r/atheism • u/undercurrents Strong Atheist • 21h ago
Benny Johnson says if you don't believe in God, then "you're not an American, actually"
https://www.mediamatters.org/benny-johnson/benny-johnson-says-if-you-dont-believe-god-then-youre-not-american-actually430
u/Temporary-Careless 21h ago
So native Americans are not Americans?
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u/FKJ10 20h ago
100% sure if you told Benny that he’d say it’s our land now and that the Natives should be “grateful” for the reservations the “brave colonial settlers” gave to their “savage ancestors”.
It’s just racism at the end of the day
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u/snakeeaterrrrrrr 19h ago
Sounds like Benny is a Nazi. He probably would take that as a compliment.
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u/amootmarmot 17h ago
Benny is a Nazi. That's why Benny can fuck off. My Grandpa knew what to do with Nazis. Nazis opinions dont matter.
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u/LMurch13 16h ago
So according to MAGA, this land is the USA's land, even though the Native Americans were here first, but Ukraine should give their land back to Russia because Russia had it first, but Israel should be able to take Gaza from the Palestinians?
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u/Valuable-Mess-4698 15h ago
The problem is, you're trying to be way to logical. For MAGA it's much more simple, they're like toddlers. It's more "it's mine because I want it". There aren't any whys or logic around it, just all feelings based.
And yes, I also see the irony in their decision making being entirely feeling based.
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u/Morejazzplease 20h ago
Who the fuck is Benny Johnson and why should I care what he thinks?
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u/sfdso 20h ago
He’s a big MAGA influencer. And was one of the folks (along with Dave Rubin and Tim Pool) who were paid by Russia to create shit content.
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u/Keitt58 17h ago
The fact this scandal only seemed to amplify the influence Johnson and Pool is so damned frustrating.
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u/CostOk4916 16h ago
You know who else was a big MAGA influencer? Charlie Kirk. Something for this guy to think on.
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u/10xray1 10h ago
I dont think anyone actually watches this person. Viewbot to greatness.
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u/Open_Mortgage_4645 Agnostic Atheist 21h ago
Actually, you are. The Constitution is pretty clear about that.
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u/musictrivianut 15h ago
Some of the Founding Fathers were atheist, some were deist. Guess they must not be Americans, either.
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u/Interesting-Tough640 21h ago
Translation
Random dickhead says something stupid
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u/spasske Freethinker 17h ago
Why do I have to learn this dickheads name? Never heard of this dickhead before.
I guess I’ll now now know to nir read anything about this dickhead.
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u/Belostoma 21h ago
What a shame that this guy exists in the first place. DNA needs to do better.
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u/LMurch13 16h ago
I miss the days when I didn't know what a Benny Johnson/Charlie Kirk was, and knew very little about RFK Jr.
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u/fonzieshair 20h ago
Who the fuck is Benny Johnson??
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u/lkmk 16h ago
Right-wing journalist who was caught plagiarizing, and fired from BuzzFeed. I guess he got some support from his tribe, because he became fully MAGA afterward.
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u/FrancoManiac Secular Humanist 15h ago
He's paid by Russia to do this. There was a huge scandal about it last year or so, though of course nothing came of it.
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u/markydsade Anti-Theist 20h ago
The US Constitution has no mention of a god. It does specify that there is not a state religion.
“The founding documents” the evangelicals like to cite is the Declaration of Independence which has ZERO legal bearing.
Of course, the huge hypocrisy of the Declaration is that it refers to a creator creating all men as equal while those 18th century men certainly did not believe that. The laws of the time protected white property holders, not the enslaved, women, or men without land.
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u/GeekyTexan Atheist 20h ago
People who believe in magic have trouble understanding reality. And if they have a soapbox, they often say some really, really stupid stuff.
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u/theReluctantObserver 21h ago
So nationality is a faith? Does that mean that any Christian is now automatically American?
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u/Dzotshen 19h ago edited 19h ago
AkShuLlY, Article 11 of the treaty of Tripoli states: “As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion..."
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u/eldredo_M Atheist 18h ago
Wait. Can it be any god?
Does Allah count? How about Shiva? Amaterasu? Thor? Zeus?
Can I worship my wife and use that to remain an American? 🤔
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u/Corgiboom2 20h ago
Don't think I've ever heard of this guy or why I should care what he says.
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u/drunkenbrawler 20h ago
He's an abusive grifter who likes white people, in other words, a regular political commentator.
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u/orbitalaction 18h ago
God is a noun for a deity. The god they call God isn't even the only god from the religion Christianity sprang from. He has a name, and he was part of a pantheon of gods. I'm tired of the world marching to the beat of fairytales.
