathy. There are a wide variety of Christians who we insult and alienate every time we take a cheap pot shot at the religious right.

We need to have empathy even with those with which we disagree and those that would do us harm. Except George Bush: impeach, convict, slow march to the courtyard.

[atreides1]

35. My shots are targeted at the traitors that would create a theocracy

The shots I take are directed at the Xtian Taliban, the zealots, the
fanatics, in others words, directed at a very specific target.

As for showing empathy for those that would do us harm, the last time a group of people did that 6 million of them died, and they
haven't had much empathy for those that would harm them since, I don't blame them.

Sorry, but if someone would do harm to those that I care about, then empathy is the last thing I'm going to show to them. You seem to have forgotten some of these nut cases support Bush and everything he's doing, so that makes them worse then he could ever be.

[Old Mouse]

41. faith is the basis or religion

and the misuse of that faith is the crime... not the faith itself. Fascism is not a religion, despite the similarities. It's a disservice to both to mix your history with your theology.

Any lesson on diplomacy will teach empathy is the most important trait, no matter your goals. If you can't empathize you cannot reach the table to discuss. and unless your plan is to kill off four million evangelicals you are going to have to learn to negotiate with them. You can't argue with them until they agree with you, and you can't legislate them until they agree with you ad they are not going away. That leaves mind control or negotiation.

[mmonk]

59. empathy?

Maybe when it is shown from them.

[silvermachine]

Doesn't seem to hurt the religious right...

...when they take cheap potshots at us. In fact, it's what they've built their entire following on. Where are the high-profile Democrats taking the potshots? Where are the visible leftist equivalents of Pat Robertson, Tom Delay, Karl Rove, Rick Santorum, et al? I'm not saying it's wise to shoot ourselves in the foot with careless rhetoric. I just don't feel the need to empathize with those that seek to destroy our way of life. I think it's usually pretty clear who we refer to when we are harsh in our remarks. We refer to certain individuals, or a specific group of people in most cases.
What I do think needs to be done is to better illustrate that the policies that the Democratic Party endorses are generally much more in line with the sense of selflessness and compassion that claims to be cornerstones of a Christian attitude and way of life, rather than the GOP's greed and hypocrisy.

Oops, meant to reply to post #14.

[Old Mouse]

76. Don't mistake the religious right

with those who use and guide them for their own ends.

We all know it is possible to be orthodox, even fundamentalist and also practice tolerance and the separation of church and state. But questions of who targeted who first aside, we on the left only argue by ridiculing their faith. This allows people of extreme faith no room for compromise, if they want to believe in "intelligent design" that is their prerogative. Our argument against the government taking a stand in a religious argument should not be that these people are stupid.

This situation forces plain religious folk to choose between liberalism or faith. We have been fueling this situation, allowing charlatans to promote neo-conservatism as pro-faith.

It's easy, pathetically so, to hate and ridicule. To say its justified because they did it first is unproductive. We need to get past that mentality and move forward.

We need to get over the desire to prove our superiority by wining an intellectual argument against their faith.

[RaleighNCDUer]

15. Maybe they need to define their terms.

I really don't think there are more dem atheists than repub atheists, only the dems admit it. I also think the repub atheists are more probably the ones who are 'oppositional atheists', atheists in rebellion against their upbringing. They would tend to be more hostile to religion in general.

The vast majority of dems I know are not only religious but deeply spiritual, with a solid sense of their own faith and not threatened by anyone elses religion. Fundies, otoh, are threatened by catholics, jews, and muslims, are totally baffled by hindus and buddhists, and think that wiccans are satanists. They don't think about native american religions.

IOW, repubs are friendly to THEIR OWN religion. Dems, I think, are accepting of other peoples religions as well.

Was this poll done by Dobson's crowd?

[physioex]

16. Bullshit....

I am more "Religious" than most assholes who sit around and call them selves "Religious".....

[ThoughtCriminal]

17. Cherry picking of poll # in article

http://people-press.org/reports/display.php3?ReportID=254

I would way that this the results are a product of religion that is hostile to individual rights and Democracy. Further, that saying that the Republicans are "Friendly to religion" is not the same thing as agreeing that this is a good thing.

