I don't like Mitt Romney

It’s not that I particularly liked Mitt Romney before (amongst other reasons: he’s a Republican), but I know can freely say I really despise him. He just gave a speech focusing on the fact that he’s a member of a religion that is A) not mainstream, B) considered by some to be a bit crazy and C) considered by some to be a cult. Here’s my favorite bit:

Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.

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Yeah. There’s also this:

Americans acknowledge that liberty is a gift of God, not an indulgence of government.

Again…yeah. And this:

And you can be certain of this: Any believer in religious freedom, any person who has knelt in prayer to the Almighty, has a friend and ally in me. And so it is for hundreds of millions of our countrymen: we do not insist on a single strain of religion -- rather, we welcome our nation's symphony of faith.

I wonder if that includes me, a solid atheist who believes absolutely in absolute freedom of religion but does indeed believe that includes freedom from religion? I won’t decry your faith as any better or worse than anyone else’s, and I won’t tell you you’re wrong or to change your beliefs. Will you extend the same courtesy to me?

I admit I don’t always do that: I’m a hypocrite, just as any other human. We’re all innately flawed. I write off religion as a ridiculous. Religiously minded people write off atheism as ridiculous. So be it: finding people who don’t do so is as impossible as finding a truly unbiased journalist. But all I ask is that we leave it there. You have your personal beliefs and I have mine. We disagree. That’s fine. But I’d like very much to stop being overlooked entirely as an American on account of my beliefs or lack thereof. Americans are mostly but not entirely religious, something I’m afraid is more and more often willfully forgotten.

Also, here’s an interesting piece on the first quote from the speech. It doesn’t say much but there’s really not much that needs to be said about it: Romney has made his stance pretty damn clear.