why couldn't an athiest become president?

Question

I know one technically could, but I am talking voters. An athiest would use logic. Why do the people not want this...

Answer 1

They could elected in theory. Some of the presidents were not very religious in private. There was a requirement in most if not all colonies and the individual states later that made religious belief a prerequisite to running for office. Several noted politicians were deists which was not mainstream religion.

Answer 2

For the same reason a muslim will not be president or that a hindu will not be president. People like to vote for people they can identify with. Most voters in the US are christian and many would feel an immediate annimosity to someone who did not share their beliefs.

Actually, in time this might change, but I am talking about serious in the future stuff.


To Mystic Portals/JT and RA's Q&A (Answered below)
You say that atheists are not tolerant of any religion. I am perfectly tolerant. Practice whatever you want. I have no problem with that as long as you do not try to push it on others. That is where atheists and christians collide, when one group tries to convert the other. For the most part it is of christians doing the converting, but some atheists try to do it as well. However, to label all atheists as not tolerating religion is wrong. I would say that most share the same ideas I do about religion. Practice it if it makes you happy but do not push it on to other people.

You also say that an atheist could not swear an oath to uphold the constitution because the constitution prohibits the government from creating a law respecting the establishment of a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. I would be happy and honored to uphold that article. In fact, I demand that article be upheld. Guess what? The ACLU also demands that article be upheld. You know what? You probably want it upheld as well. We all do, so that is not a reason for an atheist to not be president. I would bet that all atheists would agree on this.

You talk about the founding fathers loving god. Some did, some were not religious and all recognized that religion and a free government do not mix. That is why they put into the constitution protections for and from religion. The government should not push religion onto people. It should not prohibit them from practicing it how they want, as long as they are not pushing onto other people.

Also, since you say that the founding fathers were of a christian standing, you must be implying that our presidents must have the same qualities. I do not agree with that. I think that a person of a different religion can be president. We have jewish and muslim people in congress. I don't hear about how they are doing a bad job since they are not christian. I think that a person of any faith can be president and do the job as long as they try to take care of the country and uphold the constitution.

Finally, you say that the asker of this question is not logical for asking this question. I say that this is a good question. It is the type of a question that makes people think. I do not think the asker was thinking of running for president and the asker did not even declare to be an atheist but you said that the question was designed to provoke controversy and that does not make the person eligible to be the leader of this country. I am thinking that you are missing out on some logic skills. You took quite a few leaps in your reasoning there and made many assumptions. You seem to be responding from emotion rather from fact.

Answer 3

The vast majority of U.S. voters do not trust atheists--at all. They think since atheists serve no God, atheists are evil anarchists who break every law and social more they can--as long as no one's looking. My thinking was that naive when I was a Christian, and I can assure you that my friends thought the same thing. We didn't know anyone who was openly atheistic.

You're right about the federal constitution technically permitting an atheist to serve as president, but until recently a handful of state constitutions excluded atheists from serving as state employees. Most of these rules had not been enforced for several decades. South Carolina finally revised their constitution to allow an atheist to become a notary public; that was in 1997 (source below).

You will not find much support for your "atheists are logical" argument. First, as an atheist I will admit that I do not make all my decisions logically (emotions sometimes take over). Second, everyone--and I mean everyone--likes to think that they are logical. Deists will look you straight in the eye and tell you that what you consider the myths of their religion are actually historical facts and that it is illogical to disbelieve them. They will reject scientific facts, secular histories, or anything else that contradicts the beliefs they've already accepted.

Answer 4

The President of the United States has to serve all citizens of this Country. If you will read many of the atheists stabs at the Christians/God loving persons in Y! Answers, you will see that an atheist is not tolerant of any religion. That in itself would put such a person out of the running.

The Constitution says that the President shall take an oath to preserve the Constitution of the United States. In Article I of the Amendments to the Constitution, it refers to the fact that there shall be no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
That's only part of the Article, but you can see how an athiest could hardly swear to defend such a Constitution.

The United States was founded by men who loved God, that fact is clear to see on all our originally erected buildings, our money, and currently witnessed through the millions of people who attend Church regularly.

An atheist is not necessarily a logical person. Logic, for instance, would not prompt you to ask such a rediculous question. Rather, it's obviously intended to provoke controversy. That does not make a person elegible to be leader of our Country.

Answer 5

Athiesm is not logical at its core. An orderly universe is not an accident, it has to come from an orderer. If there was such a thing as an athiest who would be tolerant of other faiths, and would not try to force Secular Humanism on us as the official religion of the US, I would not have any problem with them being president, if they were qualified for the job. I have seen precious few tolerant athiests. They are usually up in arms calling for the burning at the stake of anyone who uses the word "God" without the word "Damn" after it in any public place. If a kid prays in school before an exam, how is that "establishing" a religion?

Answer 6

Athiesm is not logical at its core. An orderly universe is not an accident, it has to come from an orderer.

An orderer? What the heck is that? You have proposed one of the stupidest arguements I've ever heard, must have learned that crap from the deciderer right? I'm an athiest and for the record most of us could care less if you choose to believe in myths and fables, we do care when you try to force your ignorance into the Consitution and into law. Keep your religion in your church and home and out of my kids grade school, you ask we respect your "beliefs" as you castigate us for ours, you're all hypocrites as far as I can tell, just look at some of the scandal your religion seems to generate, Foley, Haggard, Swaggart, Jim Baker, yeah what a group, I rest me case.

Answer 7

There is a significant portion of the population that believes an Atheists can't be moral or trusted. It's garbage and not true but the attitude is still out there.

Answer 8

Because most athiests are hate-mongering bigots whose only goal is to shut down anything related to religion, more specifically Christianity.

Answer 9

Because of the huge amounts of prejudice and negativity spread around about atheists by the more religious among us.

It's all rubbish, but they're so afraid someone "ungodly" could get in power, they have to do it. Idiots.

Answer 10

I have no idea. I guess it's because most voters aren't logical thinkers.