When will America elect its first atheist president?

[Rex_Goodheart]

Guess I'm impatient for all these walls to topple.

[LiberalPersona]

1. I wouldn't bet on it

happening for at least another 30-40 years

[Rex_Goodheart]

3. I'll be dead by then!

[Jansen]

18. I'd say

never. Religion is a sticking point for so many people. I mean, how many people do you think there are that claim Christianity despite not practicing it just to "fit in". Disregard, for a moment, the fundies. Just the regular folks who aren't brave enough to go against the idea of what is normal or accepted. Goes across racial lines IMO. Not very likely.

http://evolutionspace.wordpress.com/2007/05/03/worldwide-atheism-trend-and-pattern-a-summary/

The US is listed as 3-9% of the population.

[wildbilln864]

2. not in my lifetime! nt

[Rex_Goodheart]

5. Bigot.

[wildbilln864]

16. Lol. Nope, just realistic.

Actually I'd prefer an atheist. But it ain't going to happen.

[ben_meyers]

4. What makes you think we haven't already?

[Rex_Goodheart]

8. Heh. Good point.

[A HERETIC I AM]

9. Exactly. It's just been a while. n/t

[Rex_Goodheart]

11. It might be as little as six days ago.

Obama strikes me as quite un-faith-based.

[maxsolomon]

15. he's attended a christian church for 20 years

maybe you missed the bit about rev. wright & how obama's a secret muslim? he's TOO christian for me.

[spoony]

55. ...and they call religious people delusional?

[SteveG]

33. I agree

I've always wondered about Reagan. He claimed to be a nominal Christian, but he seldom went to any church services as President, and even less as a Private Citizen.

[66 dmhlt]

47. I'd cover bets that we already have

Those who were Unitarian adherents included John Adams, John Quincy Adams, Millard Fillmore and William Howard Taft – so good possibility of a few atheists/agnostics/deists in that group.

And Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson never claimed to belong to any specific denomination – so open to speculation.

Of course it's impossible to prove one way or the other, but I'd say it's likely there were a couple of the above seven that were.

http://www.adherents.com/adh_presidents.html

[DJ13]

6. Openly atheist, or a person who proclaims Faith, but never shows it?

Bush claims to be Born Again, but he's never governed as if he had a religious bone in his body.

[stray cat]

7. When will we care more about competence than the labels we use

[dysfunctional press]

10. we probably already have...

just like we've probably already had a gay president as well.

[Rex_Goodheart]

13. That would be GW Bush

The second part, I mean.

[maxsolomon]

12. openly atheist or just low-key about it?

i'm just hoping for a candidate who doesn't have to bend over backwards proving they're sufficiently christian, or pay respects at the altars of the AIPAC & Cuban Exiles.

[bunkerbuster1]

14. Probably after its first trangendered one.

[Gwendolyn]

17. The day we take "In God We Trust" off our currency. nt

[4lbs]

21. Yeah. That will be the harbinger.

n/t

[Gwendolyn]

26. I think so. Every cup of coffee we buy is in the name of God. No wonder we're consumerist.

No secular country, with universal heath care, equal rights, actually puts the name of God on their money. (Does any country other than us put the word God on money?) Every fraud, large or small, in our country, is done in the name of God. No wonder fundies are okay with every fleecing they do. :crazy:

Instead of worrying about what we should call the union of two people, we could just admit that God is not on our side every time we purchase something. It might go a long way in terms of civil rights. The Euro was hugely redesigned from individual country nationalism icons to evoke pics of buildings a few years ago, why not us?

[ColbertWatcher]

27. How dare you blaspheme the Sacred Cup! HEATHEN! n/t

[Gwendolyn]

36. Sanctimonious heathen too!

We have the best times.

:)

Am I wrong though?

[ColbertWatcher]

38. No, you're not. We are innovators in the field of "best time-having." n/t

[ContinentalOp]

35. Nah, I don't think so. In fact that will be on there long after we elect an atheist president.

Because atheists are not really crazy like that. We're not all clamoring for constitutional amendments that affirm our world view like some people I could mention. :P

So yeah, fuck it. Let "in god we trust" stay. It doesn't affect me in the slightest since I'm not superstitious like that.

[Joe the Liberal]

19. It will take.....

a few generations but it is possible, probably wont happen in any of our life times but we can dream. Sometime in the far future we will elect an atheist president........that is if global warming, nuclear war or republicans don't wipe us all out before then!

[baldguy]

20. Don't hold your breath.

[dubeskin]

22. I guess I'd like to be it

I think the problem though is that, even if there ARE atheist candidates, they get cornered, scared, and turn to faith. Some day I'd like to run, and hopefully be President - the first atheist one. Although, that's a long ways off. Hopefully by then (30 years at least) religion won't be so important in people's lives.

