Tesfan Posted:

Okay guys… for a while now I’ve been pretty quiet about my religion, but since the car crash I was in a couple of weeks ago that almost killed me, I recently converted to Christianity. I’m glad I did, and my life has improved dramatically. You should talk to me if you have any questions about accepting Jesus Christ as your lord and savor.

Ah, sorry, I am rambling. Anyway, I’ve recently been thinking: can atheists be good Americans?

My conclusion: No.

Your conclusion relies on bending the definition of “Good American” so that it fits rigidly with the Christian interpretation of the American Constitution, thus, this is an infuriatingly loaded question. Nevertheless I’m going to trollishly address it anyway, and, in the process, completely ignore the fact that the original post was of course genuine flame bait.

Intellectually – no. . . Because he cannot accept the American Constitution, since it is based on Biblical principles, and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.

Bollocks. The constitution is built on the rational principle of separation of church and state – that’s one of its key tennets. All atheists know that historically, Christianity was the flavour du jour (stroke flavour du don’t-know-better) for all the population of the US, and that Christian morals have a firm grounding in common sense anyway, so this really does not significantly affect the interpretation of the constitution in any way.

Socially – no. . . Because his allegiance to Satan forbids him to make friends with Christians.

lollerskates. i really want to say “stfu and die jesusfabulous person”, but the reality of the situation is that you’ve just appealed to your own answer in order to formulate a reason, which is bum backwards. Your typical atheist has no qualms with being friends with a christian other than a muted, projected sense of embarrbumment / pity that’s proportional to the amount that the Christian in question lets their religion affect their common sense.

Philosophically – no. . . Because atheism does not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and atheism cannot co-exist. Every atheist government is either dictatorial or autocratic.

Substitute the word “atheism” for “christianity” in that sentence and you might actually be on to something, due to the fact that christians believe in the First Commandment and atheists don’t.

Your use of the word “every” is highly worrying, seeing as you live under a government that’s essential atheist and so do I and there’s nothing much wrong with either of them.

Historically, Christian governments have been really awful for world peace. (Remember the Inquisition? Remember the Crusades?)

Theologically – no. . . Because his allegiance is to Satan.

A theological argument to why atheists are or aren’t anything is totally irrelevant for what ought to be obvious reasons.

Spiritually – no. . . Because when we declare “one nation under God,” the Christian’s God is loving and kind, therefore after much study and deliberation, I personally think we should be very suspicious of ALL atheists in this country.

Atheists have far more reason to be suspicious of your faulty logic, believe me.

They obviously cannot be both “good” atheists and good Americans.

STFU and die, jesusfabulous person. There, I said it.