# This Atheist Gal in Love With John Kerry. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 10, 2004, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493 "2004-10-10T18:24:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/21 "2004-10-11T01:25:13Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > that he didn’t consider atheists to be real Americans, but I can’t find any confirmation of that, so I’ll assume it’s just a rumor. He **did** say, however, that Wicca wasn’t a “real religion” and didn’t deserve the protection that religious practice gets, which indicates he may have an incomplete understanding of the subject. Always a safe assumption in his case, whatever the subject. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/22 "2004-10-11T01:31:37Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Now, Bush has been accused of having said that he didn’t consider atheists to be real Americans, but I can’t find any confirmation of that, so I’ll assume it’s just a rumor. I think that was Bush, Sr., and you’re right, I don’t think it’s ever been proved he actually said it. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/23 "2004-10-11T01:42:53Z")
Eve is _really_ in love with Liebernman; right? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/24 "2004-10-11T02:13:09Z")
> [@Bear\_Nenno](#): > > That’s a great answer. Too bad the question was probably, “Do you think you will do a better job at protecting the US from terrorism than President Bush?” 😃 > But seriously, what was the question he was answering? Was it something about helping with AIDS in Africa or something? What exactly was the “moral responsibility that [was] expressed in [her] question?” Actually (and to correct **Baldwin** ), [it was this question](http://www.debates.org/pages/trans2004c.html): > [@](#): > > DEGENHART: Senator Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person? ---
**Author:** ![ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b4bc9f/32.png) [@ZombiesAteMyBrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZombiesAteMyBrain)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/25 "2004-10-11T02:31:25Z")
> [@Measure for Measure](#): > > [hijack] > Permit me to pre-empt certain remarks by Kerry opposers: If Bush is so gung-ho about his faith, why doesn’t he belong to a congregation in DC? Why doesn’t he attend church regularly? [/hijack] Why should Bush attend church and talk to God with the hoi polloi, when God talks directly with him in the privacy of the Oval office? On Law and Order tonight the story was about a priest who killed someone because he said God had told him to do it. He didn’t get away with it. Made me think of Bush though, as, according to him, God told him to attack Iraq [among other things]. Do the American people really believe that Bush is getting instructions from God? [sorry for carrying on the hijack] ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/26 "2004-10-11T03:22:22Z")
Those wishing to discuss Bush’s churchgoing habits can do so [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=280150) ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/27 "2004-10-11T03:24:48Z")
Rats. Wrong link: Go here to discuss W’s churchgoing habits: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5353106](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=5353106) ---
**Author:** ![Netbrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71e660/32.png) [@Netbrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Netbrian)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/28 "2004-10-11T04:41:57Z")
> [@](#): > > DEGENHART: Senator Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person? I rather disliked this question – Why is this any different from people opposing the war in Iraq paying their taxes to fund it? But I really did cheer at Kerry’s answer to that question. It’s even more certain that I’m voting now “for Kerry” and not just “against Bush”. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/29 "2004-10-11T13:28:39Z")
> [@vanilla](#): > > Eve is _really_ in love with Lieberman; right? > 🙂 Feh—Holy Joe? I’d rather neck with Roy Cohn. ---
**Author:** ![Homebrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Homebrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Homebrew)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/30 "2004-10-11T13:56:35Z")
> [@Baldwin](#): > > Preventing research that might make Christopher Reeve walk again because you think embryos have the same rights as people is lunatic." [They’re working on resurrections now?](http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/11/obit.reeve.ap/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/31 "2004-10-11T19:31:48Z")
> [@Homebrew](#): > > [They’re working on resurrections now?](http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/10/11/obit.reeve.ap/index.html) ☹ ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/32 "2004-10-11T20:03:57Z")
I figure Eve has her crush on Kerry because he’s tall with a big nose and large hands and feet and you know what they say about that. “Big feet, big boots.” Therefore, she must be a shoe fetishist. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/33 "2004-10-11T22:10:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Actually (and to correct Baldwin), it was this question: > > Quote: > > DEGENHART: Senator Kerry, suppose you are speaking with a voter who believed abortion is murder and the voter asked for reassurance that his or her tax dollars would not go to support abortion, what would you say to that person? Thanks, **jshore** , but you’re mistaken. I was referring to this question (and answer): > [@](#): > > GIBSON: Senator Kerry, the next question is for you, and it comes from Elizabeth Long. > > LONG: Senator Kerry, thousands of people have already been cured or treated by the use of adult stem cells or umbilical cord stem cells. However, no one has been cured by using embryonic stem cells. > > Wouldn’t it be wide to use stem cells obtained without the destruction of an embryo? > > KERRY: You know, Elizabeth, I really respect your – the feeling that’s in