Hello, everybody, Welcome back to the nonprofits.
So we actually have some good secular news on the show.
Yay, So Rob, please.
Tell us what is going on in Congressional Congress.
Yeah, did you know there is a Congressional Free Thought Caucus within the House of Representatives Because I didn't good to learn. Still they the CFC, have added two new members this month. They are the representatives Judy Chu and Delia Ramirez. They are both Democrats. The CFC is a group of representatives that support, as they say, quote, reason based policy. They advocate for data driven decisions, and they oppose much the much larger Congressional Prayer Caucus, which is
comprised of both Republicans and Democrats. The Free Thought Caucus has twenty eight members and is made of only Democrats. Luckily, the membership has only gone up since they were founded in twenty eighteen. Also fun side fact, they staunchly opposed the new Justice Kevin brannag No, I'll look it back up. Yeah, that's okay, I'll look it back up. But yeah, so that's what they're for. They're there for reason based policy.
They are climate change. They understand that that's happening. They or they support separation of church and state.
So we want to point out that this article is from The Friendly Atheist by him and Meta, posted on May twelve five.
Thank you, hemmt. That contributes a lot to the things that we talk about on this show. So so Rob, yes, of course.
So are there any members that are actually like openly atheists? Are they kind of like operating under like the like I'm a freethinker umbrella over here?
So I actually try so, I did actually try to look that up, but I didn't find any. However, most of the verbiage that I find whenever I look up this caucus is most of them are religious, which seems to imply that some of them are the atheists, but I cannot specifically find out who. They probably don't want to be known or at least have that super public, but it seems to be that there are least some atheists. However, most of them are religious.
Well, it's one of those things. They've become out of atheists in your government. It's pretty much like political suicide. Yeah, especially in the current climate.
Definitely.
Yeah.
Like you, for example, is a Unitarian universalist, which is about as non religious religious as you can get generally, as you can get.
Yeah, I love those those places where they're just all about like, hey, be nice and why because I don't universals.
I've been to Interior Universalist service. I was too early on a Sunday for me, so and I'm like, say, I like sleep. But it was a very positive.
You know, kind of like groovy message. So you know, I'm not gonna you know, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna.
Poopoo on it, Tracy, I don't. I don't. I don't have something cool to say to you. I don't get the very so anyway.
So, uh that means that, do you think, like, you know, those of us that belong to like circular organizations, you know, ship push more openly for candidates to join, even if the risks blow back and some I know that I said that, you know, uh, being you know, identify yourself as an atheist is political suicide.
But maybe would it be a.
Good thing for people to be more out about their atheism?
Certain all, most certainly I think we should be pushing for more membership to the Free Thought Caucus or to the is that what they call is that what it's called? Yeah, freethought Caucus. I think that I think that we should push for more membership there, and I don't think necessarily that I push. Like, I'm kind of in a difficult position here because it's ultimately a personal decision whether or not to identify oneself as as an atheist. Same thing
with identified. Well, if you are a Christian, it is not your personal decision. You must identify yourself as a Christian if you at least if you're going to be in line with your Bible. But so it's one of those things. If they want to identify themselves that way, that is their personal choice. I'm more interested in this freethought caucus. I'm glad that we have theistic members it's primarily religious, because that is that that's going to see.
Like Hemmett Meta mentions in the Friendly Atheist article here that it's not an atheist club. You know what I'm saying. If it turned into even something reminiscent of an atheist club, I think that would be a problem which would discourage further membership. Yeah, that's my whole thing there.
Yeah, I was I was gonna say that. Well, first of all, by the way, I remember I looked it up and remembered it was Brett Kavanaugh. They opposed Brett Kavanaugh as.
All reasonable people should.
So tactically, yes, tactically I agree with you, by the way, Tracy, and that if the Free Thought Caucus was comprised entirely of atheists, then it would be less effective.
Uh.
And this is simply because there are just more religious people than atheist people or non religious people or non theists a theists, perhaps there are just more of them. So what that means is that by having religious people within the Free Thought Caucus, it is easier to make compromises and still like, like it looks better, right, It's an optics thing when you say I am for the separation of church and state, also I am religious, Like it looks better, It's going to be a much harder
sell if it is the Atheist Club. As a person who was never a theist, which seems to be quite rare, I would prefer if it was purely atheists. However, I gotta, you know, take my wings or I can and understand the tactics.
Like listen, man, we're we're holding on by the skin of red teeth right now, like you.
Just gotta just gotta start a line. And because because.
