# Trump is an atheist. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 6, 2018, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690 "2018-12-06T17:39:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/41 "2018-12-07T00:14:51Z")
I think Trump probably assumes there is some kind of God, but that’s about as far as he goes. He probably looks at organized religion through the lens of a thoroughly corrupt and venal man; that is he thinks the priests and ministers got themselves a pretty good grift going, and as long as it doesn’t interfere with his grift, he’ll play along. ---
**Author:** ![Capn\_Carl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@Capn\_Carl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capn_Carl)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/42 "2018-12-07T00:46:37Z")
> [@Inigo\_Montoya](#): > > He doesn’t appear to know much about the bible–like plenty of Christians > His apparent sins are not unlike those of Christians > And you say…he’s an atheist? Sounds like a typical Christian to me, by the standards you present in the OP. > > Where are you going with this? And why does it matter whether or not he’s a Christian? I really don’t care what he is. I want to know what others think, and why. ---
**Author:** ![HurricaneDitka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/96bed5/32.png) [@HurricaneDitka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HurricaneDitka)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/43 "2018-12-07T01:11:38Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > I’m not sure he’s an atheist, but I am sure he’s very, VERY indifferent to it. > > Evangelicals don’t care about that. He’s basically their Cyrus the Great. This seems about right to me. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/44 "2018-12-07T01:31:07Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > I doubt Obama is an atheist. He may not be a Jimmy Carter type devout Christian but he is too conservative and too black to be an atheist. My opinion is that Obama was putting on a front because he knows being involved in the church is necessary to get ahead in politics. I agree with Hitchens. I don't think Obama attended sunday services either. Either way, Obama is highly intelligent, and intelligence is negatively correlated with religiosity, so there is also that factor. Not to say there are no religious intelligent people, but its less likely the higher your IQ. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/45 "2018-12-07T01:36:17Z")
> [@senoy](#): > > That’s a misreading of the data. White Evangelicals made up half of the Protestant electorate and they favored Trump by incredibly huge amounts. That means that every other Protestant group did not favor Trump. Only 35% of non-“white, evangelicals” voted for Trump and 59% went for Clinton. Mainlines and minorities overwhelmingly favored the “Methodist church-lady” but the insane Evangelical vote overwhelmed them in the overall category. White evangelicals made up 26% of voters in 2016, they voted Trump 80%. > **[2016 election results: Exit polls](https://www.cnn.com/election/2016/results/exit-polls)** > > Full exit-poll data on how Americans voted, including by race, age, gender and education level. So yeah, thats about 21% of the 46% of the vote that Trump won. ---
**Author:** ![EscAlaMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/escalamike/32/4177_2.png) [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/46 "2018-12-07T01:45:52Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > It means he identifies with the black community, which is by and large sincerely religious. Churches are at the heart of most black communities. He’s a community organizer. It doesn’t make any sense to me that he would identify as an atheist. Gotcha. And he doesn’t identify as an atheist. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/47 "2018-12-07T01:48:14Z")
I wouldn’t either, were I involved in American politics. We’re by and large deemed pretty untrustworthy in the US, as puzzling as that is. ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/48 "2018-12-07T02:32:29Z")
Trump is an opportunistic conman - he believes (or professes to believe) whatever it takes to sell whatever bullshit he is selling. He is willing, and quite often does, switch beliefs as they suit his needs - sometimes in the same sentence. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/49 "2018-12-07T02:48:39Z")
> [@Ashtura](#): > > I’m not sure he’s an atheist, but I am sure he’s very, VERY indifferent to it. I’d agree with this. Trump was asked several times during the election about asking God for forgiveness and he always responded with some form of, “I’m never wrong so why should I do that?” Religiosity requires a certain amount of humbleness - a quality which he simply does not possess. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/50 "2018-12-07T03:13:06Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > He doesn’t think deeply enough to be an atheist. He’s much too pragmatic. I wouldn’t have said pragmatic. I think dumb is the word I would have gone with in that context. From all signs, the only thing Trump thinks about is himself. So his inner thoughts on religion are questions like “Does this help me or hurt me?” Trump pretends to be a Christian because it benefits him in a way he can understand - it makes people vote for him. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/51 "2018-12-07T03:16:53Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Huh? It’s very well known what church Trump favors. He doesn’t actually visit that church on Sundays ( he golfs instead) , but he gets regular personal attention from the “pastor” Paula White. She preaches the “prosperity gospel”. It basically means that if you’re rich, that means that God chose you to be rich because you’re special and he rewards you. To be seen rich is to be seen as blessed by God. > > And if you’re poor, well, that means you’re quite literally undeserving. To be poor, equals being a loser, equals being a bad person. > > Such a religion fits Trump perfectly. [To know Donald Trump’s faith is to understand his politics | Martyn Percy | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/06/donald-trump-faith-politics-religious-presidency) I doubt Trump believes he’s rich because God chose him to be rich. That would imply he can’t take credit for being rich. I’m sure the thinks he’s rich solely due to his own efforts. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/52 "2018-12-07T03:45:44Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Huh? It’s very well known what church Trump favors. He doesn’t actually visit that church on Sundays ( he golfs instead) , but he gets regular personal attention from the “pastor” Paula White. Looking at pictures of her and the (possibly) new appointee as Ambassador to the UN, Heather Nauert, I do regret that whatever all we ever find out about Trump and Russia, Trump and the Trump Foundation, Trump and the IRS, etc. we’ll never find out who all boinked him. And that’s not aspersion to either of these women - I don’t know them well enough to guess one way or another - but it seems likely that FOX had some form of casting couch arrangement going on before the one guy died, and we know that Trump used the casting couch on Stormy Daniels, so I don’t see any strong reason to doubt that he’s not continuing the practice and hunting in the territories that he knows are easy fodder. ---
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/53 "2018-12-07T03:52:01Z")
I’ve always suspected that Obama is an atheist that was smart enough to know that being an atheist doesn’t play too well on the national, political stage. I sort of doubt Trump really believes in God either. You don’t have to be smart to be an atheist, and I say that as a person who is one. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/54 "2018-12-07T04:14:31Z")
> [@pool](#): > > I’ve always suspected that Obama is an atheist that was smart enough to know that being an atheist doesn’t play too well on the national, political stage. I don’t think the Obamas are atheist, but I do agree with the people who say that they are most likely nominal Christians, meaning that they go on Christmas and Easter, and maybe other times on occasion, and don’t think about it all that much the rest of the time. And so what if he’s Muslim? The Constitution itself has a few things to say about this kind of thing. (I don’t think he is, BTW.) ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/55 "2018-12-07T04:27:52Z")
> [@EscAlaMike](#): > > He doesn’t think deeply enough to be an atheist. He’s much too pragmatic. He’s a pragnostic. He believes what ever suits his purposes. ETA: I just made that up, but apparently I’m not the first. It’s in Urban Dictionary. But I think my definition is better. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/56 "2018-12-07T06:01:26Z")
> [@Maastricht](#): > > Huh? It’s very well known what church Trump favors. He doesn’t actually visit that church on Sundays ( he golfs instead) , but he gets regular personal attention from the “pastor” Paula White. She preaches the “prosperity gospel”. It basically means that if you’re rich, that means that God chose you to be rich because you’re special and he rewards you. To be seen rich is to be seen as blessed by God. > > And if you’re poor, well, that means you’re quite literally undeserving. To be poor, equals being a loser, equals being a bad person. > > Such a religion fits Trump perfectly. [To know Donald Trump’s faith is to understand his politics | Martyn Percy | The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/06/donald-trump-faith-politics-religious-presidency) Does anyone here know who Paula White is married to? You will if you read this post. 😃 She’s married to (former?) Journey keyboardist Jonathan Cain, who has said that he has also embraced Christianity in recent years. That they have 7 marriages between them (his 4th, her 3rd) makes sense that Agent Orange would choose someone like her to be his spiritual advisor. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/57 "2018-12-07T07:40:43Z")