your question. I understand it. I know the morality that’s prompting that question, and I respect it enormously. > > But like Nancy Reagan, and so many other people – you know, I was at a forum with Michael J. Fox the other day in New Hampshire, who’s suffering from Parkinson’s, and he wants us to do stem cell, embryonic stem cell. And this fellow stood up, and he was quivering. His whole body was shaking from the nerve disease, the muscular disease that he had. > > And he said to me and to the whole hall, he said, “You know, don’t take away my hope, because my hope is what keeps me going.” > > Chris Reeve is a friend of mine. Chris Reeve exercises every single day to keep those muscles alive for the day when he believes he can walk again, and I want him to walk again. > > I think we can save lives. > > Now, I think we can do ethically guided embryonic stem-cell research. > > We have 100,000 to 200,000 embryos that are frozen in nitrogen today from fertility clinics. These weren’t taken from abortion or something like that. They’re from a fertility clinic. And they’re either going to be destroyed or left frozen. > > And I believe if we have the option, which scientists tell us we do, of curing Parkinson’s, curing diabetes, curing, you know, some kind of a, you know, paraplegic or quadriplegic or, you know, a spinal cord injury, anything, that’s the nature of the human spirit. > > I think it is respecting life to reach for that cure. I think it is respecting life to do it in an ethical way. > > And the president has chosen a policy that makes it impossible for our scientists to do that. I want the future, and I think we have to grab it. Ah! Just heard Bush on the radio, lying about what Kerry said. What a surprise! ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/34 "2004-10-11T22:54:52Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > . . . you know what they say about that. “Big feet, big boots.” “Mekka Lekka Hi Mekka Hiney Ho!” ---
**Author:** ![Lobsang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobsang/32/4067_2.png) [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)\ **Post date:** [October 11, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/35 "2004-10-11T23:18:21Z")
Kind of late this, but. This is the cherry on top for me too (If I was an American voter\*) Being an Atheist myself, I was kind of put-off by kerry’s seemingly equal religious vigor to that of GWB’s. But seeing him display such open-mindedness removed all doubt. [sub]\*Experiencing the obvious worldwide (especially britain) interest in the US elections I wonder if one day the vote for POTUS will/should be extended to the rest of the world. Afterall, we are voting for the leader of our global ‘police’. Shouldn’t we have a say?)[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/36 "2004-10-12T00:01:24Z")
For those wondering about the Bush atheist comment, here is at least one link where it is described. [http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/aa011.htm](http://www.holysmoke.org/sdhok/aa011.htm) Not sure if it’s accurate, but it certainly matches other reports I remember. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/37 "2004-10-12T00:06:50Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Not sure if it’s accurate, but it certainly matches other reports I remember. As big an ol’ atheist as I am, I wouldn’t trust any source with with Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s name on it. She was one of those “I’m ashamed she’s on my side” advocates. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/38 "2004-10-12T00:39:01Z")
Let me preface my comments by saying I too am an atheist and I too plan to vote for Kerry. But a couple of days back I[nearly pitted Kerry](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=280008) for the very same comments. What I said was > [@](#): > > I _think_ his position is that federal funds can be used to pay for abortions in at least some cases, which I agree with. Did I miss a wound? Did Kerry get his balls shot off in a firefight with the Cong? I was in no way comforted to hear Kerry talking about their shared Catholic values. As a former Catholic, I have a pretty good sense of just how fucked up that is (IMHO, of course). I saw his comments as an agonizing attempt to avoid an accurate answer to the question. An accurate answer to the question would be, IMHO, “I’m sorry maam, I cannnot offer you any certainty that your tax money will not be used to subsidize abortions in at least some cases. Women have a certain constitutional rights to control their own bodies, and it may take Federal money to ensure those rights” Eve, I find myself surprised and almost upset to be in disagreement with you. I read your posts often and very much enjoy them and hardly ever find a point of disagreement. At least we can agree on the right guy to vote for, with greater or lesser degrees of enthusiasm. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/39 "2004-10-12T01:06:51Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > As big an ol’ atheist as I am, I wouldn’t trust any source with with Madalyn Murray O’Hair’s name on it. She was one of those “I’m ashamed she’s on my side” advocates. I googled and found the following: > **[George H. W. Bush - Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush)** And this is cut from the page it links to as support: "UPI reported on May 8, 1989, that various atheist organizations were still angry over the remarks. The exchange appeared in the Boulder Daily Camera on Monday February 27, 1989. It can also be found in “Free Inquiry” magazine, Fall 1988 issue, Volume 8, Number 4, page 16." ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493/40 "2004-10-12T01:29:48Z")
> [@Boyo Jim](#): > > Eve, I find myself surprised and almost upset to be in disagreement with you. I read your posts often and very much enjoy them and hardly ever find a point of disagreement. Oh, we’ve been married for 35 years now, you and I, I’m sure we needn’t divorce over _this_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-atheist-gal-in-love-with-john-kerry/268493.md?page=3)