STRIKING FACTS
A February 9 thru 11, 2007, USA Today/Gallup Poll revealed that only 45 percent of Americans would be willing to vote for "a generally well-qualified" atheist candidate for president from their own party. Moreover, fewer people would be willing to vote for an atheist than for a person having any of the other characteristics evaluated: Catholic, black, Jewish, a woman, Hispanic, Mormon, married for the third time, 72 years of age, homosexual-in the order of most favorable to least favorable (http://www.galluppoll.com/content/default.aspx?ci=26611&pg=1).
As many as 54 percent of Americans say that atheists don't share their vision of American society. This figure represents the highest percentage of rejection for any religious category (http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2004/04/27/9453#repeat).
Yet nonreligious people often rate high in "traditional values" issues that are important to many Americans. For example, compared to Jews, born-again Christians, and other Christians, atheists and agnostics have the lowest divorce rates. (From the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Health.)
Discrimination against nontheists in government appointments is illegal. Article VI, section 3, of the U.S. Constitution states that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Yet this nondiscriminatory spirit in the highest law of the land isn't shared by a majority of the voting public.
Given these facts, it is less surprising that there have been no openly nontheistic presidents or members of Congress in history (until now).
But how many Americans are nontheistic or at least nonreligious? According to one study, approximately 13 percent of the population identify themselves as nonreligious/secular. This figure has grown over 100 percent since 1990 and represents approximately 30 million people (http://pewforum.org/publications/reports/poll2002.pdf).
