Atheists rule, ok?

People think that a theocracy is just a democracy with religion. Not so. They also think that there would be a favoring of all religious people in a theocracy. Perhaps prejudice against those terrible atheistic liberals, but otherwise, if you believed in an imaginary friend, any imaginary friend, you would be part of the theocracy. Different religions might be proportionally represented in congress, and perhaps take it in turns to be president. Not so.

The best and the worst of us know that democracy is a messy thing and that a dictatorship would be ok as long as we were the dictator. A theocracy would be great - no need for any more debates about what to do, for every issue there will just be a single answer, from the good book, and someone in charge will tell you what that answer is. Hey, that's the end of all this silly politics, lots more time for sport and celebrity watching, cool.

A theocracy is ok when it's your theo that's doing the cracy, otherwise, you are in big trouble. This is the ultimate one party state.

OK if it is us that is the ruling party, sorry, religion, but what if it is that awful church down the road? The one that broke away from our church and formed their own, the 'south-south-west baptists of christ-who-is-returning-riding-on-a-white-elephant (reformed branch)'. A matter of major theological disagreement over the meaning of word number 666 in Revelations. They are bound for hell as a result, we keep the true faith, but what if somehow they get into power?

And what if they are not even baptists running the country, but those heretics in the methodists, or those papist-like episcopalians? Surely the papists themselves wouldn't be in charge would they? And of course you can discount those other so-called religions.

Theists get a dreamy look in their eye when they think of a theocracy. Not only would they all share power, but the days of persecution of the religious by those terrible atheists would be over. In a theocracy every religious belief would be respected, and the signs of those beliefs, prayer in schools, commandments in public spaces, religious leaders controlling political processes and the media, would be everywhere. Right? Wrong. Not only would there be no power sharing but there would be no respect for other beliefs. Like everything else, religious beliefs go through the process of natural selection, nature red in tooth and claw. Only the strongest will survive. And beliefs which differ, even just a little, from those of the victors, will be punished and doomed for extinction. Look around the world, theocracies, including the communist ones, are not havens of religious tolerance and a rainbow coalition of happy smiling faces of true believers of all kinds, but grim, one church places, where any deviation is punished by disfigurement or death.

What you need in the running of any organisation is leaders who have no vested interest in outcomes; and leaders who believe in imaginary friends and an imaginary life after death are people with a vested interest in ensuring that only their version of religious belief, the one that gives them a ticket to the virgins and the white robes, is practiced. So here is a humble suggestion. Practical and easy to implement. In future all countries should allow only atheists to run for public office. Any religious belief of any kind would be a disqualification. With atheists running the country all believers could be confident that they would be treated equally and fairly, and no religion would be given preference over another. There could be no complaints because true believers seek their rewards not on earth but in heaven. Atheists of course don't get to heaven and have to make do with the rewards offered here in the vale of tears.

So, everybody happy, right?