Would you vote for an atheist?

Great Debates
1

This is a spin-off from this thread. It might be more of an IMHO thing; I wasn’t sure.

Anyway, the question is, would you vote for an atheist for president? Assume that you agree with the person’s platform and approve of his/her actions in the past, but that when asked about religious beliefs, the person simply says she/he doesn’t believe in God. Also, your own vote aside, do you think an atheist would have any chance of being elected president?

2

Yes. No.

3

Yes. No.

4

Yes. No.

However, we’re so far proving our unanimous second answer wrong. :wink:

5

Yes. Perhaps, in a few decades.

6

Yes. No.

You have an extremely skewed sample here on the SDMB. (which explains why Avaloninan’s comment is incorrect)

7

Yes. Maybe someday.

8

Yes. No.

Then again if the Diebold machines are rigged, it may not make a difference anyway.

9

Or a joke.

Sheesh, you’d think the smiley would cover that…

10

Yes. Someday (no atm).

11

yes, no

12
  1. Of course. I’d far prefer an atheist President. The more challenging question for me would be “would you vote for a non-atheist?”, which has been weighing on my mind lately as I move further and further from agnosticism.
  2. Not yet.
13

Not sure, would depend on what s/he thought of Theists. I have run across a few athiests who think everyone who believes in God is ignorant or just flat out stupid. I wouldnt want a president who thinks the large majority of his county are idiots.

And no, I dont see an athiest president being elected anytime soon. At least not an open atheist president!

14

I would love to even SEE an openly atheist presidential candidate. Or better even an atheist politician for that matter. Has any atheist ever won any election in the US or Latin America ? I don’t know any. Outside of Europe an atheist elected is nigh impossible.

So YES I would vote for an atheist… NO chances he would get elected.

15
  1. If I were choosing between two identical candidates, except that one was atheist and one was religious, I would likely choose the religious one. However, if (as in the OP) I were in full agreement with the atheist candidate’s platform and experience moreso than the religious candidate’s, I would easily vote for the atheist.

In other words, I would prefer a non-atheist candidate, but it is pretty far down on my list of priorities when I vote.

  1. No, not at this time.
16

Yes. No. (Not yet.)

(I take it you’ve been voting against all the candidates for the last many years?)

17

  1. Yes. An atheist President would probably do a better job than most of the guys we’ve had in that role, IMO.

  2. Not bleedin’ likely, at least not until the United States has a major shift in its social attitudes towards more tolerance of different views. Given recent trends, that doesn’t seem like something that will happen soon.

18

Yes, I’d vote for an atheist (if I agreed with their platform), and no I don’t think any atheists will be elected president anytime soon.

19

When I said to assume that you agree with the person’s platform, I meant to include the assumption that you agree with the person’s ideas enough to vote for him/her otherwise. I assume you wouldn’t vote for a theist who said the majority of the country are idiots, either, right?

In the interest of expanding this into more than just a poll, could I prevail upon you to give us some cites for these atheists who “think everyone who believes in God is ignorant or just flat out stupid”, and some more detail on why this might be a concern for you in your voting? Not to pick on you, but so far this has been almost unanimous; I was hoping someone could stir things up a little.:wink:

20

So does that mean I can’t count on your vote?