But try running for public office as a nonbeliever. I found this quote on some blog, with no source given, but it reproduces what I remember reading in the NYT a couple of years ago:
In 1999 Americans were asked whether they would vote for a woman as president, 92% said yes. This is up from 76% in 1978. Other forms of "Presidential discrimination" has decreased it seems: as 95 percent of Americans said they would vote for a Black person, 92 % for a Jew, and 59 % would vote for homosexual president. How many would vote for an atheist? Only 49% said they would vote for a person who did not believe in God.
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This sounds about right to me.
Despite continued racism and all that follows from it, I believe it would be easier for a Black person to be elected President than an *out-of-the-closet* secularist of any ethnicity (or, race, if you prefer).
Colin Powell or, even better, given the state of politics in the US, a beloved celebrity like Denzel Washington, would probably attract a great deal of positive notice from a cross-section of Americans (which would be both a good and bad thing all things considered). But if the Hollywood groomed Mr. Washington said on Leno one night *you know, I really don't believe in God* it would surely mean the end of his political career on the larger stage.
Secularism is not very popular with most people it seems.
I was forced to acknowledge this after receiving what seemed like a million *try it, it works* emails over the years from friends and acquaintances urging me to pass along a chain letter, pray to some saint or recite a canned prayer to improve everything from my bank account balance to my romantic prospects (the two most popular subjects apparently).
Even people who doubt the existence of a paternal, creator-father-sky-god tend to give a more than fair hearing to these *spiritually* themed ideas.
...
Just last week, to my great dismay, a good friend called to ask me for my opinion regarding the *Bible code*. Of course, it's yet another story about a group of Priests / Ministers / Rabbis / Seers, etc who, using computers (more and more prominent in spiritualism related stories these days), have been able to decipher a *code* left for us mortals by the almighty in the text of the Old Testament. He was concerned that this might be true and the predicted catastrophes (the usual fare of wars, earthquakes, world government, cats and dogs living together and so on) would come to pass on prophesied schedule.
This fellow doesn't believe in god as typically presented. Even so, he was sufficiently shaken by this Bible code idea to seek me out for a corrective chat. He is, you can say, in a ready state to accept such ideas. For every one debunked, another is waiting backstage.
There are many people - not really church goers or traditional believers - who drift about in this way, not really armed with the tools to parse various wooozy notions.
I once believed that a solid education in the scientific method all throughout everyone's school career would do the trick but now I'm not so sure.
DRM