Will their ever be a publicly atheist American President?

[amadeus]

is brown religious? merkel? sarkozy? heck, i have no idea...

Is Obama? He attended a man's church for 20 years and didn't hear anything.

 

[Antilogic]

Obama was infinitely more appealing than an admitted atheist would be. If my choices were Obama or an athiest, I would have voted Obama no problem.

The bigotry is simply awe-inspiring. You know nothing about this atheist or his/her policies, and yet you are still willing to pass a judgment that this person would be inferior to someone you already wouldn't vote for.

 

[cardgame]

Hurray for religious discrimination!

 

[kulade]

atheists eat babies and hate america and our traditional values. id prefer a halfbread muslin anyday, at least they believe in a god (even if hes a turrist god).

 

[snakeseare]

The bigotry is simply awe-inspiring.

It really is amazing. To be so brainwashed that the worst thing imaginable is to be an atheist, I am almost rendered speechless.

To you atheist-haters: do you really not see the problem with discriminating against a person based solely on their religious belief?

 

[Imperialmajesty]

Ah Atheist's, at least you can still be a bigot towards them and the vast majority of the time get away with it. Disgusting.

I guess Atheist's and Gay's are two of the last frontier's of the Civil Rights Movement.

 

[Counterclaw]

Ah, the intolerance, the prejudice, the bigotry. Truly heartwarming. I have no idea why people don't like American evangelical Christians.

Right, because atheists are all tremendously tolerant people who never, ever bash Christians.

 

[Cutlass]

For those that seem to think that we will see an atheist president (and most of CFC seems to think so), I'd ask why? A large geographic part of the US is very religious, culturally, and has been for hundreds of years. We have barely had any elected officials of consequence who are atheists...or for that matter, we've barely had any serious candidates who were atheists. The Electoral strategy for an atheist running for president would be pretty tricky, as he would have to write off a lot of states.

That's why I think it will be a long time off. But will arrive. Culturally the US has long had a very slow drift away from traditional cultural conservatism. That trend will continue. So just as other cultural factors that once prevented someone form being president have gone away, or at least faded, this will fade as well. And eventually go away. The US will become less Christian. And it will become more atheist. And the day will come when that's just a more or less normal thing to be. Now I figure politicians will lag behind the general public by a decade or 2, like they often do on issues. But it will happen eventually.

 

[cardgame]

If you don't want your beliefs to be mocked, you shouldn't have such ridiculous beliefs.

crosspost

 

[Gilder]

Right, because atheists are all tremendously tolerant people who never, ever bash Christians.

Please tell me you're not basing your sarcasm off internet atheists and Richard Dawkins.

 

[snakeseare]

Right, because atheists are all tremendously tolerant people who never, ever bash Christians.

Bashing a person based on nothing but their religious beliefs is very different to pointing out that a person is intolerant and bigoted and uses their religious beliefs to justify their intolerant bigotry.

Surely the difference is not too difficult for you to grasp?

 

[Imperialmajesty]

Right, because atheists are all tremendously tolerant people who never, ever bash Christians.

I don't see how that has any bearing on the subject.

 

[Counterclaw]

It really is amazing. To be so brainwashed that the worst thing imaginable is to be an atheist, I am almost rendered speechless.

To you atheist-haters: do you really not see the problem with discriminating against a person based solely on their religious belief?

I don't hate atheists, but I have some problems with your comments.

First of all, someone saying that they wouldn't vote for an atheist isn't necessarily bigotry. Maybe they wouldn't do so because atheists in this country have been
waging war against Christians for years. A practicing Christian might not want to
elect an atheist, because an atheist would be more likely to sign bills that threaten religious freedom than a religious person would, simply because religion is not sacred
to an atheist.

Secondly, atheists discriminate against Christians because of their religious beliefs all the time. Consider the treatment of Sarah Palin or the religious right. I don't mean
to say that all atheists are bigoted, but I don't think most exude tolerance.

 

[Counterclaw]

I don't see how that has any bearing on the subject.

I was responding to the poster who implied that all Christians were bigoted because one poster said he would not vote for an atheist.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

A couple of questions to you Americans here who regularly follow your state and federal elections:

1. Is it mandatory (by law or party rules) for a candidate to declare his/her religion, either before or after becoming an official candidate?

2. Regardless of the answer to the above, have any candidates ever flatly refused, if asked, to disclose his/her religion?

 

[Imperialmajesty]

I don't hate atheists, but I have some problems with your comments.

First of all, someone saying that they wouldn't vote for an atheist isn't necessarily bigotry. Maybe they wouldn't do so because atheists in this country have been
waging war against Christians for years. A practicing Christian might not want to
elect an atheist, because an atheist would be more likely to sign bills that threaten religious freedom than a religious person would, simply because religion is not sacred
to an atheist.

Secondly, atheists discriminate against Christians because of their religious beliefs all the time. Consider the treatment of Sarah Palin or the religious right. I don't mean
to say that all atheists are bigoted, but I don't think most exude tolerance.

And tell me, haven't Christians been waging a war against any non-Christian religion or non-religion for millennia?

As to the rest, well, seriously? You are calling out American Atheists for being intolerant? You are a moron, and its about damn time someon called you out on it.

 

[kulade]

Valka,
They don't have to express their religion in federal election, in fact it is unconstitutional to use religion as a test for political office. I've heard that some states have (potentially unconstitutional) laws barring the irreligious from office, but they are scarcely enforced (but either way, atheists are still very rare in most of the American heartland).

 

[Cutlass]

I don't hate atheists, but I have some problems with your comments.

First of all, someone saying that they wouldn't vote for an atheist isn't necessarily bigotry. Maybe they wouldn't do so because atheists in this country have been
waging war against Christians for years. A practicing Christian might not want to
elect an atheist, because an atheist would be more likely to sign bills that threaten religious freedom than a religious person would, simply because religion is not sacred
to an atheist.

Secondly, atheists discriminate against Christians because of their religious beliefs all the time. Consider the treatment of Sarah Palin or the religious right. I don't mean
to say that all atheists are bigoted, but I don't think most exude tolerance.

Gee, Christians persecute atheists and a minority of atheists get fed up enough to shoot back. What effrontery those nasty atheist have. How could they possibly have the shear unmitigated gall to stand up for themselves.

And it wasn't atheists attacking Palin for being a Christian, it was any sane person attacking her for being a ultra radical extremist. There is a vast difference between the 2.

 

[Counterclaw]

Please tell me you're not basing your sarcasm off internet atheists and Richard Dawkins.

I'm just pointing out that some atheists are just as intolerant as some Christians.
Not every evangelical Christian is a bigot, not every atheist is intolerant. But if
we're going to be lumping groups together and bashing every member in them
because of the statements of individual members, well, hey, atheists have plenty of bigots on their side too.

 

[holy king]

For those that seem to think that we will see an atheist president (and most of CFC seems to think so), I'd ask why?

it's the "ever" that makes this question a no-brainer.