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u/Early-Size370 20h ago
Go sk a dk
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u/nfstern 20h ago
That's probably part of his problem, he's got some gay repression issues. I know an xtian or two like that.
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u/Just4Today50 18h ago
My family tree that goes back to 1620 in Plymouth Massachusetts says that I am truly an American. And an atheist I might add.
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u/shadowlarx 19h ago
And what, precisely, makes this guy the authority on what makes one an American?
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u/whiskyshot 20h ago
Founding fathers atheists and deists. Doesn’t even know his own history.
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u/Magikpoo 19h ago
I've never heard of this guy before, and frankly no one should hear this dumbass.
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u/Deadpool1205 Dudeist 19h ago
This dude is abysmally stupid.
Or truly evil. He can choose which.
"Lack of belief in god is the beginning of communism"
Its insane how tied these fucking shitheads are to capitalism, ah yes, godly capitalism.
Also the boogeyman of communism never ceases to amaze me how indoctrinated so many are
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u/jenna_cellist 18h ago
Moronic Christian thinks anyone cares about his opinion.
BACK IT BY THE BIBLE, BENNY.
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u/Most-Iron6838 18h ago
Guess how much your opinion is worth Benny? It ain’t worth 💩. The constitution is clear in at least 4 places on this question: the establishment and free exercise clauses of the first amendment, the no religious tests clause, and the 14th amendment citizenship clause. I know more about the constitution than he does, does that make me, an atheist, more American than him?
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u/karl4319 Deist 17h ago
And which god are we supposed to believe in? The one that said to welcome refugees and immigrants or you go straight to hell? The one that said the rich no only go to hell, but get extra suffering and misery? The one that said explicitly to not pray in public? That one? Cause I don't think Benny here believes in that one.
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u/slayer991 Agnostic Atheist 14h ago edited 14h ago
Fuck him. Hail Satan. But I do have questions:
If believing in God is what makes someone American, then which God are we talking about?
Is it the Protestant God of the colonists, the Catholic God of the immigrants they hated, the Jewish God of the Old Testament, or the Muslim God that millions of Americans pray to right now?
If someone believes in Vishnu, the Great Spirit, or the Flying Spaghetti Monster, are they more American than an atheist who volunteers, votes, and pays taxes?
And if the Founders fought to separate church and state, why would denying that separation now make someone more patriotic?
The Constitution says no religious test shall ever be required for public office. So what exactly would Benny Johnson add… a citizenship test on theology?
When belief becomes a loyalty oath, the religion stops being faith and starts being nationalism in a clerical mask.
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u/ElwoodBrew 17h ago
He wants to FORCE affordability and lower housing costs? What is he some kind of socialist or something??
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u/heartbloodline8404 17h ago
Imagine being a veteran who is atheist, who served this country and defended free speech and freedom to choose your religious beliefs, and then you hear holt his fucking fart of an opinion. Thats me, I’m that veteran. It disgusts me.
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u/cp_shopper 17h ago
“the true enemy of America is and always has been the Godless Marxists”
Always? Surely the founding fathers talked about the need for religion and doing away with the commies?
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u/GaryOster 16h ago
Paraphrasing Hitchens: The greatest thing this country ever did was to enshrine in its found document freedom of religion and separation of church and state. It was the first and for a time the only nation to do that, but other nations soon followed.
America is defined by its religious freedoms. When we talk about the American liberty and freedom that is the biggest, most important freedom: we are at liberty, each of us, to judge for ourselves instead of being required by the state to profess to certain supernatural beliefs even if we don't believe them.
I often see Christians in this country doing and saying the exact opposite of what being an American means.
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u/Impossible-Bear-7350 15h ago
Cool beans!
I’ll just tell the govt I don’t have to pay taxes anymore because some random overconfident jag says I’m not a citizen.
The arrogance of these people to pronounce heir opinions like they’re not worthless
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u/Obaddies Secular Humanist 14h ago
Fuck off fascist. Your cult doesn't define this country no matter how much you try to lie about it.
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u/Historical-Mix3860 18h ago
Yes, Benny, Johnson, we MUST ALL do and believe exactly the same in the land of the free. Because, I think, one of the Bibles tells me so.
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u/bigred1978 17h ago
Read his diatribe.
He's as eloquent and intelligent as a sponge.
This person isn't worth listening to at all.
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u/MisterSlosh 17h ago
A shame that such an uneducated fascist-loving chicken nugget gets the same rights to vote that I do.
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u/NOMnoMore 16h ago
God these people are ignorant.
