Those Good Old God Fearing Atheists

An interesting survey was published today (recently?? I just read about it today) concerning religious belief.  Seventy-five percent of people surveyed believe that heaven is a real place where good people are rewarded when they die.  Sixty percent of people surveyed believe that hell is a real place where bad people are punished when they die.  Nothing surprising here. However one out of five atheists believe in God.  Excuse me, did you just say that twenty percent of ATHEISTS believe in GOD?

This is just impossible.  Atheos, the root of atheist means 'a' = 'less' + 'theos' = God equals GOD-LESS.  How does one who identifies him- or herself as 'godless' believe in God?

Are they confused?  'Agnostic' might be a better self-designator.  Do they believe in God and just don't care?  Maybe they should try on 'apathetic' for size. What is this?

I sometimes wonder if a presidential candidate, instead of pandering to the superstitious masses, came out and said they were an atheist?  I don't believe the candidacy would last long.  Who would the candidate pray to for guidance in difficult times?  Who would the candidate thank for good times?  Why is a candidate required to express belief of some sort in God?

Here are thoughts to ponder?  Do we as Americans think that the person who we elect to office is so incompetent that only God can bail him out?  No wait, we have that now and God doesn't seem to be doing any bailing.  What about the concept of the founding fathers envisioning a christian nation?

Can we please stop conflating the Pilgrims and the Founding Fathers please......

The Pilgrims came here in 1620 looking for religious freedom, which roughly translated means to find a place where they could practice their version of religion without having to mess with folks who didn't agree with them.  They sought to escape the official state religion and to practice their religion in their own way.  So they came to America, almost died off and were saved by friendly natives who invented Thanksgiving.  End of story.

Not end of story.  Once they figured out they could survive here they immediately made their version religion the official state religion and everybody who lived in whatever village or town where the Puritans had plunked down a meetinghouse had to support said religion and said meetinghouse whether they shared the faith or not.  Dissenters like Roger Williams had to go find somewhere else to live.

Roughly 150 years, give or take a few, after the pilgrims landed along came the Founding Fathers.  The Founding Fathers were not the Pilgrims.  The Founding Fathers were wealthy, male landowners, many educated in law and other professions.  They didn't want to pay taxes to England and not have a say in what happened to them - no taxation without representation.

Long story short, they were aware of what was happening with the official church.  They were aware that people of faith were in an analogous position vis a vis the church as they were with England.  So they enshrined in the constitution the freedom of religion.  Their intent was to allow people who dissented from the official church to dissent without threat of punishment.