Atheists and Muslims need not apply for President

On one hand, the findings of this poll, if they are to be believed, are bothersome.  It's not good that in America, we would judge a person just because of their beliefs, one way or another.  Though I partly fault the back-and-forth between the religious right and the secular liberal media.  As ostracizing of traditional religious (read: Christian) values in our country has caused a movement to form in protest (the religious right), the media has turned this into a liability for many candidates.  How many times in the last 10 years have we seen a politician's Christian beliefs scrutinized by the media, as if merely being a devout Christian should somehow preclude you from running for office?

Since most Americans still identify, in some way or another, as Christian, it's not hard to see why this would breed a tendency to look toward belief has a fundamental characteristic of a candidate, especially if the candidate holds beliefs not scrutinized in the same way by the MSM.  Thus we have this, where Christians and those close to the Christian faith come off fairly well in a poll.  Still, it isn't encouraging, and I'd be happy if the idea of religion could be private once again, and that includes private both ways - not just telling Christians to sit down and shut up while folks with non-Christian beliefs can parade them proudly, but keeping all such things to a personal level, and respecting those of differing beliefs and what they bring to the table.

But that's not where things are.  That's the first thing I come from this poll thinking. The second, however, is that if any groups are going to fail, it's not illogical that it would be these groups.  First, the Muslims.  I think it's foolish to imagine that simply because a person is a Muslim, they represent a threat to our freedoms.  That's foolish, and demonstrably false. 

With that said, however, the attitudes and responses to America by Muslims since 9/11 has been, at times, confusing at best.  It took years before Muslim representatives would, on national TV, actually condemn the terrorist attacks outright and without qualifications.  Even then, many continue to dangle old, lame notions that 'it's the Crusader's fault', or 'Christians nuked babies in Japan' as if that somehow reduces blame on the terrorists.  In addition, many Muslims who speak and talk about the topic, tend to wrap it up with 'it's still America's fault' or 'real Muslims never do wrong, so you can't blame Islam', ideals not usually accepted when Christians or other groups attempt the same line of arguments. 

In addition to these tendencies, you have that Islamic characteristic of not looking like the browbeat Christians of America.  More than once, a Muslim will draw stark lines between modern new-age sensitivities and the absolute confessional truths of Islam in a way that, were it a Christian doing the same, he would be lumped into the category of 'right wing fundamentalist fringe.' 

And then, beyond all that, you have Muslims who seem to want to focus on the worst that America has done, which has been, on the whole, very little.  Some vandalism.  Some threats.  In the early days following 9/11, some reprisals and even a few assaults.  But as of now, more Americans have been killed on American soil by Muslims than Muslims on American soil by Americans.  In fact, despite the media narrative, there have been relatively few - proportionally speaking - reprisals against Muslims since 9/11.  And  yet, to hear far too many Muslims speak, we are a nation of ignorant bigots and racists, loping about and looking for innocent Muslims to slaughter by the millions.  Somehow people who seem to want to focus on the minor to non-existent, while appearing reluctant to give credit where it is due, can unnerve people.  These things probably account for the Muslim side of the poll.  Plus, of course, you have some Americans who are just bigots, and wouldn't vote for a Muslim if none of the things previously mentioned had occurred.

Now, the atheists.  That's far less difficult to understand.  Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, the late Christopher Hitchens, P.Z. Myers, Bill Maher - as long as they are the darlings of modern atheism, don't expect the religiously oriented American public to vote yes in November.  In our world, where higher education is secular progressive, and our media outlets are not far behind the same path, these individuals are praised, lauded, celebrated, and rewarded.  If you took their same statements and tweaked them so that Christians said the same thing, they would be condemned, mocked, loathed, and cut off from mainstream debate. 

Their attitudes are based on half-truths, no truths, and an exploitation of a lazy and intellectually floundering generation.  They use bigotry and ignorance to paint ludicrous and simplistic pictures of reality, while meandering about levels of extremism that, if they were in the religious camp, would be somewhere between radical fundamentalist and Fred Phelps.  Logic and common sense should shoot holes in their hatred of religion, and yet the industries that should hold them at bay - education and media - are more than happy to help and reward accordingly.

Still, even though they are beloved of our universities and news outlets, most Americans are, rightly so, suspicious of individuals who more or less say that they are the true intellectual mater race, superior in thought to religious dolts, and religion, being the singular cause of evil in the world, needs wiped off the planet so that humanity may thrive.  Their twisted logic used to support such demonstrably false notions is the stuff of legend, and yet it gets a pass every time.  At least it does with our elites.  With the average thinking American, not so much.  Even a few atheists cringe at what they see representing atheism in our post-modern age.  Unfortunately, those atheists who attempt to distance themselves are not enough, and thinking Americans are not going to vote for someone from a camp that seems to appreciate the idea that religion is a stupid and evil lie that needs eradicated from open society.  Until new spokespeople for atheism emerge, I don't see this changing any time soon.  And that's a good thing.