Atheists are an extreme minority in this country. Something like 3% or less consider themselves atheist. Fighting those kind of numbers is hard.
Despite DandyDan's assertion, I suspect most of the country would have an issue with it.
20 years from now? Who knows.
My first reaction was a definite no. But the more I think about it, maybe. I am not totally sure that Obama would not have been elected EVEN if he was an admitted Athiest. The people that voted him in did so largely on his promise to keep the checks coming. Hard to see those who receive food stamps, welfare, medicaid, union members, teachers, trial lawyers, etc. voting for a Republican or Libertarian in a national election. I suspect they would not like his Athiesm, but would not want to see the money flow come to a halt. So, my answer would be yes, if he is running on the Democratic ticket.
It's difficult to imagine at this point in time, but they once said a Catholic could never be President and John Kennedy proved them wrong. And I doubt it's even an issue any longer.
london guy- Has an atheist ever been PM of GB, or King/Queen of England?
For that matter, can you or anyone else name an atheist who has been a leader of any significant nation in our lifetime? (bonus points if you can do so without search engine or wiki.)
"For that matter, can you or anyone else name an atheist who has been a leader of any significant nation in our lifetime?"
I believe Australia and maybe one or two of the Scandinavian countries. Whether you consider those significant is up to you.
Jefferson had very complex ideas about religion and was certainly anti-church, but I don't think you could call him an atheist.
"For that matter, can you or anyone else name an atheist who has been a leader of any significant nation in our lifetime? "
Lenin, Stalin, Krushchev, Breshnev, Andrpov--Soviet Union
Mao, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping--China
Very interesting question; very interesting.
I have thought about Canada's Prime Ministers since Confederation in 1867. Our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. Macdonald was a glorious drunk who gleefully accepted backhanders from railway promoters but ol' John regularly courted the Orange Lodge for political support so he had, at least, to pay lip service to Protestantism.
Prime Minister through much of the 1930s and 1940s was certifiably weird. William Lyon Mackenzie King started his career as a labour lawyer for the Rockefellers when the delightful Rockefeller family was murdering striking Colorado miners. King was a lifelong bachelor who regularly frequented the Ottawa/Hull prostitutes. King was also a goofy spiritualist who used mediums to help him make contact with his long-dead mother and even more freakily, with his beloved dead dog, Paddy. He used Ouija boards to help with making political decisions. Very hard to call this character a church-going Christian.
Another bachelor Prime Minister, R. B. Bennett, died in mysterious circumstances in his bath. Some form of auto-erotic practice was always suspected in his death. He may have been a Christian in name but many of his actions as Prime Minister were the actions of the devil.
I always liked Pierre Trudeau for one of his most famous quotes: "The state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation." Trudeau was a genuinely devout Catholic.
"Lenin, Stalin, Krushchev, Breshnev, Andrpov--Soviet Union
Mao, Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping--China"
With the exception of Lenin those names are a bit murky in regard to Atheism.
I think Hitler got left out. He was very anti Christian trying his best to get rid of it and religion with hopes to go back to pagan days. A role model for people of similar feelings. He believed in his own Gods of nature, etc.
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If people continue to vote for whomever might give them the most, candidates can lie and get into office. Just look who won the last election. He promised to save the average family $2,500 per year in health care costs, that he wasn't going to raise taxes on the middle class. That you could keep your doctor. The people fell for it.
I'm middle class, have never gotten government relief, have not had my taxes raised, have the same employer provided healthcare I had before Obamacare (of course I admit I have a real job with legit healthcare) and generally feel that my life and that of those around me is better than the days of housing market crashes and terrorists flying planes into NY and DC landmarks.
Although not an Atheist I the Richard Dawins sense of the word, Thomas Jefferson did cut the bible apart to create his own bible. This act would make him a blasphemer.
@Doug-Great saying. If that one is yours, good job.
Personally, I would vote for an open atheist who nonetheless treated other people and nations with dignity and respect, and took no crap from our enemies. The so-called "Christians" that the GOP has been promoting make me ill. The poison that spouts from their mouths should give all real Christians pause.
Give me a person who lives a principled, ethical life any day over the lying, pretentious prigs who claim that God is on their side.
I have read Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens and Susan Jacoby. I don't think a political candidate espousing those views could get very far. Look how Thomas Paine was misjudged an atheist just because he accepted the concept of a Creator, but had no use for holy books or organized religon.
@ superdude. I'm impressed, anyone who reads the work of Christopher Hitchens deserves credit. His brother, Peter, is also an author and his work is worth reading.
Not yet in the current generation; an openly gay candidate may even have an advantage over a "hardline" atheist POTUS in that time frame. Now, if we are talking about someone who affects a fuzzy "spiritually seeking but not into organized religion" vibe, that would still be far more acceptable to the general voting populace -- one could say a Deist like Thomas Jefferson would be the precedent for that -- and would be much more viable.
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