POI Podcast: David Silverman - The Relentless Ascent of Atheism

[NeoGreen]

Point of Inquiry Podcast - 2016-04-04
http://www.pointofinquiry.org/david_silverman_the_relentless_ascent_of_atheism/

David Silverman - The Relentless Ascent of Atheism

David Silverman, president of American Atheists, was recently seen on championing the importance of the atheist vote to American conservatives on the late night comedy show, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee. Silverman attempted to persuade Republican believers and non-believers alike that that there was a dire need to keep God out of politics by promoting his cause at one of the most important conservative gatherings in politics: CPAC.

The author of Fighting God: An Atheist Manifesto for a Religious World, Silverman is a loud-and proud-activist for atheism and is passionate about making sure the non-religious are included in the conservative conversation. In a spirited conversation with host Josh Zepps, Silverman argues that the rise of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders heralds the end of religion’s grip on politics, and that if the Republican Party does not learn to appeal to atheist voters, they will inevitably be left behind.

Point of Inquiry is the Center for Inquiry's flagship podcast, where the brightest minds of our time sound off on all the things you're not supposed to talk about at the dinner table: science, religion, and politics.

Guests have included Brian Greene, Susan Jacoby, Richard Dawkins, Ann Druyan, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Eugenie Scott, Adam Savage, Bill Nye, and Francis Collins.

Point of Inquiry is produced at the Center for Inquiry in Amherst, N.Y.

The mission of the Center for Inquiry is to foster a secular society based on science, reason, freedom of inquiry, and humanist values.

[Duppers]

1. Conservative atheists!

Fuck them.

As a 15 yr member, I recently left a real life atheist group because it had been taken over by dumbass American-style libertarians. Cognitive dissonance sadly lives in the minds of some atheists.

[NeoGreen]

2. I agree...

..."f" them, Libertarians are merely undeveloped or closet Anarchists, but I saw the development as a positive, by potentially displacing the theophile POV with a theophobe POV within conservative ranks.

But, I'd rather argue with a atheist libertarian, where I can show concrete failures of the implementation of libertarian principles (i.e. Somalia) then with a theophilic libertarian who holds ideas that have no basis in reality (i.e. skyman will save us).

Plus, I thought the observation that, in effect, the theocratic right has lost much of its political influence with:
1) the absence of criticism, from a religious point of view, of an openly secular person of Jewish decent running for president,
2) the failure of Cruz to gain majority support in the republican primaries, and
3) the absence of meaningful pandering to the theocrats by Trump

Whether these observations are merely short-term setbacks or long-term trends has yet to be determined. However, they are very interesting IMHO.

[Duppers]

5. Good points. nt

[AlbertCat]

3. BTW Neogreen

Thanks for posting POI. I used to subscribe and listen regularly, but got busy and it dropped from my account and I never went back to it. Like all these things, sometimes it's great and sometimes not so great. Sometimes repetitive. But well worth checking out... especially past episodes.

[Iggo]

4. Thank you...

[rurallib]

6. I would disagree that Trump signals an end to religions grip on politics

his is merely a further extension of the lengths religions will allow themselves to be exploited to be in the game.