The good on my non existent type of thing to where someone can say like, oh, I'm you know, this flavor of a religion, but internally they are you know, atheists, but they attend church, so you know, like tennically you can be like an atheist Catholic, you know, so there's
some deniability. They're just in just in, do I think, but I do agree with you that we should have more representation because uh Gail Jordan, who is the executive director of Republicans uh Recovery now Republicans for Religion Recovering from Religion ran for Safe Seed in Tennessee as an open atheist in Tennessee, which is so red and she's reported on getting positive feedback from the community.
She didn't win, but.
Getting a lot of positive feedback as being an open atheist actually running for a government seat and in her own county. So you know, there is a benefit to it, I think to a certain degree, because I yes, we we have whole numbers that say, like, you know, if you know an atheist running, I will not vote for them.
But if you normalize it more and you start listening to people talk about actual policy versus believe you know, that could shift a gear like Tracy, how was you're kind of feeling on that.
I I agree that being open would uh about it, and speaking openly about atheism amongst political candidates would help to normalize it and and maybe cut down on a lot of the uh, you know, the knee jerk reactions of oh atheists, the people who kick puppies and burn cars.
Uh so Tuesday, they don't.
Yuck my yum. But I don't think that necessarily, just having previously uh, I think that that would be the domain of new candidates, not incumbents, to necessarily start announcing their atheism left right and center.
But but but.
I think there's a we could we could get to that point where incumbents could be doing that. However, I think it would have to start, like you were saying, with a lot of people doing it and losing, and then gradually we work our way up. It's just one of those things. What's up, Rob, I saw you points at me.
Yeah, No, I agree, you're playing tactics again. That's the thing is that it's politics, it's it's games, and therefore it is tactics. You said earlier that it is there. Oh God, the Christians must declare their Christianity, whereas atheists aren't necessarily obligated to. I must agree, But man, I really wish I could make an argument that being like
it is, it is dire. There is now is the time where more and more people are required to openly call themselves an atheist, in this time where more and more people are being religiously prosecuted. So if there was ever a time, it's now, and tactically I do agree with you that we should get it would be really nice if there were more people, new people. It would have to be new people, because again, technically, if the incumbents were to do it, then they would probably their
constituents would feel betrayed. That is not a thing I thought about. But that's an interesting point.
It's just one of those things, man, but something I wanted to bring attention to.
The guy.
The representative who announced the Congressional Free Thought Caucus in twenty eighteen was Representative Jared Huffman from California and is currently the only openly humanist member of Congress. Right here by him at META. I think that that is the more important factor, because I think it's important that we be humanists first and atheists maybe fifth. Because it's irrelevant of what relevance is my non acceptance of other people's claims.
It's not terribly relevant the moral system that we aspired. That that at least I think you guys as well subscribe to being represented in Congress. I think that's a good thing. I think that's a fantastic thing that he's been there at least a couple terms now, being openly humanist, that's a fantastic uh sign sign maybe I don't know, indicating Yeah.
It's it's hard for me to remember that being an atheist does not it does not mutually include a moral system.
Oh no, however, right, but like I fail to find atheists who are not humanists.
I'm sure they exist, and they would be a wonder right, but like they don't necessarily go hand to hand. So I agree, Yeah, definitely human is in the game of real life, being a humanist is more important than being an atheist. I personally just forget that those are separate things different because they just that's what happens people.
Yeah, Gamer gay was a whole thing of eight people.
That were atheists and missogynist butheads. So that was the time.
So because I was online during my Deconstruction at that time, and it was not a kind place to woman, so you know, because but that's the thing about like people are nuanced weird anyway.
So I want to tell you a cool stat if I can, sure, Yeah, twenty. So the House of Representative is two hundred and fifteen seats, and with twenty eight of them being people from the Free Thought Caucus, that means that this is thirteen percent. We have thirteen percent of people who are openly for separation of church and state.
And then we behind the games. We're talking a lot about Dungeons, Dragons and other tabletop roleplaying games, and I just want to point out that rolling A twenty on a D twenty is a five percent chance, So we're like doing more than twice as good as rolling D twenties.
Right, Well, yeah, that's a fun.
While you were saying that, I knew what you were leading to, and so I was frantically searching my desk for dinner. And they're all in the living room, So just ignore that. You're gonna see this video, and you're gonna see me as soon as you start talking. Look everywhere but at my camera.
And that's what I was doing, is by the way that is a nonprofit's way. We are professionals of all time, but lower your expectations is professional.
It's something like you said, so.
Anyway, I'm actually gonna do my job now. So we have, you know, the saying about like being non religious as a dirty word, so on that sort of you know, perspective care candidates kind of talk about, like we were talking about humanist before, like what kind of wording should they use versus like religious, you know, time about the moral good, you know, and religious context.
What if you were going to run for.
