O’Reilly Thinks Atheists Are Jealous Of Holidays

I must admit it’s one of the funniest parts about Bill O’Reilly’s, War On Christmas, segments.  This one he talks about Atheists timing to put up an anti-god/christian poster on buses and bus stops.  Then my favorite part comes towards the end where O’Reilly explains why he thinks Atheists are doing this.

I don’t think Atheists are jealous of the holidays but I bet they’re watching Bill Maher that night lol.  Though, like I’ve said before, this War On Christmas thing that O’Reilly has should be taken with a grain of salt and laughed at.  FNC is purely for entertainment purposes.

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Obama Holds Middle Ground On Religion

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Politico came out with two interesting stories.  The first story mentioned how Pres. Obama mentions Jesus more than Pres. Bush did.

In his speech Thursday in Cairo, Obama told the crowd that he is a Christian and mentioned the Islamic story of Isra, in which Moses, Jesus and Mohammed joined in prayer.

At the University of Notre Dame on May 17, Obama talked about the good works he’d seen done by Christian community groups in Chicago. “I found myself drawn — not just to work with the church but to be in the church,” Obama said. “It was through this service that I was brought to Christ.”

And a month before that, Obama mentioned Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount at Georgetown University to make the case for his economic policies. Obama retold the story of two men, one who built his house on a pile of sand and the other who built his on a rock: “We cannot rebuild this economy on the same pile of sand,” Obama said. “We must build our house upon a rock.”

More than four months into the Obama presidency, a picture is emerging of a chief executive who is comfortable with public displays of his religion — although he has also paid tribute to other faiths and those he called “nonbelievers” during his inaugural address.

Read more here

To me it is not necessary for politicians to mention god in political speeches.  I firmly believe in separating church and state.  On the other hand, the difference between Obama and Bush was that Bush’s policies appeared to largely influenced by the religious right.  Pres. Obama, whether on the religious right or left has included them in discussions but not let them control the debate to the point where they’re largely influencing policy.  It is quite interesting since religion in most part during the campaign has worked against him.  Yet, the religious right was the loudest during the campaign.  Pres. Obama did however come off as a moderate on religious issues while still able to affirm his Christian beliefs.  Atheists, though some skeptical about Pres. Obama’s speeches, they realize this.  This is also from Politico,

Though disappointed by this, Toni Van Pelt, director and chief lobbyist for the Center for Inquiry, thinks that now is the time for nonbelievers to tread lightly, “in a thoughtful way, to be successful and not suffer a severe backlash.”

As part of this, Van Pelt says nonbelievers are wise to keep their consternation in check, particularly over such things as rhetorical matters.

“I don’t want you to think that I am undercutting the importance of cultural messages,” she says, “but pragmatically, there are some really serious things that we need to focus our work on.”

And, to be sure, Obama has pleased many secular humanists with specific actions he’s already undertaken, such as overturning a last-minute Bush order that gave protection to health care providers who refuse to attend to medical requests on account of their personal beliefs. In addition, advocates say they have been heartened by Obama’s push for “evidence-based” science policy, as well as his individual selections for administration science posts.

Last week, the Secular Coalition for America, an atheist advocacy group, held its first-ever individual face-to-face with the White House. Ron Millar, the coalition’s acting director, told POLITICO that he met with Paul Montero, Obama’s religious liaison in the White House Office of Public Engagement.

Read more

There’s obviously going to be some sort of opposition from atheists groups on decisions Pres. Obama makes.  The good thing is that they are allowed to have a voice at the table along with faith based groups.  Which is something that didn’t happen during the Bush administration.

Faith Forum: Sincerity Versus Stump Speech

UPDATE, Rick Warren admits McCain wasn’t in cone of silence, transcript and video seems to prove McCain know what the questions were before going into the forum. Click here

I was so happy to watch the faith forum.  It was a little different and more interesting then a normal debate or forum that I have seen before.  But, what we got from the candidates were very different.

Obama, seeing as how he had nothing to lose, he gave very sincere answers to the questions and gave deeper reasons into what he believe.  McCain gave his typical stump speech, I was definitely expecting more serious personal answers to questions that were asked of McCain.

Example, when asked is there evil and would you defeat it, negotiate it, or something else.  Both the candidates said defeat.  McCain just said defeat and mentioned radical extremist and then that was pretty much it.  Obama also said defeat it but also gave a more insightful answer about what evil is, how do we tackle evil and also gave us more of an intellectual conversation instead of acting as though the public is stupid by giving short answers.

Example, pro-life.  McCain said he would be a pro-life president, and just left it at that.  Obama gave reasons why he supports Roe V. Wade, explained its importance, and mention that he put in the democratic platform ways to reduce abortion rather then completely taken away a woman’s right to choose.

Other note, McCain gave his typical stump speech drill, drill, drill.  He said, he knew how to find Bin Laden, and yet didn’t mention Afghanistan.  He said that he wouldn’t raise taxes, even though a few weeks ago he said he would consider raising taxes.  Also he didn’t answer the question of what income is considered rich.  Obama, being specific said, $250,000 or more, which is top 5%.  McCain being very broad said, he wants everyone to be rich….YAY?, thanks for not answering the question.

Look I respect McCain’s service, but is that all he has to reference.  I love war stories and like to listen to old people talk about their war stories.  McCain could just not give us another aspect of his life besides war.  We know McCain’s a POW but, I would like to know more about his life besides war.

To get the gist, if you missed it, it was:

McCain was war, war, war, POW, Islamic extremist, stories, no substance, jokes, nothing to prove (mostly conservative evangelical audience), didn’t answer questions fully, man of few words, oh and vote for me because Im a veteran (guilt trip alert).

Obama was Jesus, god, christian, personal, intellectual, in-depth, substance, a little more serious, nothing to lose (evangelicals aren’t his base, most aren’t going to vote for him), bible quote, sincere, honest, talks a lot, answered questions, man of a lot of words, oh and values.

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