Are there Socially Conservative Atheists?

I suspect that there are Fiscal Conservatives who may be atheistic, but while even that seems to be a stretch (if you know of any well-known ones, please name them), my REAL QUESTION is this:

Are there Socially Conservative atheists? (on what basis do they come to that position if not religious ones?)

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Permalink Reply by Davis Goodman on January 24, 2017 at 2:12pm

The damage is done. From now on anytime elephants or the word ivory or the word trunk is mentioned it will trigger my sensitive mind and have me relive my trauma again. My only choice is to live in a safe space. Since that only exists for students in universities...I will have to be a student for life or at least until Trump makes safe spaces illegal. Who is going to pay my tuition?

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Permalink Reply by Daniel W. on January 24, 2017 at 3:25pm

Please sit down and take a deep breath. In. Out. In. Out. OK, now stay calm. No one will pay your tuition. You will have to do work-study. If work traumatizes your identity, you may have to pack your trunk and go elsewhere.

Permalink Reply by Reg The Fronkey Farmer on January 24, 2017 at 4:23pm

And don't ever forget it. Oh wait a minute.....

Permalink Reply by Davis Goodman on January 24, 2017 at 6:42pm

Shame on both of you. I'm going to get my social justice warrior friends to start a twitter war against you both. Please tell me what your twitter accounts are so they can get started.

Permalink Reply by Daniel W. on January 24, 2017 at 8:11pm

Davis, so sorry to have hurt your feelings. Well, i know, you need to vent and twitter is a good way to do it. Mine is the abbreviation for "Pachyderms of the United States", or @POTUS for short. Feel free to express your feelings there.

As the elephant said to the naked man, "That's cute, but can you breathe through it?"

I had more to say, but in consideration for your feelings, I'll truncate my response.

Permalink Reply by Sagacious Hawk on January 23, 2017 at 2:16pm

Out of curiosity, in what ways do you consider yourself to have conservative values?

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Permalink Reply by CDB on January 24, 2017 at 11:07am

I am an atheist to my core and believe in NO higher being other than mother science.

I do however wish more people would live by the judeo christian principles this country was founded upon, not in religious sense but in the sense of not impeding others freedoms in your pursuits. I have major problems with religions/dogmas etc that condemn any set of folks. Especially anti gay, anti women or anti semitic, etc etc. I think any attempt to try to allow this type of prejudice to spread should be aggressively fought.

I am a live and let live kind of person.

I abhor abortion but if you want to do it to your spawn I won't try to stop you. I would, however, rather not pay for it.

Political correctness is a disease that stifles free speech. Currently, I see it used as a way to eliminate any adversarial positions from those that “align themselves with right”.

Global warming is probably real, maybe exacerbated by man and needs to be addressed. But doing it in a way that prevents people from making a living, while not even addressing other country's continued unfettered burning of fossil fuels is short sighted and can be quite cruel to some. Many environmentalists are like crazy cat people that end up abusing cats.

I don't care whom you marry as long as you have a job and support yourself and your offspring.

I support most all police, but do agree we need to weed out some bad apples. This is not best done by fueling the fires of anti-cop city burning protests that are plain counter productive.

I think the loss of the family unit has been devastating to many children. I myself came from a broken home and had many hardships as a result that would have probably not been so if my family unit had been intact as a child. Kids have raised themselves, but I guarantee you more bad outcomes if they don't have 2 loving, engaged parents working to raise them.

I own guns but won't fall on the sword at all costs to keep them. However, I feel most anti-gun rhetoric is used more to take peoples eyes off the real problems we face as a society.

Border security makes good sense, not to keep folks out as much to keep us safe. Aggressive vetting, rapid deportation of criminals and strict enforcement of border law is logical.

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Permalink Reply by Davis Goodman on January 23, 2017 at 1:22pm

The answer is a big fat YES. Most atheists are not the Caucasian westerners as too many people imagine when they hear the word "atheist". Even on the discussions here on think atheist there are many American centric presentations of atheist "the American who wants to end prayer in school" or the "American who can't come out to their parents without being outcasts". I encounter nothing like this almost ever...as do many continental Europeans.

