Often times, the only real difference between the Christian Conservative and the Liberal Atheist is a single word.
The Christian Conservative, for example, is only as anti-government as the atheist is anti-God, or more specifically, anti-religion. The former does not want the man made institution of "government" imposing its rules and regulations on them, anymore than the latter wants the man made institution of "religion," or a man made "God, doing the same thing.
Hence, the only difference between the two is which "man made institution" is depriving them of their "liberty" or "freedom." The Conservative thinks (at least politically) in terms of the former, of course, while the Liberal thinks in terms of the latter. And even though it is often forcefully argued that the two are wildly different (which is largely a matter of semantics) they are fundamentally the same.
It is precisely this difference in words - government vs god, and liberty vs freedom - that distinguishes the bulk of the differences between the Conservative Christian and the Liberal Atheist, even though the two are largely arguing over the same thing. Each thinks life would be better if it were not for the other trying to impose some set of "rules" or "dogmas" on others.
Yet the Conservative Christian will insist that people necessarily need a "God" to regulate the ":freedoms" and behaviors of human "persons," lest real "people" engage in all manner of evils agaisnt their fellow man, even as they likewise demand that government not impinge upon the "liberties" of the corporate "persons," even though such "corporate persons" are as singularly focused on satiating the blood lust of their "profit motive" (which is simply an economic term for what the bible calls "the love of money," and thus the "root of all evil") as the Terminator has in finding and killing Sarah Connor, and often with the very same collateral consequences on everyone in the way.
Of course, the Conservative is not directly demanding that corporations be allowed to pursue their "love of money" (i.e the profit motive) at the expense of everyone but themselves. They simply want the government to leave their own personal liberties alone, which means the gov't is forced to leave the "liberties" of corporations alone as well. And that means that corporations can increasingly pursue their aim of maximizing profits, even at the expense of people.
For the Christian Conservative, in this respect, all of the troubles in the economy are the result of gov't regulation, according to prophets of the profit motive like Milton Friedman, while all of the troubles of the society are the result, not of an economy that simultaneously changes society faster than anything in history while raking in profits by plunging into debt the very customers they everywhere addict to their basest desires, but of people failing to worship "God" and go to church on Sunday.
But of course people are addicted to God and go to church every Sunday. It's just that the Christian Conservative fails to understand that in an economy that maximizes profits by turning its customers into consumer zombies, the "church" is the shopping mall and God is the almighty dollar. That's why Black Friday shoppers look so much like a hysterical audience speaking in tongues at a Benny Hinn service.
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