Opinion: It’s time for us to have an unapologetic atheist in the Oval Office
By Max Boot Max Boot Columnist covering national security Email Bio Follow Columnist May 8 at 3:11 PM Among the 21 candidates seeking the Democratic nomination, virtually every ethnic, religious and sexual identity is represented. There’s a gay man, six women, three African Americans, a Chinese American, multiple Catholics and Protestants, even a Hindu. But there is one conspicuous absence: Not a single candidate publicly identifies as an atheist.
Yet people who profess no religious identity are one of the largest and fastest-growing demographic groups in the United States. According to the Pew Research Center, 22.8 percent of Americans are “nones,” slightly fewer than the number of evangelical Protestants and slightly more than Catholics . No other religious identification comes close. Of course, not all “nones” are atheists; Pew found that 27 percent of them believe in God.
There are too many examples of evil committed in the name of God to assume that people act morally because they are afraid of divine punishment. More likely, people are social animals who develop moral codes so they can live at peace with their neighbors. That’s why almost all societies, whether religious or not, have similar taboos against murder, robbery, rape and other sins.
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