The Rise of the Secular Conservative, Part 1

post with some good points. Welcome to the conservative tent, even if you are wrong about God ;) guiding this great nation (good-natured ribbing).

In my experience, your observation that the Republican party is accepting of a larger diversity of beliefs is true. Conservatives tend to be held together by a common belief in individual rights, small government, private property, and independece - of thought, belief, etc... Beyond that, believe what you want, we can still build a strong, vibrant, exemplary country together.

That said, belief in a Creator is much more common than not, and fairly critical to our nation as we know it. Here's why.

The U.S. is unique in that the source of our rights (as described in our national "vision statement", the Declaration of Independence) is our Creator NOT any government. Government's rightful purpose is to secure (not grant) rights endowed by this Creator.

Why is this important you ask? Because if government is the source of our rights, government can rightfully take them away. Governments are made of people, partisan people, fallible people.

So long as we hold to the idea that our Creator, removed from the realm of humanity and its failings, endows rights, we can all agree that no government may rightfully take away what they lack the power to give (only secure).

If you eliminate God/Creator from your belief system, you are left with only men and their governments to grant you your rights. If men give them, men can take them. History bears out that we don't want this, it always ends badly. Look at Hirohito, emporer/god of Japan, Stalin, Hitler, etc...When the state is "god", trouble ensues.

God, as legal/political concept, creates an untouchable, removed source of rights which can't be tampered with or overruled. In a legal system holding that there is a higher source of rights, all may continue referencing this to keep government in check.

Aside from that, when I consider the astounding insight of the framers of the Constitution - their careful construction of three branches with checks and balances; the delicate interplay of enough central/federal authority to hold the Union together and individual States' rights; and the ability to amend the Constitution if absolutely nencessary - then observe most of the rest of the world - I can't help but have my belief that God is indeed guiding our experiment affirmed.

Keep up the posts, and welcome.

I do not see any god;
I cannot hear any god;
I cannot smell a god;
I taste the food I eat, but I never taste a god;
Whatever direction I reach, I never touch a god;
No god speaks in my ear or taps me on the shoulder to get my attention.

And yet all my life I've heard countless people talk about something they call God--something for which neither they nor I have any sensory evidence.

When I was a child I had a vivid imagination. For play, I would make up people, countries, battles, situations. It was great fun. It was also make-believe. They way I know it was make-believe is that I couldn't see, hear, smell, taste, or touch any of it; it was all in my mind. If I were to insist to others that my childhood fantasies were reality, they'd be quite justified in thinking me loony.

The evidence of our five senses is the standard by which all of us normally ascertain reality. Since that's really all we've got other than inferential reasoning, it's the only standard by which we can reasonably expect anyone to judge whether something is real or not.

I can't see how dogmatic assertions about a god make any more sense than would an insistence that my childhood fantasies were real. Judged by the evidence of my senses, such notions are just as unreal as anything I ever imagined to entertain myself as a boy.

I'm very happy to have found this blog. I was beginning to believe that I was the only non religious conservative. We certainly are an undervalued and abused group with the conservative community. If you spend any time in political chatrooms, you'll find that the overwhelming majority of people in there are not only believers but fanatical belivers. I have no problem with religion. I was raised in Catholic schools and I am grateful for the education I got. However, I am not now a believer, but I am VERY conservative in my political philosophy. I've never understood why people can't understand how a person can have conservative principles without being religious.
I look forward to reading more comments on this blog.