I loved The Daily Show’s take on it, where it played clips of Obama mentioning all the things that the last administration did wrong (favoring the rich, creating a false dichotomy between our safety and our ideals, etc), and then Jon Stewart said something like “Ho boy, this is awkward. Obama! Psst! He’s sitting right behind you!” with a cut to Bush.
May I just say that it was thrill to hear him giving a shout out to America’s half-handed, leprous author/rapists. 
Actually, (and I can’t believe I’m actually saying this), George W. Bush made frequent references in his speeches to “good people” who are of “no faith at all.” He might not have walked the walk, but he did talk the talk.
Unfortunately, the rest of his speeches were generally about how great praying was, and that we should all be doing it. And the odd wording always seemed to imply to me that “good people” were the exception amongst those with “no faith at all,” but I could have been imagining it.
Here’s a quick example, but he used this phrase or similar ones in many speeches:
I about did a flip when I heard it. Assuming my creaky old bones could actually do a flip. Not only did I love that part, I loved the part about Science (with a capital S) taking its rightful place (even if I have no idea if an apostrophe has a rightful place there).
My 3rd most favorite part? They found at least one preacher that understood that many times, you aren’t preaching to the converted. As a raging, happy atheist, I would gladly attend the Reverend Doctor Joseph Echols Lowerys church any time he is speaking. That man absolutely stole the show. After reading more about him, I have to say, Rock on! Heck, even Jon Stewart called him something like “the cutest preacher ever.”
“the most adorable civil rights leader I’ve ever seen.” Jon Stewart
That is the correct quote, sorry, missed the window.
Otherwise known as “the eyebrows and soul patch guy.”
No mention of Pastafarians?
They’re sacrilicious.
Dude has amazing facial hair, for sure.
I was def. excited to hear both Hindus and Non-Believers as well, as I consider myself a Hindu, but can sometimes fall into the Non-Believer camp too.
So nice to see another major world religion up there rather than just the big 3! WoOt!
A very surprising and very pleasing moment. Another one of Obama’s nice outreaches.
I’m amazed Hindus consider Judaism part of the big three, since they outnumber Jews by about 50 to 1!
Science? Hell, the man mentioned statistics - that’s gotta be a first.
I have always assumed that for most countries, but especially somewhere like America, the leaders cannot admit that they are atheist.
Now, I’m not sure if any of them actually have been, but I do know they go to a lot of religiously-run and -themed occasions, and participate directly with prayer and hymns and whatnot.
But if they admitted atheism, my best guess they’d never be voted in, or would at least lose a fair amount of respect from a good chunk of their electorate.
Shame. Freedom of religion is all very well, but freedom of non-religion is still a tough ask.
I’ll bet we’ll see a open homosexual president before we’ll se a declared atheist president.
Do we even know of a declared atheist senator or congressman ?
I’m amazed that no one has mentioned the ommission of Buddhists.
His half-sister Maya considers herself a Buddhist.
JFK explicitly mentions “every man has the same right to attend or not attend the church of his choice” in his speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association, a critical speech in helping him overcome the anti-Catholic rhetoric of his election. We have seen this kind of thing before. Just sayin’.
Are you sure you’ve got the quote right ?
I mean “Every man has the right to…not attend the church of his choice” doesn’t appear to really be a significant point for a presidential speech.
I should clarify- I was speaking for myself. As I know that there are more of us, but in America you tend never to hear about us. It’s more a focus on Christianity, Judaism, and now more recently Islam. When you ask people to name 3 religions they’re most likely to mention those than the others. So yeah, I was just surprised to get a shout out from the Prez.
And hey, I’d put Buddhists into the Non-Believer category, as I view non-believers as just “those that do not believe in the same thing i do” for Obama. So i’d put Pagans and any others into that grouping as well to cover his bases. Though i’m sure he’s the only one who can say what he truly meant by that. But I’d like to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Pete Stark has pretty much declared himself an atheist.
When I watched this live on TV it was being simultaneously translated into Albanian, so it was quite difficult to follow. I wasn’t sure that I’d heard the non-believer bit correctly and had to wait a while to see a transcript. Very pleased to see it confirmed.
Yes, the Other Half is a confirmed atheist, so when I told him about this inclusion in our new president’s speech, he was thrilled to say the least. 
As for myself as an agnostic, it was just nice not to feel intentionally ostracized as not being a Christian.
YAY OBAMA!!