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Put an Atheist on Supreme Court

By John Johnson, Newser Staff

Posted May 4, 2010 1:53 PM CDT

(Newser) – President Obama should "absolutely" take into account the religious views of his next nominee for the Supreme Court, but not for the usual reasons, Marc Cooper says. "Clearly, the next person to take the bench should be an atheist," he writes for the Los Angeles Times. Having a nonbeliever on the bench would be a "mighty blow" in favor of the Jeffersonian principles of reason and freedom.

"It's rather staggering to consider that more than two centuries after our Constitution codified the absolute separation of church and state, we've never had a single top court justice who was an atheist," writes Cooper. Thomas Jefferson himself figured the "mystical generation" of Jesus would someday be regarded as fable. So let's stop asking, "What would Jesus do," and start asking, "What would Jefferson do?"

Does the Supreme Court need an atheist? (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

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COMMENTS

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Showing 3 of 152 comments

NukeItFromOrbit

May 12, 2010 3:48 PM CDT

Atheism is a virus spread by arrogant men and poorly-raised teenagers with no respect for their forefathers. We don't need more of it in our country. We have enough problems as it is.

Yet the left has for generations been trying to replace God with the state, if Obama did this I suppose he would just be trying to continue that effort.

Jefferson would role in his grave if he saw what radicals were trying to do with his concept of a government without an official state church.

danielmullarkey

May 9, 2010 11:52 PM CDT

Most atheists find nothing harmful about public displays of religion, but most atheists think that government and religion should not be mixed together.

intellecteater

May 5, 2010 8:50 PM CDT

There are no atheists. Agnostics, and deists, yes...atheists, no. All are imbued with the knowledge of their Creator's existence. To claim to adhere to beliefs universally accepted as associated with atheism is to be delusional.

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Put an Atheist on Supreme Court

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religion • US Supreme Court • Jesus Christ • atheists • Thomas Jefferson • Supreme Court nominee • church and state

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More Newser Stories

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Handful apply to be humanist leaders, thus far without success

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