For decades now, the Gallup polling organization
has been asking voters a question when it comes time for presidential elections.
They basically say, you know, if there was someone in your political party,
who was a blank,
would you vote for them?
You know, all other things considered, would you vote for them?
And, you know, near the top of the list, if they were a female, would you vote for them?
Yeah, now most people would have no problem voting for a qualified female for office.
What about if they were African-American? Yeah, no problem whatsoever.
And every time they've run this poll, it's been going on for like over 50 years now,
guess who's at the bottom of the list.
The trait that would make people least likely to vote for you
is if you're an atheist.
And in 2012, the last time we had a presidential election,
atheism was at the bottom of the list. Only 54% of Americans
said they would be willing to vote for a qualified atheist from their own party
if he or she were running for office.
And, by the way, that was actually a cause for celebration, because it was the first time ever
that more than half the people surveyed said they would be willing to vote for an atheist.
Last week, the Pew Research Center began asking their own version of this question.
They asked, you know, if a presidential candidate
was one of the following things,
would it make you more likely to vote for that person, or less likely to vote for that person?
And once again,
guess who had it the worst off?
It turns out if you're an atheist,
53% of the people they surveyed said they would be less likely to vote for you,
if you're an atheist.
Only 5% of people said: "Oh, they're an atheist? I am more likely
to vote for that person.
And everyone else was indifferent about it.
The same survey, by the way,
also said that having an affair
would be a better quality to have in a politician than being an atheist.
You would have an easier time getting elected if you had an affair.
You would have an easier time getting elected
if you have never held political office in the past.
That's how bad it is to be an atheist
who's running for public office.
But that's not even the kicker, that's not even the worst part of the survey. Get this:
They broke down the results
into people of differing beliefs.
So, when they asked people who are religiously unaffiliated,
so atheists, agnostics, people who may believe in God, but don't have any religious label,
when they asked that group of people:
would you be likely to vote for an atheist? Would you be more likely or less likely?
24% of the nones said:
"No, I'm less likely to vote for someone if he or she were an atheist."
Can you believe that? Meanwhile,
evangelical Christians
are overwhelmingly likely to support a fellow evangelical Christian running for office.
Only 12% of the unaffiliated voters said they would be more likely to vote for another atheist.
Meanwhile, 58% of evangelical Christians
said: "Oh yeah, I'll vote for another evangelical Christian."
"It would make me more likely to vote for them if I knew that they were religious like me."
You know, it's hard for an atheist to run for public office
when even other atheists aren't necessarily going to vote for you.
And I would like to say
that, you know what? That's a good thing.
It shows that we're independent thinkers. We're not just going to vote for someone
because they believe or don't believe the same things we do. We're looking at all these other factors,
and that makes us better educated voters. And wouldn't it be great if all voters were like that?
Unfortunately,
that's not what a lot of religious groups are doing. That's not what a lot of religious people are doing.
They're saying: "You show me your label; I'll show you my vote."
And unfortunately, that means those religious groups are a much more powerful voting bloc than we are.
That's why you have so many politicians, who are willing to pander to religious crowds,
spout off random bible verses,
because they know that's going to have more of an influence on whether voters will vote for them,
than, you know, sharing their stances on the real issues that matter.
There's a lot more of them.
There's a lot more religious voters out there,
and they're much more willing to support the people who share their views on God.
You know, if there's one silver lining to this whole pew study,
it's that 64% of people who are unaffiliated said
they don't care
if the person that they want to vote for is religious or not religious. They don't care if that person is an atheist.
And that means-- That's good. I mean, that would matter more if there were more unaffiliated voters out there.
But it means, you know, what if you're an atheist running for office?
Why bother holding it back? The odds are already against you. You already have an uphill battle here.
So, why not just admit you're an atheist?
You're probably not going to win anyway.
And along the way, in admitting that you don't believe in God,
maybe you're cracking that glass ceiling a little bit along the way.
So, that makes it a little easier for the next politician to come along
say: "I don't believe in God"
and still have that not ruin their chance of getting elected.
My name is Hemant Mehta and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com.
Please, leave a comment below and we will check them out.