Can you be Conservative and Atheist?

I do understand, and remember the era of the late 70's when the Christian Right began taking over state party organizations from the ground up. I saw it up close here in Texas. Over time, we have made our peace with the hardline elements in the Christian right, and the extremism on their part that we saw in the Carter / Reagan era is largely gone. Today the Tea Party is attracting a new breed of conservative which have largely been unaffiliated with any group in the past. I find most of them in tune with my ideas on citizenship and activism and they do not stress social issues as the Christian right did back in the late 70's.

 

that is a more libertarian position which is an element within the conservative coalition, and the Tea Party movement.

 

she can be conservative but she is athiest. she can not say she is christian and
support gay rights.

 

perhaps its OT, but that is your interpretation of Xianity. Xianity is not incompatible with gay marriage or gay rights.

 

Jesus said, "The poor you have with you always." This was a promotion of Capitalism.

 

If you are arguing that the Tea Party movement is interested in using the organs of government and the initiation of force solely to protect individual rights as I attributed above to Rand, I'm afraid we're going to have a significant disagreement on that point.

 

She was neither a conservative nor a Christian.

 

The Tea Party is interested in a government which is responsible TO the tax payers, not responsible FOR the tax payers.

 

OK, I misunderstood your point, then. All good...

 

Since atheism is one simple belief (that no god or gods exist) and not political in any way, it has nothing to do with a persons politics. Atheists are part of all political parties and some are even part of no political parties (I am not part of any party).

 

I don't like to associate myself with "atheists". It seems that most atheists typically stand against religion. By definition, I am an atheist. I also have tattoos and I ride motorcycles.

I know poor black conservatives. My gay uncle is a conservative. I'm not used to being surprised by these things but It is definitely unusual.

 

If I may explain...

No. But I do feel that conservatism must contain some element of automatic reverence for the past.

 

Nice bumper sticker, but nonsense. Disaster relief, for example.

 

Of course you can. God is the judge of people. No person can usurp that responsibility except by self-idolatry, making himself God.

 

I'm conservative and atheist, or at least agnostic.

But out of respect for other people's beliefs I just play along when in Rome, but try to avoid going to Rome as much as possible.

I certainly wouldn't insult, downgrade, or look down on the religious though. I wouldn't publicly insult their sacred symbols and texts.

Tolerance goes both ways.

 

There are two types of conservative, fiscal and social. I am a fiscal conservative, but social liberal. But I believe that the fiscal aspect far includes more people than social aspect. Everyone deals with money, not everyone deals with marriage, religion, or the many other social aspects of our nation. We need to have our fiscal house in order before we can handle the social aspects.

 

The interesting thing about so-called "fiscal conservatism" is that I don't know anyone who would be against it. As such, I don't accept it as a genuine category.

 

Personal responsibility for emergency situations. In a disaster like a tornado, people should have their own savings to cover a hotel expence till their insurance asses the damage and pays you for your loss. To not have an emergency fund, it is not MY responsibility to pay for YOUR disaster relief.

 

Really? Meet our president. He is very much against fiscal conservatism. "We have a debt crisis, I need more money to spend, raise my debt ceiling before I deprive old ladies of their SS checks and the military of their salaries." Seems like he is REALLY against that fiscal conservative stance of LESS SPENDING.

 

I can attest to the existence of conservative atheists. In my experience, they say some of the same idiotic things I've come to expect from conservatives.

One instance that comes to mind is when I was debating gay marriage with one, in person, here in Richmond at an "atheist" meeting.

At some point he said something like, "Marriage has worked well up to now so I see no reason to change it."

I said that conservatism involves an element of automatic reverence for the past, and here is an example. Plus, I think that anyone who thinks that marriage is "working" verges on delusional.

I have to say I have a lot of resepct for this guy. He's actually a public figure (in my region) so I can't give out his name. He's highly educated, erudite and an expert in music. You can learn a lot talking to him and enjoy it because of his paper-thin humor. But as soon as he gets on politics it's as if his brain flies out the window.

 

Needing mor emoney to balance the budget is fiscal conservatism. What more is there to fiscal conservatism than the obvious proposition that an enterprise can not remain in the red forever?

 

Maybe they SHOULD, but what if they DON'T? Maybe we shouldn't need safety nets, but the alternative is to argue that high-wire acrobats DESERVE to go splat on the sidewalk if they slip.

Personal responsibility to rebuild cities is deulsional.

This to me is conservatism.

 

The high wire acrobats provide their own safety net, they don't sit there not working till the audiance steps in and provides it for them.

Maybe if the country practiced self reliance, we would have had the money to pay for the gas when prices exploded and more people would have kept their houses and more people would have also kept their jobs. NOT living pay check to paycheck is a mentality that could have saved us from this recession.

 

When you live in a sheltered little world of liberals you don't meet conservatives. I am a fiscal conservative and I have always been an atheist.

Unlike the liberals, conservatives tolerate dissent.

 

No, raising the debt ceiling in not producing more money, than is getting another credit card. You don't balance your budget by ringing up more debt, that is just retarted.

If I make $2000 a month, I don't need to go out spending $2500 a month. Fiscal conservatism means only spending $1500 a month and putting the rest away for when you become unemployed, or something breaks, or to buy big ticket items like cars or homes. Or even incase some prices go out of control, you can still pay for things like gas or food with you left over money.

My parents lived like they only recieved $40k a year for quite some time now even when each of them have either been out of work or got pay raises. It is not a hard concept.