There are exponentially more atheists in Africa and Asia than in North America and Europe. The white westerner atheist is a minority and the white atheist American is a tiny tiny fraction of the world's atheists.

With Atheists in non English speaking Europe...there is a weak correlation between atheism and voting for left parties...but the more secular the country is and the lower rate of self identifying religious people (Denmark, Czech Republic) the weaker the correlation. In other words...there are definitely right wing conservatives in all countries but a more notable percentage in truly secular and non-believing countries with open societies.

Being an atheist doesn't make you a skeptic free thinker. Simon here believes in tarrot cards and Belle who was an atheist claims she really isnt and seems to now not only be Christian but also believe in woo-medicine and other things she reads. Other humanist atheists have terribly elementary knowledge of topics like free will, life on other planets or quantum physics yet talk as though they are experts with all the answers. Chinese populations are over wealmingly atheist but in general are not atheist "humanists" which is as close to the kind of atheist I believe you are referring to. Japanese are 80% atheist and yet they have right wing governments some time.

So again...The more secular and open society a country is...and the lower the percentage if believers...the more likely there will be a significant percentage of right wingers. America is at the bottom of the list for western countries when it comes to social spending, individual rights, secularism and percentage of atheists. This sort if explains the connection people make between atheists and lefties...something you don't find as instantly synonymous in most Continental Europe or Asia.

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Permalink Reply by Belle Rose on January 23, 2017 at 2:22pm

Don't talk about me like I'm not here Davis. You can't speak for me and what I believe or why I'm asking the questions I'm asking. If you want to know what I think - ask me.

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Permalink Reply by Davis Goodman on January 23, 2017 at 2:28pm

I spend half my time on think atheist reading what you think Belle. But it seems you've done another 180° and no longer believe in medical-woo like alternative medicine? You no longer believe in unfalsifiable claims or endorse conservative birth control propaganda as "though provoking" etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Glad to have you back.

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Permalink Reply by Belle Rose on January 23, 2017 at 2:57pm

For the next several months, maybe even years I am going to be questioning everything. Get used to it and deal with it. Just because I make a statement or cite and article doesn't mean I know what the fuck I believe about it. Unlike you I never had the chance to develop my own sense of self. I missed that and many other stages of development. Now I'm trying to do that. If you are going to spend any time at all replying to or reading anything I have to say, make sure your response is constructive and useful and relevant. I spend half my time on Think Atheist warding off personal criticisms which I really don't need in my life anymore.

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Permalink Reply by Daniel W. on January 23, 2017 at 10:22pm

Nice discussion Davis. I really appreciate the detail and thought that you go into.

It's interesting to ask, what are the Chinese people with respect to religion. The communist government is atheist, but what about people? Turning to my wikipedia font of all knnowledge :-), "According to the results of an official census provided in 1995 by the Information Office of the State Council of China, at that time the Chinese traditional religions were already popular among nearly 1 billion people" but even that is complicated and maybe with an urban/rural rift. In a 2005 urban survey, "only 32.9% were convinced atheists" even though most people did not have formalized connections to a religious institution. It's an interesting article, and describes just how very complicated it is to say that "Chinese people believe / don't beleive...".

Going to that same font of all knowledge, but this time Africa, I get the feeling that by far the overwhelming majority of Africans are religious. South Africa has the 2nd highest % of irreligious in Africa, at around 15%, and Botswana at 20% which surprised me.

Not trying to disagree, it's just that you got me asking questions and looking them up.

As for me, I'm accused of being hyper-liberal, but I don't buy it. A lot of liberals think I'm reactionary. I have voted democrat in almost every election in my life, but I'm also very critical of Dems, especially with anti-conservative scare mongering, forgetting and even demonizing midwest and southern blue collar people, and about half of identity politics.