If our society holds to the principal *Seperation of church and state*?

Question

Would you vote for a President that stated he was an Atheist?
If not why...?

(Just for the record I would never vote for one)

Answer 1

There are many who quote "separation of church and state" out of context.

In fact, this phrase is nowhere to be found in our constitution.

It is often confused with the "establishment clause", the First Amendment, which states "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, OR PROHIBITING THE FREE EXERCISE THEREOF;" (liberals neglect to include this part)

This means that religion was never intended to be meddled with by the federal government. Congress was simply not going to get involved but rather leave it up to state and local governments to decide.

The phrase "separation of church and state" was a quote from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury (Connecticut) Baptist Association in response to a letter of congratulations they sent to him shortly after becoming president. In their letter to Jefferson they also expressed concern about their religious freedom. Jeffersons response assured them that their liberties would not be infringed upon as long as he was president.

Jefferson had no direct involvement on the drafting of the constitution.

Nowadays some try to use this phrase to justify banning all things considered religious from being seen or heard in public.

The Founders were, with few exceptions, devoutly religious as evidenced by there actions and their writings which are easily accessed on the web. Benjamin Franklin proposed opening every session of Congress with prayer. The Senate chambers was also used as a church - something that would make some people cringe today.

I wouldn't vote for an atheist unless there were no other choice. The Founders agreed. Their writings clearly reveal their concern that anyone holding public office should believe in God. Some of the earliest state constitutions even made it a requirement.

There is a great falling away in our nation, but I for one will not follow the crowd. I prefer to do my own thinking and not have popular culture do my thinking for me.

Answer 2

IMHO, the drafters of our US Constitution and the Bill of Rights did not intend our modern day interpretation "separation of church and starte". Furthermore, those same men incorporated Christian law into the texts since that was the foundation for their New Republic. The last two century's American events however saw large scale retaliation by Protestants over Catholic advances in particulary the education system which then lead over time through the decades to the sterilization of nearly all secular and ecumenical connections in education, government and even as we've seen, many private institutions have become sterile. I want an American President who leads based on Biblical values that are fused with American Law.

Answer 3

Of course I would vote for one. As you say, church an state are supossed to be seperate. If you wouldn't vote for an athiest, would you vote for a person of faith, but a different faith that your own? Anyway, George Bush is a christian, and just look what a great job he's doing (of taking rights away from women and gays, spilling blood for oil and personal vendetta, letting people die by stopping stem cell research and putting the U.S. into huge debt)

Answer 4

As long as that person was qualified, certainly. (Whether or not you believe in God has absolutely no influence on your policies. Your religion might be a different matter, but then, we're discussing whether an atheist should be allowed to be president, not whether any non-Christian whatsoever should be allowed.)

Most atheists and theists have exactly the same views on the overwhelming majority of issues; one's theology has remarkably little impact on most issues. For example, most atheists I know are opposed to the death penalty, which implies that atheists have more respect for the sanctity of life than Christians, and are less willing to "judge" in God's place; yet there are also denominations of Christianity that are also strongly opposed to the death penalty, like Catholicism. So it's impossible to consistently predict someone's opinion based only on whether they're a theist or an atheist.

Put it another way: If you knew someone was such a good candidate that, if president, he would fix all the country's problems (or as many of them as humanly possible), would you still vote against that candidate purely to spite atheists? That's not only bigoted, it's also simply impractical!

Answer 5

Well, in the state of Texas its illegal to run for office if you are an atheist, so I dont know what they would do if an atheist ran. I saw a survey recently that said the vast majority of people would not vote for an atheist. We have gotten a lot of bad press. Its unfortunate because we are intelligent nice people.

Answer 6

Because America does not have an established religion or even an established language. Yep, look it up. There is no offically established language or denomination for America. Odd though, seeing as the Pledge of Allegiance has the word God in it. In fact, John Locke had much influence on the Constitution and the Bill of Rights concerning "natural rights and natural laws" in which he himself was influenced by the laws straight out of the bible (Genesis). Kind of interesting huh?

Answer 7

I would vote for an atheist or a muslin or a jew or a buddhist or a hindu or a christian if they held positions i agree with.

Why would you never vote for an atheist if he had the right ideas and policies? He could easily have stated he was a christian but been lying, would you punish him for being honest?

Answer 8

I would certainly want to vote for someone who would help to maintain the religious rights of those with religion. If I thought he wouldn't do so and would try to take those rights away, than definitely no. However, if he had a good moral character and wanted to protect religious rights and saw the need for that, and if he was trying to impliment the things in government that I view as improving the way things are for us, than I might.

Answer 9

Yes. As long as he or she was a good candidate overall.

Why not? Does not believing in god make someone not capable of being able to run our country.

Answer this let's say one candidate was an Atheist but could make our country a better place.
And the other candidate was a Christian, but was like Hitler. Who would you vote for??

Answer 10

Sure. There are good people who are atheist...as well as theist.

You vote for the best person - their judgment and discerning abilities.

There are several theists that I would not vote for...and several atheists I would vote for...and vice versa.

~ Eric Putkonen