The reality is that most of the world believes in a deity of one form or another, and a great many of them talk to that nonexistent entity or entities. You can call it indoctrination, you can call it brainwashing, you can call it mass hallucination, or you can call it faith. It’s not more true than alien abductions, but comparing the two and saying they all need to shed belief in their deity to be fit for public office is just completely unhelpful and a irreligious test is no better than a religious test for office.
Now perhaps you didn’t follow this tangent all the way to what I first replied to, but @anon62122146 compared talking to God to believing in alien abduction and that’s not a useful comparison in this context of a test for office. I do in fact agree with @anon62122146 that basing public policy on any non-evidence basis is wrong, but talking to God or any other diety is not and should not be a disqualification for office because the law is not an institution suited to decreeing what belief systems are correct, it would inevitably and quickly be perverted into a way to suppress disbelief and unpopular belief.
Somehow we got off on this pointless tangent of general rationality tests for public office and maybe I inadvertently helped derail us. But if it’s going to continue then it should be in it’s own thread and I won’t be participating because it’s a reckless and insane idea that I flatly do not support.
ETA: I want to be clear that my trenchant irritation isn’t directly specifically at you, but mostly at myself for embroiling myself in the same futile conversation about public office rationality tests that’s been rehashed ad nauseam since the dawn of the internet and long long before it. Sorry if I came off as short with you; I wasn’t trying to be.
And also, obviously I want people like this woman kept out of elected office. But I want it done with votes against her and by fighting GOP gerrymandering, not by trying to changing the qualifications for elected office.
ETA: I confused @anon62122146’s comment with that of @davide405. Apologies to both.
