Dawkins "King of the Atheists" enters the US foreign policy debate

So there I was....reading the Guardian Unlimited online when I came across a rather interesting article, "Atheists arise: Dawkins spreads the A-word among America's unbelievers". In short, Richard Dawkins, the author of the God Delusion, weighs in on the power and influence of "God" in American foreign policy, but what he says might shock you...again.

"When you think about how fantastically successful the Jewish lobby has been, though, in fact, they are less numerous I am told - religious Jews anyway - than atheists and [yet they] more or less monopolise American foreign policy as far as many people can see. So if atheists could achieve a small fraction of that influence, the world would be a better place."

Did I just read that correctly? According to world's leading atheist, Dawkins...it's America's powerful Jewish lobby, AIPAC that controls US foreign policy.

Here are a few more excerpts from the article...

"But I think that this country [U.S] is so powerful and what goes on politically here is so enormously influential, the rest of the world is entitled to have a say. We don't get the vote here but I think people are entitled to express an opinion."
.....

Religion is palpable in US schools, places of work and public institutions. God is invoked by soldiers and politicians in a way that would seem inappropriate in Britain. George Bush used God as one of the reasons for invading Iraq. In Congress, where godlessness can equate with being unelectable, only one representative, Pete Stark, is prepared to admit to being a non-believer.

According to a study published last year by the University of Minnesota, Americans distrust atheists more than any other minority group, including homosexuals, recent immigrants or Muslims.

.....

on his hopes of Atheism in America...

"I would free children from being indoctrinated with the religion of their parents or their community. I would like to free everyone from the assumption you have to be religious in order to be a decent person or to be moral. Obviously stem cell research and all the interference with scientific research that goes on [should stop]. Obviously the whole creationist interference with education [should stop] but I think, more positively, I would like to see people encouraged to rejoice in the world in which they find themselves, the universe in which they have been born, to take full advantage of the tiny slice of eternity they have been granted."

on the Democrats in the 2008 U.S. Presidential Election...

"I guess the Democrats have to pretend to be more pious than the Republicans because they are under suspicion of not being."

Is Dawkins correct in his analysis?

Same Players. Different Scandal.