We’ll see a Muslim President before we ever see an Atheist in the White House. The typical Bible thumber here in Texas may not like Islam but they like Atheism even less. The reason you’re most likely to hear for this way of thinking is that “at least Muslims believe in God, albeit an evil one.”

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@Brian

Evil indeed. If only they could realize that it’s the same God that they worship, the world would be that much easier a place to deal with.

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What baffles me is that so many people in the US would hold superstition, rather than reason and critical thinking, an essential requirement for the most powerful office in the land.

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we can take hope in Dawkins’s observation that the BIG PICTURE is that reason is slowly winning over religion.  We have some set-backs here and there, with weird outbreaks of religiosity (epidemics of viral memes) and with strange hold-outs like the U.S.A.  But the big picture, if you look at the world on a century scale is that reason is winning.

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I wish I had a clearer picture of how the other nations are managing this.  It might help me to help my fellow Americans in their struggle to implement reason in place of religion.  I feel surrounded and alone sometimes here.

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Religion is still all powerful in the U.S.  I can drive down the road here in illinois and see religious zealots standing on the street holding up signs with various Bible verses.

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As a (formerly) frequent traveler to Australia and a follower of the politics there, it’s important to understand some differences between Australian democracy and American democracy.

Unlike America, Australia isn’t a presidential democracy. Instead, it’s a parliamentary democracy. The rules for determining who becomes prime minister are rather different than determining who becomes president.

In Australia, political parties have a lot more control over who rises to the top. In the particular case here, Keven (alas) fell out of favor among the elites in his Labor Party. When that happens, the party mavens are free to nominate a new leader of the party, which they did: namely, Julia Gillard. Back in June, Kevin Rudd asked the party for essentially a vote of confidence; they were unwilling to do this and threw their support instead to Gillard. Realizing he would go down in defeat he conceded to Jillard in a widely broadcast message (see Wikipedia and YouTube for links). By Australian law, then, Jillard ascended to the position of PM *by default*. At that time, in June, she was an unelected PM.

The following month, in July, she announced a federal election. Here’s where it gets really interesting: Australia’s election rules require a majority, which she fell slightly short of obtaining. This resulted in a hung Parliament, which hasn’t happened there for quite a long time. After forming a coalition with the Greens and a few others, she finally gained a majority that allowed her barely to squeak into power. (Note to those who engage in research: in Ozzie politics, “Liberal” doesn’t mean the same thing it does in America. The down-under Liberals are actually center-right in ideology.) To boil it down: by themselves, Labor didn’t have enough votes from the people to win. Only after combining with other parties did this coalition obtain a majority.

Parliamentary democracies can be rather peculiar to those more accustomed to presidential democracies, and actually (IMHO) reveal a weakness in their design: there’s no separation of the legislative branch of government from the executive. Ponder this one for a while.

To summarize what happened in Australia: a small group of party hacks (uppity-ups in Labor) decided they didn’t like Rudd anymore and figured out a way to oust him. They replaced him with an overly ambitious uber-hack (research Gillard’s history) whom they then put forth to the people with veiled threat basically like this: “If you don’t vote for our preferred candidate, well then the goofy right-winger will be in charge. Nyah Nyah.”

I watched all this by the minute and tweeted with some politically-interested friends in Australia. Their consensus? It was a bloodless coup—bloodless because they have *very good* cleaners.

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Grrr…. need a way to edit comments! Please make these substitutions:

* /s/Jillard/Gillard
* /s/Keven/Kevin

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Steve, I think you can edit comments if you post as a registered member.  (By the way, thanks for your effort to educate us about the Australian political system.  I guess your point is that the leader of Australia isn’t directly elected by the people, and therefore atheists are less unelectable than in the U.S.)

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It seems me that the reason no declared athiest in the USA will be elected to the highest office is due the associations imposed on them. It is simplistic to assume that contention on one issue -ie god, implies contention on all other issues, most especially moral/ethical issues. This however is exactly what seems to happen. Deny a god and you automatically deny all the things the religious claim as gods inventions (which is a huge presumtion on their part). BOLLOCKS!! I do not believe in a god but I do think marriage is good, that i should deal with other people fairly etc. no god is required to reach these conclusions only empathy. Thanks to religious propaganda and humans seeming need to put things in boxes an instant picture of someone pops up the minute you declare any affiliation.
As an Australian I am very happy my elected leader does not consult a religion to help with decisions

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It’s sad for America, however.

A man with critical reasoning, and a scientific and logical mind (AKA, Atheist) are the most qualified for the position.

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The United States is a corporate government, by the corporations, for the corporations. We the people are just workers & taxpayers. Democracy? Try Capitalistic Corporatism! Isn’t religion & corporatism all about control & profits? No tolerence for atheists in a system like this.

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