For the purposes of this conversation, I’d like to focus on what influence one’s religious view has on their political views. Rather than making a case for how I see it, I thought I’d start by asking you all what you thought; so, with particular focus on the two categories “atheist” and “Jew/Christian/Muslim”, I’d like to know how you think the worldview would affect views on a number of topics.
So, for example, if the topic is “punishment for adultery”, do you think that there will be a difference between atheist views and theist views? Would atheist and theist views be roughly equal, would the atheists want prison sentences more than the theists would or vice versa?
For each numbered topic, please answer:
A := theists are more likely to support laws against X
B := theists and atheists are equally likely to support laws against X
C := atheists are more likely to support laws against X
So, we’ll call “Adultery” topic 1… an answer might be “1A”, which would mean that the respondent thought that theists were more likely than atheists to support laws against adultery.
How would you answer:
1. Adultery
2. Drugs
3. Alcohol
As bonus thoughts to keep in mind (and talk about if you fancy): was Prohibition good for America? Was Nixon’s war on drugs good for America? Is it troubling to you that America lock up a greater percentage of their population than any culture in human history? Do you think that last fact is representative of the fact that America is a largely Christian nation?
Andy Hood