Would being Atheist make a candidate unelectable in your opinion? How would you vote for them?

Question

Seems that Rational thinking of a scientist or an atheist would be an admirable quality, especially with what we know about religion and it's dwindling likeliness.

Fact.....Jesus has no known writings...ever (although there are excerpts from the Bible where Jesus wrote as in John 8:6, yet he does not have his own journal or book in the Bible) His execution was not recorded by Pontius Pilate (whom kept detailed records of such things.) Furthermore, noone that wrote the Bible had ever actually met Jesus, most of the New Testament comes from the dreams and visions of Paul before Matthew or Mark wrote their Gospels. So with this in mind why is it that our elected officials must be Christian in order to become President?

Whatever happened to the first ammendment bill of rights guarantee of the seperation of the church and state?

Do we want a President that believes and follows what is said in Deuteronomy 13:6-10? Look it up.

Answer 1

Voting an Atheist president would cause the depths of hell to open up and swallow our nation whole soon as he was inaugurated. Duh. Because you know.. when a God fearing Christian president gets elected the heavens shine down upon us with rainbows and pots of gold...

I say most of our politicians are Atheist but they have to play to the churches for votes. Wonder when Christians are gonna see they are using their great God just for their votes....

Answer 2

I think an atheist candidate would likely have trouble getting elected in the U.S., because so many voters have strong religious opinions.
However, as a Christian I would consider voting for an atheist candidate if I agreed with their political perspectives and policies. As long as they were committed to preserving and fighting for our constitutional right to practice our religion without government interference then I'd have no problem with them not believing in God. It might actually be a nice change of pace.

I do not think, though, that an atheist would do a better job simply because they are an atheist. You can be a perfectly rational, intelligent, and fair-minded leader and still believe in some sort of God. Afterall, even Thomas Jefferson believed in a god.

I would not want a president who follows Deuteronomy 13. But, just because someone is a Christian does not mean that they actually want to implement Old Testament policies (or force their religious views on other people). Some of the strongest advocates for human rights, democracy, separation of church and state, and other human freedoms have been committed religious people.

Answer 3

An atheist could probably not get elected on the Republican ticket, but maybe as a Dem or Independent someday in the not too distant future.

I don't think it's a separation of church and state issue, though--people vote for those who believe the same things they do. If the majority of voters are Christian, then those who (at least say they) are Christian will probably get voted in. As the Christian majority in the country shrinks, politicians will probably begin to focus more on individual issues than just giving themselves a blanket identification as a Christian and letting that tell everyone what they believe on most issues.

Answer 4

Everyone knows that rationality isn't an American virtue.So, obviously, an Atheist wouldn't be virtuous in the eyes of the irrational and that would disqualify them for being electable.

I would vote for an Atheist because I don't base the entire acceptability of a candidate on whether or not he or she shares in the same beliefs as the majority.Call me odd but I am one of those few rational Americans who cares about the issues from an un-bias perspective of secularism that America was founded with.

Answer 5

Sadly, being an avowed atheist *does* make people un-electable in several states:

To be specific, seven of them.

Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

They all have different clauses in their respective constitutions which say that people who don't believe in God (or, alternatively, A Supreme Being) can't hold public offices.


Being an atheist, in and of itself, would not make someone un-electable as far as I'm concerned. and I'd certainly like to see the states listed above get rid of their unconstitutional clauses.

Answer 6

I would vote for a Christian over an atheist if the atheist was a commie or a socialist. I am more interested in a person's political ideas rather than their personal religious beliefs. Politicians lie anyway, so there's no telling what they believe.

Answer 7

I would not want anyone that held himself as the highest authority to be the ruler of our nation. So, no, I would never vote for an athiest for president. As far as Deut. 13:6-10 goes, this was before Christ came and before the Law was replaced with the new covenant. Those that were to be killed were those that were God's chosen people that had seen the miracles of God, but still turned away from Him and encouraged others to follow. God's wrath was to be poured out upon them. You will not and cannot understand that because the Holy Spirit is what allows us to understand and discern the scriptures.

Answer 8

I'd happily vote for an atheist (in fact, I have). However, I do think that atheist candidates are unelectable in some positions. We live in a country where most people believe that you can only be a good person if you share their religion. Unfortunately, that means that most people won't vote for an atheist candidate, rendering most of them unelectable.

Answer 9

I don't vote according to a candidate's religion. I figure if they are bragging about their religion, it's all for show anyway. But atheism is different. It's not a religion, it's a philosophy and an intelligent one. I would respect that they were brave enough to say they were atheist and would feel much contentment knowing that separation of church and state would be upheld and protected.

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Answer 10

Absolutely not - in fact, being religious makes a candidate extremely undesirable from where I'm standing. I mean, Bush is supposed to be a "religious" guy! Fortunately practically all politicians are only religious for the PR. They pay lip-service to God, and all the nutty ideas therewith associated, to appeal to voters who fancy themselves religious. It's a swindle both ways, really. UNfortunately, politicians are often compelled to make real concessions to the nuts who got them elected, which is why we're wasting time on things like gay marriage in a time of war.