Americans more open to having an atheist president?

[OldSchool2]

from Pew Research Center:

"Many Americans remain uncomfortable with electing a president who doesn’t believe in God, as evidenced by a recent Pew Research survey. Asked about a list of traits and how each would impact their likelihood of supporting a presidential candidate, about half (53%) of Americans said they would be less likely to support an atheist.

"No other trait, including being gay or having never held elected office, garnered a larger share of people saying they’d be less likely to support the potential candidate...."

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/29/americans-are-somewhat-more-open-to-the-idea-of-an-atheist-president/

Obama is listed under "Christian" along with Hayes and Andrew Johnson, who was possibly our worst president.

But after Obama, Johnson will have more competition for that title.

[udx]

Presidency is a job.  I would choose a competent atheist over an incompetent Christian any day, just like I would if I am hiring someone.

[Guest shiloh357]

Having an atheist as a president would be a disaster for this country.  We have a nonChristian president who has been a train wreck for the last  6 years.  I can't imagine what a full blown atheist would be like. And I don't want to imagine that.

[udx]

Having an atheist as a president would be a disaster for this country.  We have a nonChristian president who has been a train wreck for the last  6 years.  I can't imagine what a full blown atheist would be like. And I don't want to imagine that.

This factor into the competence level, isn't the trait of being atheist in itself.  It is a broad generalization to conclude that atheist can't do a good job because certain ones didn't. There are also plenty of Christians awful at doing their jobs.

[Guest shiloh357]

Can you rephrase that?   I am not quite following you....

[udx]

Can you rephrase that?   I am not quite following you....

Sure.. What I am saying, we cannot predict the success of someone to do their job base on their belief, unless of course there is sufficient data to show. But because there is many aspects of 'competence' it is hard to define in a single measurable figure, we would probably never be able to conclude if faith makes a difference.....probably only possible if we have a very narrow definition of how we define competence. If you conclude that atheist can't do their job base on a few incidences, then this would be a hasty generalization.

[missmuffet]

Having an atheist as a president would be a disaster for this country.  We have a nonChristian president who has been a train wreck for the last  6 years.  I can't imagine what a full blown atheist would be like. And I don't want to imagine that.

And his "real" religion beliefs are  

[OakWood]

from Pew Research Center:

"Many Americans remain uncomfortable with electing a president who doesn’t believe in God, as evidenced by a recent Pew Research survey. Asked about a list of traits and how each would impact their likelihood of supporting a presidential candidate, about half (53%) of Americans said they would be less likely to support an atheist.

"No other trait, including being gay or having never held elected office, garnered a larger share of people saying they’d be less likely to support the potential candidate...."

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/29/americans-are-somewhat-more-open-to-the-idea-of-an-atheist-president/

Obama is listed under "Christian" along with Hayes and Andrew Johnson, who was possibly our worst president.

But after Obama, Johnson will have more competition for that title.

 

Obama is listed under 'Christian'?

That's interesting. I wonder what his supporters have to say about that.

[Guest shiloh357]

How a person views morality and religion plays  a huge role in how the govern.   Look at countries that have atheist leaders and the lack of religious freedoms that exist.   Its not just about being able to carry out the mechanics of secular governance.   Atheism has a completely different take on life, religion and morality than what exists in a Christian worldview and we really don't want to live under that  because it will effect governance. 

[udx]

How a person views morality and religion plays  a huge role in how the govern.   Look at countries that have atheist leaders and the lack of religious freedoms that exist.   Its not just about being able to carry out the mechanics of secular governance.   Atheism has a completely different take on life, religion and morality than what exists in a Christian worldview and we really don't want to live under that  because it will effect governance. 

Like I said... how they government could be taken into account into a competence matrix.

 

And no, there has yet to be data to show that non-atheist leaders affects how they govern in a meaningful better way, compare to atheists. Even if there is a difference, since this is an observation study, you are only showing correlation (perhaps religious people have higher chances of getting elected) and will have trouble proving causation. If there is study that prove me wrong, I love to see it.

 

Yes, atheism has a different take on life, but how an individual meaningfully affect governance base on their religion is anecdotal at best.