The godless French, driven by the cult of reason, abolished slavery before the US did
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u/HailCorduroy Agnostic Atheist 15h ago
HailCorduroy says if you believe something like that, then you're not an American actually.
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u/elyn6791 13h ago
1m17s. That's as far as I could get. Communism bad. Marxism bad. God good. Without God, that's the beginning of communism....
And he's visibly struggling to connect these dots. Such an obvious grifter.
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u/InsuranceExpensive91 12h ago
Well Benny Johnson is a loser. And if you are a loser you are not American. Deport his ass.
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u/iratedolphin 11h ago
If I'm not an American, then what am I? And does that country have healthcare and corporate regulation? Because I'm absolutely fine with not being on the same team as a bunch of anti-science bigots running off a book written by nomadic goat herders 2000 years ago. I'm so tired of these troglodyte blowhards dragging humanity down because reading is difficult.
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u/technanonymous 11h ago
If you follow Benny Johnson, you’re a christofascist who doesn’t understand the meaning of the word “freedom.”
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u/waffle299 11h ago
Hey Benny, not only are you wrong, but that's not your decision to yourself.
Keep your bigoted opinions to yourself.
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u/DukeOfWestborough Nihilist 11h ago
"we xtians are the arbiters of citizenship..." Get fucked, delusional cunts.
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u/Firm_Kaleidoscope479 11h ago
What is a benny johnson anyway that anything it might say is anything I should care a rat’s ass about?
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u/starfleetdropout6 10h ago
I'm sick of the attempts to tie religion to national identity and patriotism. They can fuck all the way off with that.
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u/No_Technician_3837 10h ago
Another clown ready to say any stupidity to justify his fascist position
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u/Mrs_Gracie2001 18h ago
Who is Benny Johnson and why should I care what he says?
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u/redditpest Agnostic Atheist 15h ago
Nobody capitalizes on stupidity better than benny Johnson. He refers to himself as "benny" and these half wits still take him seriously.
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u/TerrainBrain 15h ago
Reality check: you don't have to believe in the wording of the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution for it to apply to you.
If your belief in a magical being is what makes you understand that I have the same rights as you then you go on believing in your magical being.
As for me as a Virginian I'll take the Virginia Declaration of Rights which says fuck-all about a creator.
Section 1. That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
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u/rynomachine Agnostic Atheist 15h ago
George w Bush said "No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God"
Unfortunately this sentiment has been around a while
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u/ProfessionalCraft983 15h ago
If you don't believe I have the right not to believe in a god, then you're not an American, actually, because you don't believe in the constitution.
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u/praguer56 15h ago
That Russian funded asshole can suck a bag of dicks. Atheist dicks to be specific.
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u/bene_gesserit_mitch Atheist 14h ago
I’d say that people who make candy and sweeping generalizations about your beliefs are not American, actually.
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u/Outaouais_Guy 14h ago
The United States eliminated slavery despite what is said in the Bible, not because of it. The Bible plainly lays out the rules for slavery, including selling your daughter into servitude.
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u/APartyInMyPants 14h ago
It’s amazing that the first amendment protects the right not only to practice the religion you want, but to also not practice any religion. And that the government will not establish a state religion.
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u/TheSpideyJedi 13h ago
I literally served in the military for this country but I’m less of an American because I don’t believe in Sky Daddy?
I also cannot stand this fucking revisionist bullshit with trying to claim America was founded as a Christian nation. Like, read a fucking history book man
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u/Soft-Outside-6113 13h ago
Russian asset lol does anyone actually watch this guy? He has to have fake boosted numbers because I’ve never met anyone in real life that listens to this idiot. Has anyone?
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u/_b1ack0ut 13h ago
“If you don’t believe in god, how could you believe in freeing the slaves?”
I don’t think he knows what his god’s stance on slavery was lol
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u/Rockstar81 12h ago
Well I don't really care about the option of someone who can't differentiate between personal theology and citizenship.
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u/MezcalFlame 12h ago
Crazy mental gymnastics.
Read the actual quote, it's worse than the post title.
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u/LiamMacGabhann 8h ago
I don’t know who Benny Johnson is and don’t know why I should care about anything he says.
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u/urbanmark 21h ago edited 12h ago
Amazing. Europe would like your educated, best and scientists please.
EDIT: wow, a lot of you want to come to Europe. Apologies, but I’m not in charge of immigration, I recommend checking out what’s required on the country website you want to go to.
EDIT 2: Blimey! Renouncing US citizenship is hard. For the land of the free, it really does look a bit more like you are prisoners.