Same poll - notice not reported:
Who's most concerned with protecting individual freedoms:
Republicans: 30%
Democrats: 52%

Also not mentioned was that only 20% said that Democrats were "Unfriendly" 38% said the Democrats were "Neutral" vs 23% for Republicans. Frankly the parties SHOULD be neutral.

[bklyncowgirl]

52. Read the entire poll there

There's good news here like overwhelming support for national health insurance.

[bklyncowgirl]

54. Around 30% of Americans believe that the Bible is the literal word of God

Check out this 2004 survey from Gallup

http://www.arches.uga.edu/~djackson/4430/handouts/GallupEvolution.html

We will never reach these people on this subject and should simply stop trying.

A somewhat larger plurality 45% believes that the Bible is the inspired word of God but should not be taken literally. Many of these are willing to tolerate the beliefs of the fundamentalists and are apparently willing to let creationism be taught alongside evolution in the schools.

Frankly, as a Catholic, who learned evolution in Biology class throughout my Catholic school education, I cannot fathom the mentality that refuses to seperate religion from science. The right has done a great job of framing this issue.

[DrZeeLit]

60. How many of those understand the evolution of the Bible?

I'll bet if you ask them, they think the gospels were written at the time of Jesus.
As if somebody was running around with a pen and paper taking down his every word.

The first one to be written was approximately 70 years after his death. Now, for the life of me, how could anyone remember what anyone did 70 years after his death? Accounting for the fact that record keeping wasn't exactly pristine in those days?

The rest of the gospels were written way later at intervals. Then there are gospels written and not included. Lost gospels. And on it goes.

And all that is not to include layers and layers and layers of translation over the centuries.

THEN.... we won't even get into King James and all that fun.

I just don't get why they even think it's "inspired".... too late for that.

Oh well. Never mind.

[greyl]

19. Good. :) "Say to them

"The gods don't love us more than they love spiders or bears or whales or water lilies. The age of the Great Forgetting has ended, and all its lies and delusions have been dispelled. Now we remember who we are. Our kin are not cherubim, seraphim, thrones, principalities, and powers. Our kin are mayflies, lemurs, snakes, eagles, and badgers. The blinding we suffered in the Great Forgetting has abated, so we no longer imagine that the gods botched their work when it came to us. We no longer think they know how to make every single thing in the whole vast universe except a human being. The blinding we suffered in the Great Forgetting has passed, so we can no longer live as though nothing matters but us. We can no longer believe that suffering is the lot the gods have in mind for us. We can no longer believe that death is the sweet release to our true destiny. We no longer yearn for the nothingness of nirvana. We no longer dream of wearing crowns of gold in the royal court of heaven.'"

Say to them, "You're right to see that we're straying from the path of salvation. We're straying from that path exactly as you always feared we might. But listen, we're not straying from the path of salvation for the sake of sin and corruption, as you always imagined we might. We're straying from the path of salvation because we remembered that we once belonged to the world and were content in that belonging. We're straying from the path of salvation- but not for love of vice and wickedness as you contemptuously imagined we might. We're straying from the path of salvation for love of the world, as you never once dreamed in a thousand years of dreaming."

The evangelist John wrote, "You must not love the world or the things of the world, for those who love the world are strangers to the love of the Father." Then, just two sentences later, he wrote: "Children, the final hour is at hand! You've heard that the Antichrist is coming. He's not one but many, and when the many of him are among us, you'll know the final hour has come."

John knew what he was talking about. He was right to warn his followers against those who love the world. We are the ones he was talking about, and this is the final hour - but it's their final hour, not ours. They've had their day, and this is indeed the final hour of that day.

Now our day begins."

The Story of B - Daniel Quinn
www.ishmael.org

[loudsue]

45. Wow! I had totally forgotten about the Story of B..great book!

I'm going to have to re-read that one...it's been years.

:kick:

[greyl]

49. Why did you forget? nt

[loudsue]

50. Old age. Crowded brain. Too much DU.

:kick:

[Solly Mack]

20. it's not religion so much as some of the adherents

and there is a difference

[lvx35]

21. The Myth of the 'God Gulf': Great story on beliefnet about this

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/139/story_13948_1.html?rnd=409


"What we have seen is not a faith gap but a church attendance gap. Study after study have indeed showed that those who attend worship services regularly do vote Republican and those who don't, vote Democratic. For instance, the 2000 National Survey of Religion and Politics showed that 51.9 percent percent of Republicans attend weekly compared to just 37.4 percent of Democrats. This attendance gap appears even to have widened as we move toward the 2004 election."

