Winning minds is one thing.  Winning hearts is a totally different matter.  I’ll explain later.

She’s conservative.  She loves and defends Christians.  She believes America was founded on Judeo-Christian values.  She says she would never vote for an atheist President.  But S.E. Cupp herself is an atheist.  In her own words:

“I’m not a militant atheist.  I’ve never really understood the “angry atheist”…I was fascinated by religion at a very young age…I just decided early on that I didn’t buy it, it wasn’t for me.  But I’m envious!  I’m envious of the faithful!  So I defend the faithful, especially the Christian right in America at every opportunity I get…I haven’t closed the door on faith…I really aspire to be a person of faith one day.”

“I’m a fan of George Bush.  I think he had a conviction – personal principles – that required him to answer to Someone Else when he went to bed at night.  Not to the state, and not to himself…that gives me comfort as a citizen knowing that my President is going to bed answering to a Higher Power.”

“As an atheist, I could never imagine electing – voting for – an atheist President…religion keeps a person who is endowed with so much power honest…This is a person who is answering to a Higher Power every night, and not to the state – he doesn’t think the state has all the power, and he doesn’t think he has all the power.  That’s important to me.  I represent 2% of the world.  Why would I want someone who thinks 98% of the world is crazy running the country?

“Liberalism is really threatened by fixed values systems, like Christianity.”

I like to think I adhere to the same Judeo-Christian values that most of religious America does.  It’s an understanding of and a respect for these values that keeps me moral…But even if we agree that nonbelievers can be moral people, how would you know?  Self-identifying as Christian at least tells you what a person strives for, even if he or she routinely falls short.  Self-identifying as an atheist tells you absolutely nothing about my values.”

At least she’s incredibly honest.  But what is keeping her from being a Christian now?

“I believe that science has answered [the question of origins] adequately enough for me.  I just could never fill that hole – the gaps in our knowledge – with some unseen supernatural being.  It just doesn’t make sense to me.”

Fascinating, because for me it is the exact opposite.  I’ve been exposed to plenty of evolutionary science all my life, and it has never made sense to me.  I would love to have a long conversation with Miss Cupp.

I recently saw a book advertised that is titled “The Christian Atheist: Believing in God but Living as If He Doesn’t Exist” by Craig Groeschel.  I haven’t read it, but the concept is quite revealing.  The Church in our day and age is at fault for a lot of the nonsense and corruption in the world because so many of her members reason like atheists.  By that I mean they do not truly believe in the living power of Christ.  They believe in the power of themselves, and when that goes wrong, they seek the wisdom and power of elitists.  They don’t live out the Acts of the Apostles – as though believers whose lives are recorded in the Bible worshiped a powerful God who isn’t around anymore.  They repeatedly try to compromise intellectually when there really is no need to.  They dumb down the Faith.  According to S.E. Cupp, the self-proclaimed Christian President Obama “elevates atheism” to something it is not.

Thus we have an intriguing paradox: an atheist who thinks like a Christian in a world of Christians who think like atheists.  Most of S.E. Cupp’s mind is won, but her heart is not.  The hearts of the “Christian Atheists” might be won, but their minds are not.  Hmm…that is still too broad and sweeping of a generalization, however.

I’m curious as to what other atheists (or semi-atheists) think of S.E. Cupp.  Is anyone else even the slightest bit envious of people of faith?  Does anyone else give credit to and respect Judeo-Christian values and recognize how unique Christianity is in contrast to other worldviews?  How do most atheists feel about being such a tiny minority in the world?

~Amanda~

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