An Atheist President?

In a similar way to the way cows want to know what other cows are up to, so they can do the same thing, humans are very interested in the opinions of other humans, so they can have the same ones. This interest gave rise in America to the Gallup Organisation; a private group that collects statistical data about what Americans think (on those occasions when they are thinking).

Between the 2nd and 4th of March 2007 the Gallup Organisation asked Americans the following question. The responses are shown below.

Between now and the 2008 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates -- their education, age, religion, race, and so on. If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be ..., would you vote for that person?

This data is of particular interest at present because two front running candidates for pre-selection as the presidential candidate for the Democrat party do not fit the standard mould of White Male Protestant, one being black (Barack Obama) and another being a woman (Hillary Rodham Clinton). While these figures, on the face of them, do not appear to reflect too badly in terms of average American prejudice against blacks and women, (93% and 89% respectively would be prepared to vote for a black or a woman), look at the numbers from the reverse:

7% (about 20.8 million) of average Americans would not vote for an otherwise well-qualified candidate from their party, because they are black, and 11% (about 32.7 million) of average Americans would not vote for an otherwise well-qualified candidate from their party because they are a woman.

But that's not the whole story. Down at the bottom of the list are Atheists, with less than half the surveyed Americans being prepared to vote for them. Statistically, Americans are far more likely to vote a Mormon into the White House, than an Atheist. For those who aren't aware of what Mormons believe, you may like to refer to my previous post. This data is spectacularly supported by statistics of the religious affiliation of current U.S. Senators, 5 of whom (Robert Foster Bennett, Mike Crapo, Orrin Hatch, Harry Reid and Gordon H. Smith) are Mormons.

Currently there are no U.S. Senators who site their religious affiliation as: "No Religion/Atheist/Agnostic", yet this category is embodied by 15% of the U.S. population according to the 2001 Census. So it is very fortunate for Mr Obama and Ms Clinton that they believe in God (and that they aren't gay), otherwise they'd have no chance of ever getting elected. Can you imagine? A gay, atheist female president? Or a gay, atheist black president? or even a gay atheist black female president? My God! Give me a President who believes Adam and Eve were Americans any day over that!!!