[FLAprogressive]

23. Abraham Lincoln is said to have been an atheist....

http://www.nndb.com/people/332/000024260/

Lincoln wrote "The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma." Law partner William Herndon stated that Lincoln "was an infidel of the radical type... never mentioned the name of Jesus, except to scorn and detest the idea of a miraculous conception." Wife Mary Todd Lincoln's opinion was that "Mr. Lincoln had no hope and no faith in the usual acceptance of those words."

[dysfunctional press]

30. wasn't he also rumored to be gay? and/or jewish, and/or black...?

lots of people want to claim lincoln as part of their heritage. except in the south. :shrug:

[LynzM]

24. Right after we go down the rest of this list:

[stopbush]

25. What about Jefferson & Lincoln?

Seems we already elected a couple of atheists.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

28. Likely Not For Quite Some Time, And Likely Not In Our Lifetime.

Sad but true.

[gollygee]

29. When Hell freezes over

Well, if there were a Hell, that is. :D

[BleedingHeartRN]

31. Well if they'd elect a mormon before a homosexual or atheist

don't get your hopes up. The most recent case was the ugly senate race here in NC. Elizabeth Dole ran some of the slimiest ads ever associating Kay Hagan with taking money from an atheist group. Although I enthusiastically voted for Hagan, she sued to have the ads removed and vehemently denied any connection to (gasp!) godless atheists. On an intellectual level, I can completely understand how Hagan knew she could never get elected in the south by having friendly relations with atheists. However, on an emotional level, it really gets under my skin that being associated with an atheist is a deal-breaker.

[cobalt1999]

32. Jefferson came close

[ContinentalOp]

34. I don't know... I'm tempted to say never but...

well, never say never! I honestly thought there wouldn't be a black President in my lifetime. And I'm only 31. Can Christianity really survive another generation or two? Despite all of these shocking statistics about how many people don't believe in evolution and such, I think religion is continually headed toward marginalization and obsolescence.

[sarcasmo]

37. This Atheist knows it will NEVER happen.

[harun]

39. Never, thank God.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

40. I'll give you the benefit of doubt and assume you're being sarcastic.

You ARE, right?

[last_texas_dem]

41. Double post

[last_texas_dem]

42. They've probably already elected several.

Openly atheist, however, is a much different story...

[Le Taz Hot]

43. ROFL!

Oh, I'm sorry. You were serious. ;)

[JI7]

44. America would elect a Gay person that believes in God over straight person that doesn't

Gays have it worse when it comes to rights or being able to live as others. but i think most Americans would vote for the gay person who believes in God over an Atheist . but many of them still woudln't want that gay person to be allowed to marry.

[theboss]

45. In the year 2525?

If man is still alive.

[riverdeep]

46. Imagine there's no heaven,

it's easy if you try
no hell below us
above us only sky.

I think within two decades. Maybe less. The next two decades are going to be periods of enormous change and what is possible or impossible right now will be a different story in the future.

If certain scenarios play out whereby this nation's days as an empire are numbered, people will just want someone competent. All this nonsense about how telegenic they are or how they give a speech or their personal life might finally take a back seat. We will be beggars, and beggars can't be choosers.

[spanone]

48. good luck with that one

[dorkulon]

49. I'm kinda hoping we just did.

But I'm probably just projecting. If you mean openly, unapologetically atheist, I'm gonna go with never. We'll have a gay Muslim pres before that.

[raccoon]

50. Won't be in my lifetime or yours unless you're real young and live a long time. nt

[lumberjack_jeff]

51. She'll be preceded by a gay native american who chose a robot for a VP. In other words, a long time.

[Soylent Brice]

52. eventually, but...

i would like to see a scientist as president more specifically. a scientist cannot allow bias to get in the way of research in order to produce accurate results with expiriments. by that standard a scientist would make a great leader, and simultaneously encourage education and a quest for knowledge and self-betterment of the planet, rather than killing everyone that scares us because of race, religion, etc.

as an aethist myself i have always felt underrepresented because seemingly every politician has an "invisible man in the sky" that they pray to. doesn't seem to make sense that religion even has a role in deciding our leaders. you would think you would want the smartest and most capable people. not the holiest.

[JHB]

53. In the abstract: much longer than anyone can forsee. In fact?...

...I think we could be surprised, but it would depend strongly on the actual individual and the times he or she is running in.

[Nye Bevan]

54. Has there ever even been an atheist senator?

I couldn't find any on the Google. I did find one atheist Congressman, however:

http://www.secular.org/news/pete_stark_070312.html

[Jacobin]

56. Oh, that happened a long time ago

If you read the writings of Thomas Jefferson, he was extraordinarily wary of priests, churches, organized religion.

I suppose he was a "Deist" which maybe technically makes him not an atheist, but as a practical matter he was completely against have organized religion in any fashion connected with governance