How would an american presidential candidate handle the “Christianity” issue, if he was not really religious himself? I have been asking myself this question, while I have a hard time seeing Barack Obama as truly Christian, the obvious intelligent being he is. I am not stating in any way, that a religious person is not intelligent per definition. There is a lot people in history that proves the opposite. But as a strong non-believer myself, I have a really hard time imagining how anyone, grown up in a modern society, can honestly say to themselves that God exists as a divine being, listening to one’s prayers.
Perhaps Obama really is Christian, as he so proclaims. I certainly do not see him as a liar, although as a politician at his level, he must master the art of spin to some degree. Every modern American president has been Christian to some extend. Only some of the very earliest presidents, those known as the founding fathers was not clearly Christian, even though this is still discussed. Some is now labeled as Deist, which is as much non-religious someone can be while still being slight religious. But perhaps that was just a word atheist invented, in order not to let their mothers entirely down. Or perhaps it started something like this:
“So, what Church do you follow?”
“I’m not religious. I don’t really believe in god?”
“Huh?”
“I belive the truth lies in trial and error, proving and falsification.”
“Ok, listen there clearly IS a God jerk, but you like that science thingy too? that’s nice. I guess we could call that Deism”
Not only can the founding fathers religious view be questioned, but they were also rational enough not to include anything religious in the constitution, making it an entirely secular document. A very smart move, viewed in retrospect. By including religion in this document, they could have accelerated the Christian fundamentalism the country is struggling with today. Today however, in Americas current state it is hard to imagine a politician running for president, who is not Christian, and still having a shot at the post.
This makes me suspect that a rational non-believing person, that have the urge to change things for the better, might need to change the public perception of certain personal beliefs. And while religious belief is a highly intangible arbitrary phenomenon, this could be quite easy to fake, if one should feel the need. And maybe because I had the suspicion, and was looking for clues, I think i found them in Obamas book “The Audacity of Hope”. In a chapter about faith, he writes about his parents lack of such, and his upbringing without. As an explanation of why his grandparents weren’t religious he writes:
“My grandmother was always too rational and too stubborn to accept anything she couldn’t see, feel, touch, or count. My grandfather, the dreamer in our family, possessed the sort of restless soul that might have found refuge in religious belief had it not been for those other characteristics–an innate rebelliousness, a complete inability to discipline his appetites, and a broad tolerance of other people’s weaknesses – that precluded him from getting to serious about anything.”
“…This combination of traits – my grandmother’s flinty rationalism, my grandfather’s joviality and incapacity to judge others or himself too strictly….”
To me, these sections could possibly hint that Obama is not exactly a deep religious believer himself. And it is possible that he, while he is a self-proclaimed Christian, could have adopted those views (truly believing or not), knowing that did he not, he would not last long in politics. Perhaps Obama has this way even adopted Christianity because he is intelligent, and not in spite of.
It is a little scary to think about though, that USA seems more religious now, than when the country was founded. And why the presidential oath, need to be taken placing a hand on the bible is in itself quite scary. The constitution states “no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust”. And the “so help me god” part of the presidential oath, is not part of the original oath.
Having a self proclaimed non Christian, or even better non religious believer as president would be the real Change, which I look forward too. But unfortunately this does not seem likely somewhere in the near future. That being said I think Obama is an extremely welcome trade off.
Brian Zhang Larsen | 
02 13th, 2009| 
I was reading about the satellite collision between a Russian and an American satellite over Sibiria, and stumbled upon the Heavens-Above website. You can enter your geographical data, and among other things see when you next time can watch a so called Iridium flare, which is a reflection of sunlight from a Iridium satellite. The American satellite, which yesterday collided with a Russian satellites, is one of these Iridium satellites, and their antenna shapes makes them reflect sunlight so it can be seen on earth.