One problem with atheism, as I've mentioned before, is that it is inherently provocative to religionists. This is because atheism is a negation of, and thus an attack on, religion. Negative views, often perceived as hostile, are frequently met with active hostility. Socrates was murdered for questioning the status quo; libertarians are attacked because they oppose the state (which everyone else defends).
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Posts : 1036 Join date : 2008-08-15 Location : Camore
Though he [Thomas Jefferson] often expressed his opposition to clergy and to Christian doctrines, Jefferson repeatedly expressed his belief in God and his admiration for Jesus as a moral teacher. Opposed to Calvinism, Trinitarianism and Platonic Christianity, in 1819 he expressed his religious commitment by his proclamation that he belonged to "a sect by myself".
It's conceivable that he was an atheist who understood that it was impolitic to admit it. On the other hand, deism can come close to atheism insofar as the creation of the universe can be equated with a natural process--whatever that might have been.
Subject: athiest greeting cards 
Tue Nov 10, 2009 3:16 pm