[greyl]

27. I know a handful of people who voted based on their pastor's

recommendation.
For bush.
One pre-election account was that the pastor said, during services, "Now, I don't want to be political, but on abortion and gay marriage and terrorism - the choice is clear."

I informed the person that her pastor lied to the congregation.

[lvx35]

30. Made me think.

When I read that, I thought that it was just republicans live a lifestyle which makes them go to church...But now I can see that going to church may make you republican! Interesting.

[shadowknows69]

22. Democrats would be the first ones to step up in defense

of someone worshiping their God(s) as they desire. They wouldn't however try to prominently place one religion on a pedestal above all others in this country where all are supposed to be equal.

[greyl]

23. How's Osama's image doing with "religious voters"?

Pretty fecking well, I gather.

[NVMojo]

24. ...and whose fault is that? Maybe it's the religious folks fault ...

they might be scaring the hell out of democrats ...

[drfresh]

25. After 4 months on DU

I'm can understand why. Seriously, it seems like there's a handful (hopefully a small handful) of Democrats here who will post anything to just to score some points, and some are content to lump many different people of faith into the same characterization. I can definitely sense hostility at times...

[Old Mouse]

42. well put

I think many Americans on both sides have a difficult time looking past their own spiritual growth - there seems a trend to want others to believe as they do, that destroying the others faith is the only acceptable victory.

[really annoyed]

78. Can you blame them?

Especially after the Republicans have kidnapped "values" and "religion?" It makes us religious liberals angry as heck!

After posting here for a while, I have come to realize that the most religious and caring people are liberals. I hope you will come to that sense too.

Plus, I don't think criticism of religion should be off limits. In some situations, religion deserves to be criticized. Why shouldn't the Democratic party be critical toward the religious right? Why should we pander to them? You don't see the Republican party going after the secular vote!

[anitar1]

26. Who cares? this is just another piece of drivel. n/t

[wli]

28. Dominionism and Christian fundamentalism are terrorism. n/t

[jackbourassa]

31. We will never win by pandering to anyone

That's why the numbers are dropping. Now the big word you hear from Washington Dems is "values." Values this and that. You know, I'm religious. I believe in God and heaven. I will never vote GOP. If Democrats in Washington ever stopped pandering, maybe we'd be okay.

Let us be who we are. That's enough.

What has happened over the last several months to warrant such a drop - other than Democratic leaders going around saying how "Democrats don't get it."

How's that working out? Look at the poll. Think about it.

[wli]

33. You've nailed it on the head. n/t

[ngGale]

39. How about religious fanatic....

who wants to be the far right? Arghhh!

[countmyvote4real]

40. It’s a poll.

Who in this world wouldn’t want to support or take on the cloak of religious is good and it will protect me? Never mind. I can name a few, including myself. That was a bad, but calculated intro.

The problem with this “religious” polling is that most people will think that religion is good, even if they only show up for services twice a year at the most. I guess it depends on your indoctrination and your superstition quotient.

For example, I was raised as a Southern Baptist that should uphold the separation of Church and State at all costs. I like to think that’s probably because they still remembered what it was like to be persecuted, but it was more likely a racist evasion because they didn’t respect the government dictating its morals upon them.

Flash forward. The fundies are SO ready to control the lives of citizens and I don’t believe in God anymore. (At least not that way.) I believe in Nature. Katrina is a perfect example. Bad things happen. People and their actions will make the difference. It would be great if we had a government that cared about the plight of people in these situations, but we don’t.

The fact is that our government and most of our elected politicians only see the people as consumers for their corporate campaign contributors. And that includes all religious fundamentalist organizations that influence these politicians with their support. They’re corporate agenda fails the prosperity of the people they presume to serve and represent. (Bankruptcy bill, CAFTA.)

