American Atheists: Religious Political Figures?

It says a couple of things:

Religious views aren't the criterion we use.

We often vote for the least-bad candidate, instead of the ideal one.

My position isn't that I'll only vote for open atheists. My position is that I don't believe that there are gods.

"...you seem so excited about supporting religious people in politics."

"According to a poll conducted among the 111th Congress (2009-2011) only 5 called themselves "unspecified/don't know/refused to answer." That's 0.9% of Congress."

Kind of answered your own question didn't you?

What choice do we have?

If atheists are 5 - 6% of the US population (that's being generous), we don't have the power to get our non-religious candidates into office, and rarely do they even get into the running. That being the case, given the choice between two religious candidates, what can we do but pick the one we think will do the least harm?

As far as those of us who openly support and campaign for a religious candidate, maybe you've only served to shoot down your own argument. Maybe atheists aren't as prejudiced as you imagine. Barring that, it still makes sense. Choosing the lesser of two evils for president can make a giant difference, given the power of the office. It makes sense to passionately defend the better candidate for the sake of the good (or at least, the reduction of harm) associated with that candidate getting into office, staying in office, passing a piece of critical legislation, etc.

You do realize that there are very few in the go government that identify with atheism. So we don't have much choice. The change has to come from the inside and will take awhile. And I take it you only vote for people who feel the same way you do On all aspects? I don't believe that for one minute. Also, being an atheist I don't make it a habit to mock others who believe differently, yet you seem to have no problem.

It says that you're making a lot of accusations that have no grounding in reality -- and not just that cute little accusation of anti-Semitism you threw in there. I've never said that anyone who believes in religion is stupid/insane/deluded. I think religion is wrong, and believing it may be a little bit silly, but everyone does some things that are a little bit silly, and as long as they don't do any harm with it, I'm not going to cast aspersions. The politicians I support understand the importance of secularism, and don't get their religious beliefs mixed up with their political duties. They oppose unnecessary entanglements of church and state.

What does that say about your unfounded assumptions?

Edit: As I said, I vote for politicians who understand the importance of a secular government and don't try to push religious beliefs into our country's laws. There are some religious politicians out there who fit that description.

Look, in my opinion, a politician's religious views doesn't matter to me as long as they don't push their religious beliefs into law. And besides, why should I care what their religion is? You shouldn't be totally against someone just because they don't share the same religion as you. As long as you agree with their political ideals--why should their religion matter?

1. Atheists don't make up a voting majority.

2. Sometimes, you have to vote economically (vote for the lesser of two evils rather than for a preferred cadidate so that the vote will be more effective).

3. We don't all get to vote for every office. we get to vote for our own local officials, our state officials (divided by district), our state's two Senators and the 1 Representative for our district, not necessarily for the whole state and a vote of questionable value for president.

>What does that say about the consistency of your position?

It says that we know we're a minority. Besides, saying you're an atheist as a representative trying to get elected is political suicide in most cases.

Absolutely nothing. I don't pick candidates based on their religion.

"What does that say about the consistency of your position?"

I think it speaks more about the lack of real choices.

It says that we don't vote in accordance with our non-belief in God. Rather, we vote for the candidate that is the least distasteful who has the best chance of winning, just like you.