Last week there was a post on The Huffington Post about atheists feeling politically ignored.

As the presidential candidates come together to discuss faith and issues of morality — at Saddleback last week and at the Democratic National Convention this week, there’s a large contingent feeling excluded. American atheist and agnostic voters are increasingly feeling left out of the debate or flat out ignored and taken for granted as politicians scramble to better woo the “faithful” .

Cue links to bloggers complaining about this.

I would seem to be one to complain about this, too, but I think it’s kind of silly. Atheists will be ignored as a voting block until they a) create a significant political presence and b) actually become a voting block. I don’t quite understand why people complain about this state of affairs. It’s entirely understandable and there’s going to have to be a lot of work to get to where we’re influential as a group.

Will that happen? I kind of doubt it. Atheism isn’t an ideology. Lots of ideologies fit into it. My liberal secular humanist views, libertarianism, objectivism, etc. It’s not hard to imagine just about any political position being taken by an atheist. Creating a voting block of any significance will require us to be more united and to prioritize atheism over the various other voting blocks with which your average atheist might be associated.

I don’t see that happening and honestly, I don’t know that I want it to happen. Atheism isn’t an ideology. Atheism should give you more freedom to make your own choice and not follow the crowd.