Posted on 06/21/2012 8:38:44 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Alternate headline: "Blogger's plan to be president by 2040 still on track."
Note to The One: You can admit it now.
I've blogged a bunch of these Gallup polls over the years and my demographic has always been at the bottom of the barrel preference-wise. But things are improving: In 2007, just 45 percent said they'd vote for an atheist, then last year it crept up to 49 percent. Now we're over the hump at 54. I wonder why. It's not like the "new atheism" suddenly exploded onto the national scene over the past six months, and to hear believers tell it, the new atheism is more likely to alienate people than persuade them. Maybe, maybe not. What you're seeing here, I think, is the fruit of normalization: It's not so much that people are becoming more sympathetic to atheism (although that might be true) than that, as atheists become more visible culturally, people see for themselves that we’re not that weird or threatening. Acceptance of gays works along the same lines, of course, except that they’re further along than we are. For a vivid illustration of that, follow the Gallup link up top and check out the breakdown among different age groups. Young adults react to gays and atheists similarly; older adults, not so much. Note the trendlines in the table I posted above, too. Thirty-five years ago, atheists held a double-digit lead on this question over gays. Today, the opposite is true.
This isn’t much of a partisan issue, either:
I’d love to see the demographic split on Democrats who would and wouldn’t vote for a nonbeliever. If, say, 90 percent of limousine liberals are willing to vote for an atheist, how low must the percentage be among blue-collar Dems? Ah well. Suffice it to say, it’s still risky even for a secretly atheist liberal pol to admit his lack of faith publicly.
Oh, and as for the elephant in the room, 24 percent of Democrats admit that they won’t vote for a Mormon versus just 10 percent of Republicans who say so. Overall, 18 percent of adults say they wouldn’t; a year ago, it was 22 percent. The reason that number has shrunk is almost entirely due to GOPers becoming more comfortable with a Mormon nominee as Romney advanced through the primaries. Last year, 80 percent of Republicans said they’d be willing to vote for a Mormon. This year, 90 percent say so. Mitt’s made a difference to future elections even if he doesn’t win this one.
Yes but will they re-elect one?
54% of the people voted for a Black, Muslim, Communist, Gay, Atheist.
I’d love to see the breakdown on this question between regular run-of-the-mill atheists and proselytizing “new” atheists.
I think a lot more people would be willing to vote for someone who says “I don’t believe in God, but hey, believe what you want”, than a guy who says “I don’t believe in God, and if you do, you’re a moron”.
Yes but will they re-elect one?
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Heh! Nice one! ;-)
Yeah, but would they vote for a proctologist?
The thread directly beneath this one when I clicked on this link was a quote from a retiring Dem congressman: “The people have gotten dumber”. I think he may well be right, especially after reading this article. They certainly were in 2008.
For a novel idea lets vote in a guy who has the qualifications to be a good President of the U.S.
I think a lot of people wouldn’t tell the truth on a poll like this because their honest answers wouldn’t be considered politically correct.
Case in point...have you noticed what has happened to JC Penny since their new marketing tactics pushing the Homosexual agenda.
People aren’t going to put themselves out there for something like this. Obviously, they voted for a black/white guy that “could speak well”. The rest is of this poll is an open question as far as I am concerned.
It takes a lot of faith to be an atheist.
The thread directly beneath this one when I clicked on this link was a quote from a retiring Dem congressman: “The people have gotten dumber”. I think he may well be right, especially after reading this article. They certainly were in 2008.
RE: Simpletons don’t realize, they already did, back in 2008.
I thought Obama OPENLY declared himself to be a Christian...
BTW, Australia has had 2 openly self-declared atheists as prime ministers (both members of the Labor party <— their equivalent of our Democrats).
One was Bob Hawke in the late 80’s and early 90’s. The other one is the current Prime Minister — Julia Gillard.
He's a Muslim. Pure and simple. He even said so, 3 times and ABC news corrected him. Four years ago I would not see myself voting for anybody who was not a Christian. You can add me to that list of voters now (at least for this year).
I'll take an atheist over a Muslim any day. Sure do wish there was the option of voting for a Christian though.
I wouldn't vote for a proselytizing "new" atheist, and I'm an atheist. I can't stand the type, whatever they happen to be pushing. They all think they know better than I do what's good for me, and that would surely be reflected in their decisions in government.
But it's nice to see this. I've seen people say they'd NEVER vote for an atheist, no matter what, no matter how conservative his positions, no matter how moral of a life he's led. That means if the only opposition to the atheist in an election is a gun-grabbing, amoral communist Muslim, the conservative still wouldn't vote for the atheist. Insane.
Since agnostic was not on the list as distinct from atheist, it’s not possible to tell from this what kind of support a militantly atheistic candidate would get. But I’d say: Probably not a lot, compared to the agnostic.
Its common knowledge that Obama is a Atheist Muslim who only got married and had children to disguise his Gayness.
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