In President Obama's inaugural address, he made it a point to be inclusive of non-believers. What do you think of that? Will it help society be more accepting of atheism?
by 
Dr_Dredd
ANSWERS: 13
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I thought that was a nice touch: America is rather hard on atheists, who represent only about 5% of the population. It's nice to have a president who has some idea what the phrase "equal rights" means, I will say. Although I'm not an Obamamanic, 8 years of Bush has made me a Bushophobe, and it's hard not to celebrate the idea of civil rights recovering some respect in Washington. Will that change society? Perhaps somewhat.
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I think it has the potential to help Obama's religious supporters be more accepting of atheism. I don't think it will have any impact on people like Rick Warren or his followers. I doubt that it will have any positive impact on the religious right. Overall I think it has the potential to have a small impact on society.
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You seem to be positing that Obama is an unbeliever, which unfortunately is clearly false. There goes another commandment broken.
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It would help the world to be more accepting of everyone's beliefs!
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I was tapping my foot as he read off the different faiths, quite unhappily - wondering if he'd mention those who did not have faith. And he did. I was very happy that he mentioned non-beleivers. I don't know if it will help society be more accepting, but I do hope so.
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It's unfortunate that it takes a man of stature surrounded with pomp and circumstance and an audience of millions to state the obvious for it to get any attention at all.
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Bigots, racists and hatemongers will always be that and nothing or no one can ever disuade them. However, what that means to me is that times are finally (praise gawd!) changing. It's about time that US joins the rest of the world on that
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It's not something I would have asked for but it made me happy to hear it. I don't think this one mention in this one speech will make any palpable difference. But it's a subtle thing, if you consistently refer to a group of people as though they count for something, you can gradually leave that impression in people's minds. Now if the whole ceremony could be secular, we could avoid the whole Saddleback-Bigot invocation controversy and get straight to the point. Which would be ideal. (I did love Reverend Lowery's benediction though. I always find something uplifting about what he has to say, what a great speaker.)
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I know many Atheists, they are good, educated and nice people I don't understand why they should excluded from society. Humanity needs to grow closer together instead of jumping on each other like tigers or lions. Best regards.
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I doubt it will help society in general to be more accepting of atheists. Those that already do will continue to do so. And the intolerant crowd will still be intolerant. What it *did* do, and for this I am very happy, was show that he's willing to walk the walk of being a president for ALL Americans. And it put the religious wingnut crowd on notice that their days of dominance in government, and attempting to run roughshod over others in the name of "God," are at an end. Hallelujah!
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Apparently you just can't help yourself, Urkle.
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I hope so and maybe it will take the focus off the neocons who helped nearly topple our nation
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i think that just makes him a great politician. and he has guts to say that out loud and still not feel bad about his faith. i don't care much if society accepts me. what i want is to know that there's respect. no killings or anything. that's enough for me.
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