Six in 10 Americans less likely to vote for an atheist

June 10, 2011 | Filed under: US,US Politics,Views | Posted by:

Atheists are still widely discriminated against in the voting booth, a new study from the Pew Research Center confirms. The national survey asked whether certain traits would make those polled more or less likely to vote for a candidate for president, and by far, the trait with the most negative response (61%) was lack of belief in a god.

More Americans are willing to vote for a candidate who is gay, Mormon, or divorced, or who had an extramarital affair or used marijuana than they would someone who simply has no belief in supernatural entities. Clearly, we still have a long road ahead of us toward fostering greater acceptance of nontheists in society.

A related poll by Gallup this week reiterated how outnumbered nontheists are in the overall population: more than 9 in 10 Americans say they believe in god, a figure that’s been relatively constant since the 1940s, though the actual breakdown (91% believe in god, 8% do not) suggests a slight increase in the number of Americans who lack belief — or, at the very least, are willing to admit so in a poll. (Belief in god drops further, to 80 percent, when those polled are given the alternative option of saying they believe in a “universal spirit.”)

According to Gallup:

Belief in God drops below 90% among younger Americans, liberals, those living in the East, those with postgraduate educations, and political independents. However, belief in God is nearly universal among Republicans and conservatives and, to a slightly lesser degree, in the South.

How will these personal beliefs affect the way people vote? According to Pew, 33% of Americans said a candidate’s atheism made “no difference” to them, so clearly there are many believers willing to vote for non-believers. Atheists may be a minority, but we’re still a part of America’s cultural fabric, and we shouldn’t be flat-out rejected by the majority simply because we affiliate with a different set of beliefs that do not necessarily translate into political views.

If there is a sign of hope in either of these polls, it’s the fact that Americans are overwhelmingly willing to vote for members of other minority groups — including blacks, Hispanics, gays and Mormons — to which they may not belong. I’d like to think that’s because our fellow citizens know it’s wrong to judge someone solely on a label, and because they understand that within those groups, there is still a wide and diverse range of positions on the policy issues that should matter most when choosing a candidate.

I just wish they would realize the same is true for atheists.

Note: There is already one 2012 campaign that is shaping up to judge whether an openly atheist candidate can earn the support of theistic voters: Cecil Bothwell, an atheist, has announced his intention to run against U.S. Rep. Heath Shuler (D) in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District.

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7 Responses to Six in 10 Americans less likely to vote for an atheist

  1. avatar exbrit69 June 11, 2011 - 7:39 pm

    Probably governments encourage beliefs in that rubbish so that they can have a little more control over the sheeple. If they cannot scare them with the threat of prison they will try with the threat of hell.

    Reply
  2. avatar sbj1964 June 12, 2011 - 8:27 am

    Yes as Atheist we have a long way to go,but we have also come a long way least we forget. America is shaping up to be one of the last holdouts for people of faith around the world. Now most of Europe is quickly becoming more secular,and the power of churches are in decline around the world according to a recent BBC poll.

    Reply

  3. Pingback: USA: pregiudizio verso gli atei - UAAR Ultimissime

  4. avatar Julianne Fitzmartin June 13, 2011 - 10:50 pm

    “more than 9 in 10 Americans say they believe in god, a figure that’s been relatively constant since the 1940s, though the actual breakdown (91% believe in god, 8% do not)”

    @Mike – I am a bit hazy on the numbers quoted by you.
    According to The Religious Landscape Survey – Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. 2007 (referenced by the wikipedia article on USA), 16.1% of Americans described themselves as agnostic, atheist, or simply having no religion, up from 8.2% in 1990.

    A similar shift of non-religious to around 15% that happened in the 1990s is also noted in some other news articles, like this one.

    Reply
    • avatar Mike Daniels June 13, 2011 - 10:53 pm

      Julianne, I think part of the problem is that "no religion" does not mean "does not believe in god(s)", depending on how "god" is defined. The "higher power" set might say they are of "no religion", yet still say they believe in "a god".

      Reply
  5. avatar Staks June 16, 2011 - 8:52 am

    I'm calling bullshit on this survey and I think we as members of the greater community of reason have to stop buying into this bullshit. I think we can work together to support atheist candidates around the nation from school board to congress and maybe even senate at some point. We need to support Cecil Bothwell in his primary race. In politics, money talks and we need to help raise him some money even if you are not in his district. I have written several blogs about this in the last week or so and I will continue to do more. We have to end this meme that atheists are unelectable. All we have to do is convince ourselves that it isn't true and it won't be.

    Reply
  6. avatar edwords June 22, 2011 - 8:00 pm

    The poll question should be, "Do you believe in a god who hears your prayers?"

    Simple, and to the point!

    Reply

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