Office, I'll start with you, Rob, If you're going to run for office as a secular person, what kind of wording would you say to like, you know, people not to look you as an atheist, but as a humanist and actually care about the moral good and the law.
I genuinely think that's an interesting question, and the first answer is I'm not sure, mostly because I would just talk. I think a big version A big part of it is not appealing to the religious speech, you know, not having to end everything with God bless America. Like what would happen is not the obviousness or the pushing of religious ideology or even just like we're all in the
in crowd because we're all Christian. It would just it would not to be a pushing of anything obviously necessarily atheistic. It would just be like Hi, I mean, I'm not going to run, but like Hi, I'm rob I'm for people's rights. We should take care of people and make sure that when those people are taken care of that we, I don't know, help victims. And that includes both directions like depending if like see this why I'm not a politician. But the idea is that I'm not appealing to a
religious background. I'm not saying I need to be tough on crime as a dog whistle or talk about how like we need to have traditional family Christian values like these are loaded terms as opposed to I could I could say something like, we should respect the declaration of union of two people who marry because it is not necessary.
I would not then say this not necessarily a religious thing, but it is the contract that two people enter into with each other, and that in and of itself is an excellent and wonderful thing, and we should respect both of their wishes to each other. There's nothing religious about that.
Fair, So could you see the same question I would call attention, not necessarily because, as I've said, I think I'm in an atheist community right now. But we don't sit around backstage and talk about how how we don't like gods or whatever like that. We don't talk about atheism backstage. We talk about the things that matter to us, which are individual autonomy and rights. Which these would be the things that I would I would speak to. I would speak to guaranteeing the freedoms for Americans I and
also for those who are not Americans just visiting. I would point out that humanism applies to all people, regardless of any preconceived notions or creed that they've aligned with. Humanism applies to you whether you're a Christian, whether you're a Satanist, whether you're a Buddhist. It doesn't matter. I care about you to the same extent I care about everyone else, and I will always look out for your rights and what you need to live your life happily. And that would be how I go about it.
Yeah, it's uh. It is a frighteningly more compassionate line of thought when one's respect of others humanity comes from oneself rather than one's religiosity.
I agree.
When you make that decision for yourself rather than having it imposed upon you.
It's fantastic.
Would you say, Helen, Yeah.
I would be like, I'm not going to say listen, motherfuckers, because I.
Don't know.
Fine, Like I feel like I would try to talk a little bit more eloquently than oh, I mean not, I don't know.
I would try.
To appeal to people's emotions and moral centers rather than believe. I think, as you know, we keep discussing that I don't really care what you believe, and I care more about how you treat one another, because regardless if you're an atheist or a Christian, as long as you're not a butthead, I'm not going to treat you like you're a butthead.
And I think that you know, the basic lose like don't be a dick.
So like if we all kind of in that same you know, area of being kind and you know, good to one another, that should be first, and then policy comes later. You know what matters to us as a whole, which is basically like you know, making sure there's food on the table. You know, we can enjoy life, you know, and if you decide to go to church grade or if you don't, that's okay too, Like where this is not you know, at the end of the day, are
you basically needs to be met? You know, are you is everybody equal under the law, and are we doing the best to push society forward rather than you know, going back and saying like this group of people is better than another group of people. You know, at the end of the day, belief is just you know, your perspective of the world. In a philosophy, it says nothing about who you are as a human being, and we have to you know, that would be more my messaging.
Like how what what do we owe to each other?
And how that translates into wider society and government.
Amen, there's a there's a there's a cool bit uh in this article that I actually really wanted to point out because I thought how they word it is interesting because it says this group is this is just a group of lawmakers dedicated to promoting reason based public polo policy blah blah blah, blah blah blah. And then the author says, there's really no reason anyone should be against this, and they I talicize anyone, And I think that's one I agree with them, but that's not what I would
have done, And not that the article is wrong. I think it's really interesting because again, remember this is a group of lawmakers dedicated to promoting reason based policy. There is really no reason why anyone should be against this. I talicize the reason because when it speaks back to the sentence, but we're talking about thoughts, so so when people have reasons, they have reasoned. And I want people
to be more thoughtful of their own belief structures. So it's not to me, it's not the the anyone ness of this, it's we should all be aware of what's happening, and we should all get on board with thinking about our own world.
Amen. Yeah, this is a fantastic palette cleanser, and I just hope that the Caucus continues to add members here out.
I like, after you know, a couple other articles this week that we're like, oh, no, Like, it's good to see that, you know, wonderful people are singing up for humanism and not all the bad things, so you.
Know, great, it's awesome. Keep it up. Anyway, if you want to learn more about one other.
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