Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Eoganacht on February 8, 2011 at 12:25am

if all things were equal, I would vote for an atheist rather than a theist. An atheist has a firmer grasp on reality and more likely to make 'better' decisions on more factual grounds. if the atheist was useless and the theist was able to do the job then I would perfer the theist. Who ever can do the job best is the best choice, regardless of their religious (or lack of) beliefs.

The xians would tear an atheist US president apart. Their criticism without ground perhaps but it would still be enough to discourage some people for voting.

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Permalink Reply by Troy C on February 8, 2011 at 8:50pm

Yes, whoever does the best job is of course... the ideal candidate. If an Atheist happened to be the best, would anyone even give him or her a chance?

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Permalink Reply by James on February 8, 2011 at 9:45pm

An openly Atheist candidate wouldn't stand a chance in the current political climate. There are just too many theists that will vote against them solely because of this fact. It wouldn't matter if they were spot on with all of their policy.

 

Would I vote for them? Well, it depends. If they hold the same political stance as me, yes! If the only difference between the Atheist candidate and theist candidate was their theology, then the Atheist would get the tie breaker. But if his policy was contrary to mine, I would not vote for them anyway because that are Atheist.

 

So while A theist may make let theology be their first deciding factor, I wouldn't. I must admit that I would love to have an Atheist in office though.

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Permalink Reply by Troy C on February 8, 2011 at 10:50pm

I would too. Do you think Bill Maher would be a good president?

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Permalink Reply by Dave G on February 8, 2011 at 11:02pm

My response is pretty much similar to James'.

As for Maher, no I do not think he would be a good president. He may be an atheist, but he is quite irrational in some of his beliefs and I see no reason to expect him to be rational in matters of policy.

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Permalink Reply by Troy C on February 8, 2011 at 11:04pm

Yes, I see. Better at being funny than running things.

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Permalink Reply by Derek Sechi on February 8, 2011 at 11:44pm

Sadly, an atheist, even the most amicable and open-minded atheist, would most likely not be able to come anywhere close to winning the presidential election. Atheism has acquired something of a social stigma in the United States--people tend to see atheists as angry, morally deficit individuals out to pursue some personal vendetta against religion. And no matter how much one candidate tried, there is virtually no way that they could break through these negative stereotypes and be able to win any percentage of the popular vote.

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Permalink Reply by Derek Sechi on February 8, 2011 at 11:44pm

Sadly, an atheist, even the most amicable and open-minded atheist, would most likely not be able to come anywhere close to winning the presidential election. Atheism has acquired something of a social stigma in the United States--people tend to see atheists as angry, morally deficit individuals out to pursue some personal vendetta against religion. And no matter how much one candidate tried, there is virtually no way that they could break through these negative stereotypes and be able to win any percentage of the popular vote.

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Permalink Reply by Spencer on February 9, 2011 at 1:24am

I would definitely vote atheist over theist because of a greater grasp on reality, unless the theist had extremely superior credentials, and assuming they're not prejudiced against people of other religions, that is, they're of the incredibly rare 'accepting theist' variety. Otherwise the vote's on the atheist-- things like Bush Jr's claim that God told him to 'strike down the Muslims' and Bush Sr's 'All atheists are un-American infidels' rant quite scare me. Thankfully, the president's mostly a figurehead and corporate lobbying interests really run the country, but still the threat looms. I do not doubt the destruction of humanity (or at least a decent piece of it) by religion-instigated war within the century or so.

 

A silly little fantasy of mine has always been to become president just through the 'God wants it to happen' justification, then reveal I'm actually an atheist and fix the whole world by actually doing something.

Obviously that's an unrealistic idea, but one can dream..

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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on February 9, 2011 at 4:15am

better start kissing hands and shaking babies.

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Permalink Reply by Jon Heim on February 9, 2011 at 4:14am

no..an atheist president wouldn't stand a chance. I can see us having a female Hispanic president before ever having an atheist one. Since christianity is the majory, and people tend to vote for the people who believe in the same things they do, we wouldnt have chance. atheism is still feared in the states.

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Permalink Reply by Gregor Basić on February 9, 2011 at 10:46am

All I can say that current president of Croatia said he was Agnostic and it was a big scandal because people thought he was an atheist, so people had to explain what agnostic ment.

So, my suggestion is, don't tell anyone that you are an atheist until you become president, than drop the bomb :D

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