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Could an atheist be elected president in America? [1]
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Date: 2025-04-27
In response to the popular and provocative diary, “Progressive Atheists Will Not Be Silenced By Your Religious Privilege,” I noticed a number of commenters mentioned — as evidence of the prevailing bigotry toward atheists — that an open atheist cannot win election to high office in the United States.
I don’t doubt that some theists in the electorate would hold it against a candidate and that that could make getting elected more of a challenge. The same could be said, and has been said, in regard to past presidential candidates who have identified as members of certain faiths, like JFK (Catholic); Mitt Romney (Mormon); and Bernie Sanders (Jewish).
And the same could be said in regard to, for example, a person who holds a heterodox point of view such as advocating for repealing the Second Amendment. Or, 20 years ago, someone advocating for marriage equality.
It’s always been up to candidates, activists, and supporters to make their case and break through the prejudice.
It was of course not very long ago that the idea of legalizing same-sex marriage in the U.S. seemed like an absolute impossibility due to the prevalence of homophobia. Yet, in 2022, marriage equality became the law of the land with bipartisan support in Congress. Here in Vermont, I saw firsthand (and participated in) the grassroots Freedom to Marry campaign. It certainly was not a mean-spirited effort. That was the opposite of the campaign’s strategy.
The “Progressive Atheists” diary was responding to another diary which had cast some atheists as mean-spirited, and similar criticism peppered the “Progressive Atheists” comment thread. It didn’t strike me that the “Progressive Atheists” diarist was demeaning people, but rather standing up for the right of atheists to be as free to criticize religion as theists are to defend it. However, while the diarist didn’t say it outright, I think they were suggesting that if some atheists feel ridiculing theism and theists is an appropriate means to reduce the influence of religion in our society, so be it.
I noticed that not all of the pushback in that diary thread was coming from theists, though I think most of it was, and it’s always dicey when members of a majority question the strategy/tactics of a minority. But, while it may ruffle feathers, it’s in our nature on this site to discuss and debate strategy/tactics.
Consider this scenario:
You’ve just moved into a neighborhood when there’s a big snowstorm. You introduce yourself to the guy next door as you offer to help him shovel out his car that’s gotten stuck at the end of his driveway. He’s very appreciative of your help, and when the job is done, he asks, “Which church do you go to?” If you were to smile and reply, “Actually, I’m an atheist, but I certainly believe in the Golden Rule, ‘Treat others the way you want to be treated and don’t treat others the way you don’t want to be treated,’” I think that sort of response is generally more likely to engender tolerance toward or respect for atheists than if you were to reply sternly, “Actually, I’m an atheist. I believe religion is nothing but superstition and has led to much prejudice and violence in this world, so I’m strongly opposed to it.”
Both responses are honest and sincere, but I think the first response is more apt to help the person to see you through a lens that will register with their personal experience.
That can be key to helping to change people’s opinions (for the better) on hot button issues. This has been demonstrated, for example, by “deep canvassing,” a method of engaging in friendly, nonjudgmental conversations which was developed by the Los Angeles LGBT Center and has proven to be remarkably effective. Here’s a real-life example of deep canvassing:
Some years ago, I posted “A fascinating TED Radio Hour about engaging with opponents reminded me of...all of us!” — which describes how people who you might think would never change their views actually have made dramatic turnabouts as a result of friendly conversations with progressives. This includes, for example, Megan Phelps-Roper, formerly a virulently outspoken member of the infamous Westboro Baptist Church.
So, could an open atheist be elected president in America? Well, today, an African American former president and a Jewish democratic socialist senator have by far the highest favorability ratings among American politicians. Who saw that coming?
I don’t doubt that an atheist might — like a democratic socialist — find it pretty tough to win the Democratic nomination, largely because many folks in the base and establishment of the Party would worry that they couldn’t win the election. But that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy: if we won’t nominate a presidential candidate because we fear that deep-seated biases will render them unelectable, then indeed they will never be elected president.
Fortunately, however, we sometimes decide to reject our fears — the quintessential example being when Democrats nominated a fellow named Barack Hussein Obama and he won in a landslide. We’ve seen that despite the racism that’s still prevalent in America, three out of four times that the Democratic presidential ticket has included a person of color, our ticket has won — and we came very close to making it four out of four. Most folks probably would not have dreamed this possible just a few decades ago.
In my opinion, an open atheist could be elected president in America.
Though I do have a hard time imagining an atheist begin viable if they ridicule spiritual beliefs and, by extension, believers. Religion has such deep roots, not only in America (our founding document speaks of a “Creator”) but going back millennia and, I suppose, predating written history; so, for better or worse, religion is pretty well baked into human culture and psychology. What’s more, demeaning people clashes with progressivism. It’s off-brand. I don’t see it working for a candidate on our side of the aisle.
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