And what is the fucking final noble cause for us to have launched a preemptive invasion of Iraq? The justification is a moving target based on lies, since the facts offered seemed to be lies after lie.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The corruption (from voting suppression to illegal campaign contributions to the compliant MSM) is just reported as an “oops” and then accepted as business as usual. This is not right.

We can do better. I am growing Greener and Greener by the day. And that is not a dismissal of the Democratic Party. It’s a wake-up call. Democrats can’t pretend to oppose all the pork and lies while still being on record as voting for them.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

43. I hate polls like this.

I'm hardly religious, but I have absolutely no problem with people practicing their religion or believing in the deity of their choice (or not).

What I object to is the intermingling of religion and public policy. I also object to people expecting politicians to cater to religion. Politicians (mostly) are not pastors, priests, rabbis, etc. If you're looking for spiritual guidance, look to those guys, not the people who make laws.

[Voltaire99]

44. LOL: this is where pandering leads.

Neither the mighty white NASCAR voter in his exhaust-breathing wisdom nor the megachurch-going fundie being born for the umpteenth time has any use for euphemistic Democrats. We told you as much, Howie and Hillary.

This craven party should stop trying to ingratiate itself with Bush-lite come-ons and instead choose to stand for something meaningful.

Like? Oh, you know, opposing a lost, immoral war in Iraq. Or promoting economic populism for workers and a dwindling middle class. For starters.

There is no shortage of issues--only a shortage of vertebrae in party leaders.

[Hekate]

46. 30 years of hostile propaganda pays off for the GOP

Dems have been demonized. The word "Liberal" has been demonized. The word "feminist" has been demonized. And so on and so forth.

As a consequence, my fundy neighbor thinks I endorse the "holocaust of unborn babies" -- and believing that, how could he imagine I have religious beliefs of my own? And if he knew (or imagined) how different they are from his own, would he not (seeing as how I have been demonized) imagine my practices to be demonic?

Fortunately, he likes my husband, who is Jewish and therefore has a religion he can fit into the framework of his worldview.

What the GOP masterminds have done is a nasty process, and I hope there's some sort of karmic payback for those that perpetrated these lies and divided our country. But I'm not holding my breath.

Hekate

#Why won't the Chickenhawk cross the road?#

[Qibing Zero]

47. Friendly toward religion or friendly (read: biased) toward their religion?

That's really the difference, isn't it?

[mntleo2]

48. Unfriendly To Which Religion?

I think that is the question we should ask. If we are like Repugs and only accept right-wingnut fundamentalist Christians, then we have some serious problems. If being "unfriendly" to religion means we also include other religions besides christo-facist zombyism (Thanks Marc Marin :toast: ), then we are on the right track IMO.

My 2 cents

Cat In Seattle

[GoddessOfGuinness]

53. Why should our aversion to fundaMENTALism

be interpreted as an unfriendliness toward religion? We are simply anti-extremist.

[silvermachine]

70. Well put.

Like criticizing obvious nutcases like Delay, Santorum, Robertson, Falwell, et al makes us look bad...riiiiiight.:shrug:

[Lucille]

55. propaganda works nt

nt

[GOPBasher]

62. Exactly!!!! n/t

[PowerToThePeople]

56. I am not friendly towards organized religion.

They are oppressive cults who vote to instill there value system upon those that do not share their views. The biggest issues still seem to be GL rights and Roe v. Wade. It sickens me how repressive they come across when discussing these things.

[bushisanidiot]

57. I GUARANTEE there are more dems helping Katrina victims than there

are repukes. you should see the venom being spewed over in freepland where they are falling all over themselves to point out how many of the looters are black.. cuz that's what's most important to them.

they don't give a shit about the poor or needy, but they go to church every week just so they can gossip about how suspicious their arab looking neighbor is..

we are the party of values which are shared by many different religions.. the repukes are the part of rhetoric.

[MetaTrope]

58. For "Religion" substitute "Predatory Self-Absorbed Assholes"

and I might be in agreement...

[MadeinOhio]

61. Wow, I think Fox polls are BS.

Most democrats believe in seperation of church and state, and welcome religions openly except for the crazy fundie creationists.

[GOPBasher]

63. Apparently, trying to prevent theocracy means you're

"unfriendly to religion." As another poster said, I guess propaganda works.

