Gotta take care of one another..

have no problem voting for an atheist. Religion, of lack thereof, is v-e-r-y low on my list of qualifications for office.

requirements to run for president or any office .

A persons religious beliefs or non religious beliefs does not impact on whether they are going to be a good canidate or not.

That deserves a thread of its own..

If I liked their policies, sure.

I vote for the party. The personal beliefs of the candidate are not an issue with me. I gag at the 'pukes here in Texas parading their families and how they are pillars of their church and community. It is disgusting pandering. For a candidate to mention they are Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, FlyingSpagettiest or atheist does not raise my hackles. It is a part of who they are but is way down the list in my judgement of whether they are a fit candidate for office.

with my opinions I would vote for the atheist before I voted for any person of faith.
As an aside Peacetrain, "atheist" should be in lower case as it is not a proper noun. Intestesting question and I am curious as to what the final outcome will be.

The article of the constitution which says that "there shall be no religious test for office" applies to what government may do. An individual may choose to apply such a test to his vote if he wishes. There is nothing illegal, or even immoral about such a criteria for choosing who one wishes to vote for.

That being said, I would unhesitatingly vote for an atheist, because I am utterly indifferent to anyone's religious beliefs or lack thereof.

If it was a choice between two candidates whose political platform are essentially identical, and one candidate was an extremist Christian (i.e. a Christian with beliefs that I believe are not consistent with Jesus's message) and the other was an atheist then I'd go for the atheist. Generally I like to think that I don't use religion as the deciding factor but if their religious faith is egregiously incompatible with mine then it does play a big factor.

People of other religious persuasions would need to be compatible with my "big picture faith" - i.e. an extremist Muslim is a no but a mainstream Muslim is perfectly fine with me. In other words - if the candidate is inclusive, treats everyone equally, has a message of love and peace, and walks that talk.... they put themselves in the front of the line.

Fortunately Democratic Party candidates generally don't fall in the "extreme faith" category. It's the Republican candidates that worry me... even if I discard their policies the extreme faith elements often remain.

I'm a secularist, humanist and agnostic. (I have some real problems with a self-appointed conference deciding to drop "secular" from "Secular Humanism" and design us a crappy "happy human" logo. As far as I'm concerned...IHEU can piss off. They're the Vatican of Nonbelievers and I mean that in the worst way possible.) It's amusing to me that even as a non-believer I find a way to be schismatic from other non-believers.

Anyways, I'm more likely to vote for an Atheist than a Theist, whether Christian or otherwise. Disbelief in the supernatural is a positive value for me in a candidate. It's not really that I dislike or am biased against Christians...it's just that they can never fully share my values as one of my deepest-held values is the rejection of any morality that cannot be logically-derived separate from mythology.

I wouldn't vote for a religious fanatic, regardless of sect. They tend to have an agenda to push. Atheists are not free of this flaw, although there are certainly fewer evangelical atheists than there are of other brands. This is also true of other ideological fanatics. In the US, we have a lot of capitalist fanatics, who want to privatize and de-regulate everything. I'd be just as wary of them as I'd be of someone who wanted to enforce the teaching of his religion in public schools.



-- Mal

but I need to hear how they think they can do the most good for all citizens - and I mean the people not the "corporate citizens".

Left wing like P Z Myers - fine
Right wing like S E Cupp - no way.

Any candidate who is honest about being an atheist or agnostic would find it tough to get a majority of votes. That's what polls indicate. An atheist candidate is probably better off not talking about his religious beliefs and just saying "that's private."

Religion plays way too big of a part of politics today. It's always been that way. If you're not religious, you really have no chance in hell of winning any election, even though your views on politics are spot on and supported by a majority of people. It's not suppose to matter, but it does. It's kind of like the non spoken rule.

than a person that places religion above all else where religious beliefs has no place to be. The caveat being the atheist is not a person lacking morality.

Who would have NO problem voting for an atheist if he/she were the best liberal candidate.

It's about tolerance. It's about being able to accept and respect those that are not only "like" you, but "unlike" you as well. I'm from Texas and Louie Gohmert makes my skin crawl when he forces HIS form of Christianity on people.

if I agreed with them on their policy stances. It doesn't matter to me that much.

And I would argue with anyone who said they wouldn't on the basis of them being an atheist.

I vote for, who I think would do less damage to the country.

Up till 2004, I thought I would vote for someone who could actually do good.

When 2008 hit, and I was faced between Obama and Hillary, who were my LAST choice on the Democratic primaries, I ended up supporting Hillary since I thought she would do less damage, and had a cabinet that could be easily shuffled in to staff needed positions.

I was so disappointed that Obama won the primaries, even though I voted for him in the General Election.
After he won, my interest in politics waned, as each move of his, felt like it was cutting more and more from what I thought would be best for the country. It was moving further and further to the cliff to the right. Still, because he was not Palin(since I think Obama saved McCain's life by winning the Presidency, he would have probably collapsed by 2010, and can you imagine how crazy a Palin presidency would be?), because of that, I was able to just finally shrug and lower my already lowered expectations.

When Romney came along, it didn't matter to me that he was a Mormon. It mattered to me that he was a Vulture Capitalist who plans to sell the Government through increased privitization, and things would get really scary.

So, I raced to vote for Obama once more, and even volunteered in the phones and going door to door to get out the vote.
Which I am doing again in VA by the way, for the Mid-term elections.

In the Presidential Level, it really is whomever would do less damage to the country that I will vote for. Thus far, I don't see a Republican causing less damage than a Democrat, so I tend to vote Democratic. In State races, I am known to vote for a few Independents.