>>>Hello hello - you are aware of the history of presidents and presidential elections and religion are you not? We are a country of religious freedom. However, every president and presidential candidate throughout history (unless you can show me evidence of one who did not) has declared their religion publicly. Obama gets to be the first to not have to? If he was a satanist would you still have voted for him? It certainly does play a part in the presidential election. He certainly is free to worship (or not) as he sees fit. The public also has the right to vote (or not) for him based on his church affiliation (or none thereof).
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>>Isn't it a prerequisite to "believe in God" for many public offices in the US ? If so, declared atheists like Kevin would be barred from office, which in my eyes fits not with real religious freedom - even if citizens are free to "practice" their non- or other religion, some of them are left out of government for religous reasons ONLY... And what would happen to followers of Mitra, or Kali and Shiva running for office ? Shintoists ? Who decides if "belief in God" has been met ? [memories of old "proofs of God's existence" in Latin resurge...]
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>>curious non-believer [not even in atheism]
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>>thomas
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>No.
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>Article 6 of the Constitution: "No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."
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>However some state constitutions when first written required a belief in God (for public office at the state level).
Though as a practical matter politicians must chart the course in elections that will create the fewest enemies unnecessarily. Making some vague reference to being a "Christian" (a good, safe, go-with-the-cultural-majority choice) is generally sufficient and keeps the armies of believers from mobilizing on that particular issue. Given polling on issues of religion, I seriously doubt if professed atheist, pantheist, animist or pagan is going to be elected to national office in this century. It would just be considered impolite to voice such beliefs and then ask for a majority on the national level <s>.
Lip service to cultural tropes is just another form of manners in national politics or polite dinner parties.
Charles Hankey
Though a good deal is too strange to be believed, nothing is too strange to have happened.
- Thomas Hardy
Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important. They don't mean to do harm-- but the harm does not interest them. Or they do not see it, or they justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.
-- T. S. Eliot
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
- Ben Franklin
Pardon him, Theodotus. He is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature.