[LeftyElvis]

64. Why should we be

friendly towards religion????? We are supposed to be living in a secular nation. Just look at countries which have official religions; complete messes.

[Roland99]

66. Screw what people feel about politics and religion!

Does religion put gas in my car? Food on my plate? Pay my mortgage or pay for my kids' clothes?


HELL NO!


The right in the country has managed to turn the media's and the politician's focus on BULLSHIT WEDGE ISSUES like same-sex marriage and abortion and made the country fixated that those two issues are the most important things ever faced by mankind.

In the meantime, real wages are flat for two years in a row while CEOs salaries are a 500:1 ratio the average salary.

Oil prices have tripled and gas prices have doubled (literally) since this administration took office.

We're spending 3/4 of a TRILLION dollars PER YEAR on our military!


WAKE UP AMERICA!

[Stuckinthebush]

67. Religion will kill this country

We have an illegal war going on in Iraq that has turned into a deadly quagmire...

We have a hostile international community that now hates us...

We have a strengthening China just waiting for our collapse...

We have North Korea with probable nuclear weapons capabilities...

We have a declining dollar and increasing unemployment...

We have a increasingly uneducated population who will be unable to compete in the world markets...

We have an oil crisis that is not being addressed...

We have a record deficit that is constantly increasing...

We have a crisis of lack of adequate health care for many Americans...

We have a growing group of terrorists, whom we helped to create, setting their sights on the country...

We have twisted politicians in all branches of government doing their best to further enrich corporations and wealthy donors at the expense of the majority...

We have a constitution that is teetering on its last legs due to the erosion of civil liberties..

We have a powerful private citizen, who is in control of a large mindless mass of religionists, advocating the assassination of a democratically elected foreign leader...

We have a non-functioning congress...

We have an ill-functioning executive branch...

We have an increasingly sick judicial branch...

We have rampant poverty...

We have a massive real estate bubble that will burst soon....

We have two more months of a dangerous hurricane season staring us in the face...

We have the entirety of Latin America teaming up against us...

We have a coordinated attack on Social Security - the last hope for millions of Americans...

We have an increasingly non-effective and corrupt media...

We have presidential lackeys outing CIA agents...

We have a natural disaster of immense proportions down on the Gulf Coast...

We have our national forests and parks being dismantled and threatened by those who are supposed to protect them...

We have increasingly poor air and water quality...

We have a coordinated effort at dumbing down our schools further with a foolish push for the teaching of "intelligent" design...

All of this....ALL OF THIS....and the foolish Americans care whether or not a party seems friendly to religion. RELIGION! Have we become a people who have lost their sense of priorities, who have lost any clue as to what is more important in this failing country? Do people really give more of a damn about which slick, twisted politician will pander to their god than they do about the list of problems above? If so, then perhaps we do need to slowly fade into history.

We had so much hope for the 21st century, didn't we? Who would have thought that we would be driving backward down the road toward un-enlightenment and superstition? Who would have thought that we would have let a bunch of theologically infantile fools take over our government and destroy us from the inside out? What a waste.

Religion.

[bitchkitty]

69. "Don't seem to be working...."

Which in my opinion, is a very good thing. I don't want some moron, who believes that the theory of creation should be taught in place of the theory of evolution, making crucial decisions that affect the welfare of this country.

When are Democrats going to start acting like Democrats? Why are they pandering to Bush's base? We have a strong platform to run on, and false piety has no place here.

[Bo]

71. Do we really want 700club wackos?

[Arkana]

72. Define "religion," you boneheads.

[AuntieM1957]

74. I despise RELIGION, but treasure Spirituality

they are not the same thing.

I know many religious people who are cruel, mean-spirited, narrow-minded - all in the name of their deity of choice.

And I know many kind, loving people who are agnostic or atheist.

I've come to see things differently than I was taught in the Baptist church as a child.

For me, religion is a MAN MADE TOOL OF CONTROL.

Anything or anyone who deigns to come between me and my higher power, I resist. This is my mind, my life, my soul.

[54anickel]

75. WTF? What a stooooopid question. Define both friendly & religion. n/t

[usregimechange]

77. How many think "fundamentalism" = religion?