As the presidential campaign winds down, members of America’s largest and most silent minority may be excused for feeling a little left out. As Republicans and Democrats escalate their appeals to 2008’s most contested and prized constituency \u201d\u201d swing voters among evangelicals and Catholics \u201d\u201d they treat those who are not religious as if they are invisible….<\/p>\n
But something is wrong with this picture. It erases vast numbers of Americans \u201d\u201dnot only atheists, agnostics and secularists, but also those who have turned away from the God and religion of the Old and New Testaments. And it makes it seem as though most of those who claim to be “believers” believe pretty much the same things \u201d\u201d though this is manifestly false. It encourages the sense that there are two kinds of Americans, the overwhelming majority who believe and belong, and those few do not believe, and are outsiders. But the conventional wisdom that nearly all Americans believe in God is wrong.<\/p>\n