{"id":10171,"date":"2016-07-31T15:23:50","date_gmt":"2016-07-31T15:23:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/?p=10171"},"modified":"2016-07-31T15:25:13","modified_gmt":"2016-07-31T15:25:13","slug":"on-a-relentless-march","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/on-a-relentless-march\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8220;On A Relentless March&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-10172\" src=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/League-of-the-Godless-221x300.jpg\" alt=\"League of the Godless\" width=\"221\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/League-of-the-Godless-221x300.jpg 221w, https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/League-of-the-Godless.jpg 755w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 221px) 100vw, 221px\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/bernie-sanders-sinister-atheist\/\">The news<\/a> that some in the Democratic Party might have tried to \u2018out\u2019 Bernie Sanders as an atheist was neither particularly surprising nor particularly shocking. Atheism doesn\u2019t play well with the electorate. What\u2019s more, to the extent that a candidate\u2019s religious faith (or lack of religious faith) might influence his or her policies, it\u2019s something that voters have a legitimate interest in knowing.<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, as was probably inevitable in an age of taking offense, people have been offended.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bustle.com\/articles\/174960-the-dnc-platform-is-ultra-inclusive-this-year-unless-youre-a-member-of-this-demographic\">Writing for Bustl<\/a>e, Raina Lipsitz grumbles that \u201cone important group is missing from the DNC&#8217;s platform: atheists.\u201d\u00a0 Naturally the word \u201cproblematic\u201d makes an appearance later.<\/p>\n<p>Naturally, \u201catheist groups\u201d have called for the firing of the Democratic operative who wanted to raise Sanders\u2019 supposed atheism. Naturally he has apologized to \u201cthose [he] offended.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>One voice of sanity is \u201coutspoken atheist and Pulitzer-Prize-winning New York Times science columnist Natalie Angier\u201d. Asked whether this exclusion bothers her, she replies:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Yes, I&#8217;m an atheist &#8230; But do I care whether the Democratic platform includes an explicit nod to us atheists? Hell no\u2026.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>#StandWithNatalie<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Toni Van Pelt, president and public policy director of the Institute for Science and Human Values, disagrees. &#8220;This is the time to call on the Party to officially recognize the nonreligious as true Americans\u2026Atheists are on a relentless march to be recognized and valued by the larger community. We will no longer accept a back seat to those who profess a faith &#8230; it would behoove the Democratic Party to reach out in a public statement to those of no religion &#8230; and [acknowledge] that the philosophy of living life to the fullest here and now is of great importance.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Officially recognize!<\/p>\n<p>Relentless march!<\/p>\n<p>Living life to the fullest!<\/p>\n<p>Great importance!<\/p>\n<p>Oh please.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The news that some in the Democratic Party might have tried to \u2018out\u2019 Bernie Sanders as an atheist was neither particularly surprising nor particularly shocking. Atheism doesn\u2019t play well with the electorate. What\u2019s more, to the extent that a candidate\u2019s &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/on-a-relentless-march\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[15],"tags":[855,979,69,1163],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10171"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10175,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10171\/revisions\/10175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}