Some people that come to this site expecting a skeptical, but conservative view, on topics ranging from religion to politics. When I began this blog, I really didn’t want to cover politics because, believe it or not, I’ve found it to be more polarizing than religion. But I’ve discovered over the years that I just cannot always separate the two as sometimes one informs the other. Just take a look around right now and tell me if there isn’t an upsurge of online commentary that invokes patriotism from a religious perspective.

These are the creepy crawlies to me. They’re always out there, ready to strike out anyone that doesn’t jump onboard, even referring to these as traitors and scum. For some reason, being a good Christian (okay, I’ve identified a few with this) means excoriating those that oppose your point of view with the worst kind of epithets that might embarrass the Pope (maybe not). It’s interesting to me, yes, an atheist, how awful people who claim to follow the precepts of Christianity to treat others as they do and somehow believe they’re in favor with their god? As far down the list we atheists are as to who people trust, there aren’t many that perform so poorly in the public square as Christians. Sure, atheists have our tiresome people as well, but they are more on the fringe and don’t appear as mainstream.

Of course, it’s unfair to paint every Christian with a broad brush, especially since their overall numbers most likely far outweigh their online presence, but sometimes it is the few that vandalize the many. Sometimes, silence is agreement and for anyone of any belief, or no belief, to allow even a few to attempt to ruin others based on a political disagreement is poisonous in any free society. More than 50% of Americans currently disapprove of the action taking place in Iran (CNN: 59%, Marist: 56%, WaPo: 52%). We’re less than two weeks into what looks like an overwhelming victory, and a majority of Americans oppose the operation. Why is that?

I think it come down to trust. We’ve seen this before, haven’t we? Eight years in Iraq (and we still have some 2,500 troops stationed there), the abomination that was the Afghanistan adventure (20 years!) and the humiliating exit from the same. Well, it seems Americans want no more middle east odysseys. Not even the successful capture of Maduro in Venezuela swayed Americans much with polls basically even in disapprove/approve with a slight edge in disapproval. People are mostly tired of military action when there’s nothing to indicate an imminent threat to the homeland.

None of these polls are broken down to believers (Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, etc.), non-believers, or even “nones”(believers without any affiliation). Overall, atheists are fairly liberal in their politics, but I would think if they were to be able to be polled as a group, the numbers would probably fall in the same ranges as they do for Americans in general. I’m in a minority of around 10% that are conservative, and I think we probably mirror the same as other conservatives. Overall, I don’t think there’s a single demographic that veers too far from what we’re looking at right now.

As this war drags on (If?) I can see the numbers changing dramatically with all interest groups – and not favorable to the administration. If only there were some way for the people to let our government know when we are dissatisfied in the direction, it’s taking us?