[If Obama were a progressive…] he wouldn’t continually accept Republican framing of issues and perpetually treat Republicans and “Conservative Democrats” (read: corporatist Democrats) as honest actors whom sincerely want to do what is best for America[.]
Philosopher Dan Dennett makes a compelling argument that not only don’t we understand our own consciousness, but that half the time our brains are actively fooling us.
Truth doesn’t live in the closet. You have to make it clear to everyone, including your children, that there is no god. If you’re not doing that every chance you get, then the other side will win. They’ll win only in the short term; but we only get to live in the short term. You don’t have to fight, but you have to do your part – you have to tell the truth. You have to be honest. You don’t have to force schools to say there’s no god, but you have to say it yourself. You have to say it all the time. No one can relax in a closet.
Arthur Schopenhauer, Ph.D., German Philosopher, Atheist
Consider the agitated strife of man for food, mates, or children; can this be worth reflection? Certainly not; the cause is the half conscious will to live, and to live fully. “Men are only apparently drawn from in front; in reality they are pushed from behind”; they think they are led on by what they see, when in truth they are driven on by what they feel, –by instincts of whose operation they are half the time unconscious. Intellect is merely the minister of foreign affairs; “nature has produced it for the service of the individual will. Therefore it is only designed to know things so far as they afford motives for the will, but not to fathom them or to comprehend their true being.” The will is the only permanent and unchangeable element in the mind; … it is the will which,” through continuity of purpose, “gives unity to consciousness and holds together all its ideas and thoughts, accompanying them like a continuous harmony.” It is the organ-point of thought.
The American Religious Identification Survey of 2008 showed that 15% of Americans identify as non-religious. With 311 million people in the United States (June 2011 figures), that is 46.65 million Americans who are non-religious. Out of those 46.65 million non-religious citizens, roughly 40,000 are active in any given group and are part of the movement in one way or another. The rest are either silent or remain in the closet for fear of repercussions.
http://atheists.org/blog/2011/08/11/is-atheism-a-political-movement
Americans are becoming less religious, with rates of atheism and secularism increasing in each new generation. This demographic transformation has been in progress ever since World War II, but in recent years it’s begun to seriously pick up steam.
Susan Blackmore studies ‘memes:’ ideas that replicate themselves from brain to brain like a virus. She makes a bold new argument: Humanity has spawned a new kind of ‘meme,’ the ‘teme,’ which spreads itself via technology—and invents ways to keep itself alive.
