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!!!

What Mormons Believe ...

Mormons believe that in 1823 an angel appeared to a teenager named Joseph Smith and told him he had been chosen to translate the book of Mormon which was written on golden plates hidden near where Joseph was then living in Palmyra, New York. These plates were written in a language called "reformed Egyptian". God taught young Joseph how to translate reformed Egyptian and the "Book of Mormon was the result.

Unfortunately, there is no evidence today that these golden plates ever existed because after he was finished with them, Smith returned them to the angel that gave them to him.

The Book of Mormon is the account of people who came from the Middle-East to America between 600 B.C. and 400 A.D. These people were the Jaredites, who were from Babylon, and the Nephites and Lamanites who were Jews from Jerusalem. The Nephites and Lamanites had a war in America in which the Nephites were defeated in 428 A.D. The Lamanites continued and their descendants are the people now known as native Americans. The Book of Mormon is the account of the Nephite leader, Mormon, and is about the culture and civilization of the Nephites, and about how Jesus came to America.

Unfortunately there is no evidence today that anyone ever came to America from the Middle-East between 600 B.C. and 400 A.D. and absolutely no archaeological evidence that these societies ever existed in America, except for the so-called Lamanites, the native Americans.

Mormons believe that Adam (of Adam and Eve fame) once lived in Spring Hill, Davies County, Missouri. They believe that after Jesus was resurrected he visited America, and until the church realised it violated civil law and renounced the practice, they believed in polygamy (Joseph Smith had 27 wives). There are about 13 million Mormons in the world. About 6 million Mormons are American. The Mormons send out missionaries (door-knockers) who convince an extra quarter of a million people to become Mormons every year.

Ironically, most Mormons don't believe in the Tooth Fairy, despite the presence of considerably more evidence to support that particular myth.