Lol I wish it were the same here. A recent poll was released where americans were asked the following question:

"If your political party nominated a generally well qualified person to run for office who happened to be _________, would you vote for that person?"
These are the percentages of those who would NOT vote for that person:

Black- 4%
Female- 5%
Catholic- 5%
Hispanic- 6%
Jewish- 7%
Mormon- 18%
Gay- 30%
Muslim- 40%
Atheist- 43%

Its absolutely ridiculous that a party would lose almost half of its supporters if an athiest was nominated for office.

Forgot the link:

http://www.gallup.com/poll/155285/atheists-muslims-bias-presidential-candidates.aspx

Black- 4%
Female- 5%
Catholic- 5%
Hispanic- 6%
Jewish- 7%
Mormon- 18%
Gay- 30%
Muslim- 40%
Murderer - 41%
Serial Rapist - 42%
Re-elect Richard Nixon 3rd Term - 42.5%
Atheist- 43%

Lol wjessop

I don't find that surprising. People are most comfortable with electing people that are like them and/or share their views. The Black to Jewish percentages are pretty much inconsequential. After the Jewish statistic, the categories become more and more of minorities.

As a country that is a majority Christian, people have a harder time identifying with LGBT, Muslims, and atheists respectively.

I wonder if Americans would rather have a Satanist president, than an atheist one, on the basis that at least the Satanist believes in a magical figure from the Bible?

Surely the whole point of an election is to put someone into power who shares your views? I don't think I know anyone who as ever said "he sees the world completely differently to me. I'll vote for him". If your universe is built around the idea of God and the religion that goes with it, then surely there is a great deal of logic behind not electing someone who believes it's all tosh. I imagine to many of the faithful, an atheist politician is pretty much as out of touch as it is possible to get.

Also, I'll be damned before I elect one of those little white Swedish hippo things either.

You'd be surprised to fine how many Americans think that athiests worship the devil.

I'm a fairly religious Christian. I'm also a bit of an ass, but I think that's more of a coincidence.

In response to all those stories about Christians being bigoted, hypocritical, etc. I used to just say that, "Those aren't true Christians" but I've come to realize it's a pretty lame cop-out. All I can do is say sorry for them.

Most of the horror stories I hear come from America. I guess if the majority of the population is Christian, you'd expect there to be more evil people that are Christians there. I'm still not sure if it can be claimed they're so awful because they're Christian though. I think if any other institution was the one primarily in control, it wouldn't look much different. The people seeking power will obviously go for places with influence. In America, I guess that happens to be the church.

@ Octavious: "I imagine to many of the faithful, an atheist politician is pretty much as out of touch as it is possible to get."

In that case, why is it the case that in the UK, many Christians are supportive of secular politics?

I always laugh when an atheist says Christians should rot in hell.

@ Yoyoyozo: "You'd be surprised to find how many Americans think that athiests worship the devil."

What, like, actually, really?

If that's true then yes I'd find that surprising, and it would make me even more concerned about America's weirdness than I already am.

@Jamiet99
It's one of the most common misconceptions about atheism in the US, unfortunately. Google "do athiests worship the devil" and you'll see just how many misguided individuals there are.

That doesn't surprise me at all.

Jamie, most people don't think like you. You're/we're a minority here.

There are a lot of uninterested and uneducated people that will take things at face value, who won't question what they receive.

Actually, the other thing you get is that atheists are kind of subhuman. This is a reasonably common perception across the political spectrum

Actually not surprising at all given the point that many religious people cannot really grasp the concept of not worshipping a supernatural entity. So from this perspective atheists are against god, satan is against god - so atheists must clearly worship satan.

As an atheist I don't worship anything. Duh. That's the point.

I don't know a single Christian who thinks atheists worship the devil or are sub-human, and I know a fairly large amount.

@Flum: Do you know any Christian couples who think it?

Lol.

Just as a note "many religious people" was not meant to carry over to the second sentence.

I come from a large crowd of diverse Christians, and I have never heard of anyone who thinks atheists worship the devil. Perhaps it is just a very vocal minority?

My guess is it's just some internet trolls who say it.

I'm an atheist that worships the devil. They were right.

That's only because the devil offered you the Overlord gig. I would've been stuck as the lousy HR guy and you know how hard it is the move up the corporate ladder down there.

@ Jamie

There is a big difference between secular and atheist. I can't recall any uk politicians making a big deal about being atheist either. I suspect the British public would treat someone who makes a big deal about their atheism with the same suspicion as they would treat someone who makes a big deal about God.

Come to think of it, have we ever had an atheist PM?

Not publicly.

We haven't even had a Catholic Prime Minister, so a country has a long way to go.

Even Tony Blair acted as CofE until after the end of his final term, when he then converted to Catholicism.

God, he is so two-faced.