Amer. Atheists' David Silverman at Netroots: ‘Why do we talk about God when we talk about politics?'

By Megan Carpentier
Friday, June 21, 2013 17:51 EDT

This year at Netroots Nation, Raw Story is asking 5 Questions of various panel speakers, exhibitors and attendees about issues you won’t hear addressed on the main stage.

Though many liberals progressives define themselves as non-religious, most candidates they are asked to support nonetheless openly espouse religions views during the campaign season — with one open exception– Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). David Silverman, who became the president of American Atheists in 2010, led the first official delegation of American Atheists to Netroots Nation this year, and spoke to Raw Story about atheism in politics and the atheist movement’s recent struggles with sexism.

Raw Story: Why are you guys at Netroots this year?

Silverman: First of all, we’re thrilled to be at Netroots. One of the things we’re seeing is that the atheist presence in America is really exploding. And as atheists explode, as the atheist movement grows, we’ve had better and bigger conventions and we’ve started tabling at each other’s conventions, but one of the things we’ve noticed is that there’s a lot of navel-gazing. There’s a lot of the movement looking at itself and not going outside.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/06/21/american-atheists-david-silverman-at-netroots-why-do-we-talk-about-god-when-we-talk-about-politics/