> [@senoy](#): > > That’s a misreading of the data. White Evangelicals made up half of the Protestant electorate and they favored Trump by incredibly huge amounts. That means that every other Protestant group did not favor Trump. Only 35% of non-“white, evangelicals” voted for Trump and 59% went for Clinton. Mainlines and minorities overwhelmingly favored the “Methodist church-lady” but the insane Evangelical vote overwhelmed them in the overall category. The election was as much about race as it was about religion; Trump won _whites_, and lost racial minorities and Hispanics. But religiosity did not counteract Trump’s appeal _to whites_ in any major sector of American Christianity: [More recent data from Pew (August of this year)](http://www.people-press.org/2018/08/09/an-examination-of-the-2016-electorate-based-on-validated-voters/) shows that Trump won white evangelical Christians, 77% to 16%; but he won white _mainline_ Protestants 57% to 37%\*. He lost black Protestants by a whopping 96% to 3% margin; and he lost Protestants of “other race” by 51% to 46%. Which all added up to Trump taking Protestants overall by 56% to 39%. _Minorities_ went for the Methodist church lady. Non-minority “Mainlines”, not so much. The _chart_ says white mainline Protestants went for Trump 57% to 37%; but the text of the article says they went for Trump by 52% to 44%. Crunching the numbers given in the chart (including the “share of electorate” figures for Protestant as a whole and for each of the Protestant sub-groups, it appears to me that the chart is correct. Similarly for Catholics, Trump took white non-Hispanic Catholics by a very solid 64% to 31%, while losing Hispanic Catholics by 19% to 78%, which however added up to Trump taking Catholics in general, 52% to 44%. But not only did religiosity fail to counteract Trump’s appeal among white voters in any major Christian denominational group, in fact higher levels of religious piety positively correspond with support for Trump. The more religiously active a voter self-reported themselves as being, the more likely they were to have voted for Trump. Voters who reported weekly (or greater) attendance at religious services went for Trump 58% to 36%. Voters who reported going to religious services only on a monthly basis or “a few times a year” went for Trump, but only by a plurality of 48% to 44%. Voters who reported attending religious services “seldom/never” went decisively for Clinton, 57% to 36%. Also, within the broader “unaffiliated” category, self-identified “atheist/agnostic” voters went for Clinton 69% to 20%, while the more “apatheistic” “nothing in particular” sub-category were still strongly for Clinton, but by a slightly less overwhelming margin of 61% to 20%. I think Trump’s support was and still is fundamentally _tribal_. It’s not about religious dogma or theology, but I do think it has a good bit to do with religious _identity_. I strongly suspect a lot of these ostensibly very pious Christian Trump supporters may not be all that much more biblically or theologically literate than he is; they just feel that “Christian = good” (and “Christian = 100% American!”) in a very “four legs good, two legs baaad” sort of way. “Ten Commandments = good” (even if they can no more actually _name_ all of them than can [some of their elected representatives](https://boingboing.net/2006/06/17/ten-commandments-con.html)). Bottom line, a lot of Trump voters’ God is [this guy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head_of_Christ): White Fair-Skinned ([Long-Haired](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Corinthians+11%3A14-15&version=NIV)) Jesus. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/58 "2018-12-07T09:24:16Z")
I think his dip into the prosperity gospel has to do with just having to appear Christian and pick the one kind that wouldn’t condemn him. I don’t think it took much thought other than “these people say the nicest things about me.” His level of knowledge of Christianity actually seems lower than anyone I’ve ever heard of. Even people who don’t practice at all know it’s Second Corinthians and how sin works. They may not know what’s actually in the Bible, but they get that everyone has sinned and Jesus had to save you. Not even prosperity gospel preachers allow for the idea of someone who never sinned. Which is why I think he just picked the most tolerable types of pastors. And, well, the prosperity gospel leaders are really con men. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 9:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/59 "2018-12-07T09:54:39Z")
> [@senoy](#): > > I do want to comment that I don’t know why you have to be some deep philosophical thinker to be an atheist. Maybe in the individual cases of the posters on this thread it came as some deeply moving personal investment, but for other people saying there is no God is as easy as farting. You don’t have to be some academic philosopher to not believe in God any more than you have to be a deep philosopher TO believe in God. Not everyone has “Dark Nights of the Soul.” Trump strikes me as the kind of person who certainly could be an atheist just because he woke up one morning and decided he was. Of course not, and it’s interesting to me that people would think that: it’s another indication of how religious the US is. For me, growing up in Britain, even though I went to Catholic school, I assumed the Bible was a bunch of fables and legends that no-one took seriously. I was pretty shocked, at about age 10, to discover anybody took any of it literally. Trump is that 10 year old boy IMO; he thinks of religion as pretty dumb but isn’t aware of any of the philosophical arguments either way. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2018, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690/60 "2018-12-07T10:29:47Z")
I assume most of the Christian right is atheist, wholly unconcerned with a hypothetical afterlife and blissfully ignorant of biblical teachings. Trump fits right in with hypocritical liars who have perverted Christianity for their political and social ends. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/trump-is-an-atheist/825690.md?page=4)