How does your faith shape your politics?

[hrmjustin]

The main thing I get from the Gospels is that Jesus wants us to care for the least among us. That shapes my political beliefs. I believe God wants us to help people to the best of our ability. God us love and he wants us to share that IMO.

How does your faith shape your politics?
How does your lack of faith shape your politics?

[PDJane]

1. No faith, and the lack of it doesn't make a difference

Greatest good for the greatest number.

[ZombieHorde]

2. I believe

rights, value, law, organizations (governments, Boy Scouts, etc.), countries, etc. are nothing more than rhetorical constructs designed for persuasion and the promotion of relatively predictable behavior. In other words, they're strictly imaginary.

I often wonder if there is an objective difference between living and nonliving matter.

I don't believe in gods, alien contact with Earth, or anything like that. I think we're functionally alone at this point in time.

So, I think we should do our best to take care of each other and make this life as happy and fulfilling as we can.

[Deep13]

3. My lack of faith causes me to seek fact-based solutions.

For example, global warming is caused by greenhouse gases, not gay sex.

Also, deconstruction of racist assumptions made me realize that there really is only one humanity and, ultimately, one human community. It is irrational to suppose that a tiny minority deserves to be unimaginably rich or that some people are naturally evil.

I no longer seek to justify institutional cruelty. Our prison system, for example is an abomination and eventually should be abolished.

These realizations have freed my mind and my feelings from constraint allowing me to see the world as it is--both good and bad things.

I have also been able to reject the idea of vengeance as inherently destructive and damaging. After September 11, 2001, this nation should have forgiven the terrorists, taken some basic precautions, and declined to exact vengeance on the largely innocent people of Afghanistan.

BTW, I have a friend who is a very serious Evangelical Christian, who reaches most of the same exact conclusions I do.

[femmocrat]

4. This is a great question.

I am a non-practicing Christian. I vote for the democrats because in my mind at least, they represent the poor and the working class. I know this is not always true, but they hold the best hope compared to the other party.

I believe in helping others, equality and fairness. I loathe everything the republicans stand for.

[dimbear]

5. Faith is a useful tool for supporting persecution and I have none.

My politics in a nutshell.

[Bluenorthwest]

6. I will just quote Kurt Vonnegut

"I say of Jesus, as all humanists do, ‘If what he said is good, and so much of it is absolutely beautiful, what does it matter if he was God or not? But if Christ hadn’t delivered the Sermon on the Mount, with its message of mercy and pity, I wouldn’t want to be human. I’d just as soon be a rattlesnake."

[Spartacus Maximus XL]

7. Religion is for deluded saps.

All religions are complete bunk. Watch Hitchens and Dawkins videos on the net and the god case is closed. He's as real as the Easter bunny.

[Deep13]

10. Suppose religion is performative rather than theologically based.

In the Middle Ages before, say, the 12th century, religion was something people did, not something they thought about. The did accept or believe that there was a spirit world inhabited by saints, demons, God and whatnot. Their practices were based on the use of ritual to entice the saints to intervene on their behalf for various needs. The specifics of their belief system did not exist in a detailed theology and would not until the consolidation of royal power at the end of the 12th c.

I should also mention that while Hitchens was a great writer and Dawkins a great scientist, neither of them are historians. Consequently, while their cases against the existence of gods or anything supernatural are pretty compelling, their indictments of religion as purely evil institutions is only partly convincing when one realizes how ecclesiastical and secular norms influenced each other. My point is, we do not have a case were merely not believing in god anymore by a large number of people will do much to cure the world's evil.

[hrmjustin]

11. I disagree but let me welcome you to the religion group.

[Skittles]

8. you don't need faith to care about people

just saying

[hrmjustin]

9. The food pantyrs run by our episcopal parishes here in NYC have loads of non-believers

that volunteer. Many of our outreach programs in my parish have plenty of non-believers as volunteers. Your statement is very correct!

[Skittles]

12. interesting

[skepticscott]

13. And what would your politics be

if you had no religion? The same or radically different? Do you help other people to the best of your ability only because you believe that the god you believe in wants you to, but is unwilling or unable to help them himself?

[PDJane]

14. It would be the same as it is now, I suspect.

I don't believe that there is a deity; Gods are a man-made construct, and the more your religion agrees with your prejudices, the more man-made it appears to be. I grew up in a very insulated and rigid space until about 13, and it didn't agree with me.

I don't always respect religion; I do respect the people who use religion to do the good they can in the space they can. Whatever gets you through the night is fine with me. However, when you insist that every person on the earth believes as you do, regardless of the science on a specific subject, I find it appalling!

[hrmjustin]

17. My politics would be the same I imagine.

I help others because Jesus mandated that we help one another.

[LiberalAndProud]

15. Perhaps not at all.

We have a Smörgåsbord of denominations and belief systems to choose from while professing faith. It seems more likely that we will make our religious home where our worldview best fits, rather than changing our worldview to conform to religious dogma.

God is love, or God is a jealous and vengeful God. Take your pick or blend a cocktail.

[edhopper]

16. While it is obvious that

faith shapes politics. It is also true that every political view has people who adhere to it due to faith. So faith just becomes another variable and the presence of faith gives no indication as to where the person's politics lie.
In other words, while faith might have great meaning in an individual's life, it has no objective significance in terms of what a person's political belief may be.