Mitt Romney and Mormonism

[Moonliner]

So the general consensus seems to be that organized religions all have their skeletons in the closet. Some more than others.

Would you support an atheist for President of the United States?

[mousepod]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Would you support an atheist for President of the United States?

Like iSm, I have a laundry list of qualities that I look for in a candidate, and their religious beliefs are waaay down on that list. Having said that, a candidate who chooses to incorporate his or her beliefs into the way they run the government as opposed to informing the way they think (splitting hairs, I know, but still... ), frightens me. Since an atheist wouldn't be saddled with any tricky religious dogma, it's just one less thing to worry about. It wouldn't be a deciding factor, but it certainly would enhance the candidate rather than detract from him or her.

[SacTown Chronic]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

Would you support an atheist for President of the United States?

With everything else being equal between two candidates, I would vote for the atheist every time. Every time.

[NirvanaMan]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

So the general consensus seems to be that organized religions all have their skeletons in the closet. Some more than others.

Would you support an atheist for President of the United States?

All else being equal, abso-freakin-lutely. I am in the minority here, by a considerable margin, but that's ok. If issues and all else put two candidates on a level playing field, the atheist would easily get my vote.

What concerned me about listening to Mitt this morning was not that he was a Mormon, but how religion would clearly define him and his decisions. He was careful to say that his personal religious beliefs would not guide his policy (hard to believe, but I'll take it on it's face for the sake of argument) but that belief in a "creator" would certainly define his administration. Not that this would technically be different than many if not all that preceded him, but he seemed far more adamant about it than is typically discussed from mainstream candidates and I have to admit frankly that it scared me a little.

[Morrigoon]

Originally Posted by Moonliner

So the general consensus seems to be that organized religions all have their skeletons in the closet. Some more than others.

Would you support an atheist for President of the United States?

Interesting question. Actually, if someone was a declared atheist, probably not. But that's because I've known too many proselytizing atheists who push their religion of non-religion on people. In other words, even atheism has its orthodox practitioners.

Now, would I vote for someone who didn't declare a particular preference for any specific set of beliefs but claimed they were at least spiritual, or who owned up to being a very casual practitioner of whatever their religion was? Hell yeah.

edit: how the hell did I end up putting a flamingo in this post? Bizarre. But cool. I think I'll leave it.