The dumbing down of America is still being committed by our leaders on both sides of the isles of congress as well as by our media, on both sides of the spectrum. Here is a clip from MSNBC, where they expound on Obama’s visit to China.

Human rights concerns
One test of the line Obama is walking on China will be human rights, including religious freedom in the officially atheist nation. Aides said in advance that Obama would raise several human rights issues privately with Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao.

Does this sound like MSNBC is trying to tell us that being an atheist nation automatically implies that the nation is in violation of human rights? Are the two concepts, atheism and adhesion to human rights priniciples, mutually exclusive?

Talk to me about freedom of speech and human rights. Talk to me about persecution of people for their political views and human rights. But please don’t tell me that being an atheist nation is a bad thing.

We could use a little dose of secularism in our government to bring reason back into our decision making, and so could many other nations, including Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Israel, to name just a few.