cejuan

I'm thinking of sending something along the lines of the rough draft below to the three presidential candidates to encourage them to clarify a few things about religion. I know this is unlikely to get any results, but maybe it and a bunch of other letters would someday make a difference. Obviously I will want to send it ASAP but I would welcome any suggestions or comments from you all as I fix it up. If there should happen to be anyone who would like to plagarize some of this and send their own letters they would be more than welcome to it.

Thanks.

Dear generic presidential candidate,

I am writing to make sure you are aware of my existence. I am an Agnostic who is deeply concerned about morality. I am a member of a large but relatively silent group that includes Agnostics, Atheists, Humanists, Freethinkers, etc. We tend not to be heard because we don't form large top down driven organizations that dictate our direction and amplify our voices. We do however notice when politicians infringe on our right to freedom from religion. This is a right which I expect to have applied to the expenditure of my tax dollars as well as to my personal freedoms.

We also notice when politicians belittle us. An example would be when a politician uses the term ''values voter'' to refer to people who base their morality on religion. I too have strongly held values and I don’t appreciate the implication that their values are more important or more strongly felt than mine. I value the golden rule and I value reasoned analysis of how our decisions impact the rights of others. I consider it immoral to deceive, to steal, to rape, to murder or to act as if choosing to believe something could give me special moral authority to limit the rights of others without rational justification.

At this time I am asking you for three things.

1) Specifically and publicly clarify how your religious beliefs will affect your decisions if you are elected. When given a religious based argument on a tough issue how will you determine its validity and how will you weigh it against other arguments. For example, and this is just an example- I want to understand your decision-making process not your stance on this issue, if your pastor or the bible told you ''God doesn't approve of stem cell research'' how would you determine the truth of this statement. Also, how much weight would you give it relative to the argument ''many knowledgeable scientists believe that the research has promise and are willing to commit their careers to pursuing it'' (assuming you can verify the truth of this argument).

2) Stop perpetuating the stereotypes about people such as me. You can do this by correcting people who use language such as “values voter” or by pointing out that religious affiliation is not a reliable indicator of the quality of an individual.

3) Participate in the science debate scheduled for April 18, 2008 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania so that we can evaluate your understanding of scientific issues. The invitation, which you should have already received, can be viewed at http://www.sciencedebate2008.com/

Thank you,