How long will it be until an openly atheist politician is elected to the U.S. congress?

[More Than A Feeling]

It would certainly be a milestone.

[Colobo]

1. Good question

This proud agnostic hopes it happens soon.

[Hissyspit]

2. Speaking as an atheist... Probably when Hell freezes over.

[cosmik debris]

13. That was my first thought too, then I realized

that I don't believe in hell. But I guess that doesn't make any difference.

[eallen]

3. We had an atheist Supreme Court justice, but I doubt even that would be possible today.

:grr:

[More Than A Feeling]

6. Who?

[eallen]

9. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

[eallen]

10. Who also was an atheist in a fox hole...

The Civil war began when he was a senior in college. He joined the Massachusetts militia, saw significant action, and was wounded at Antietam and Fredericksburg, once being shot in the neck and mistaken for dead. He lived to be 94. He was appointed to the court by Teddy Roosevelt. Interesting fellow.

[Drum]

4. I'd just like them to govern well.

For all I care, they can keep their religious affiliations or atheism personal and to themselves, which is a right that I expect for myself.

[LostInAnomie]

5. Depending on the district, one could get elected at any time.

Sadly, an open atheist would have a problem finding other pols to caucus with, and would have a hard time gaining any real political influence.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. I suspect there will be a backlash against the religious zealotry

in politics we see today, and part of that backlash will be the election of an openly atheistic congressman within 20 years.

I also suspect he will be assassinated by some holy warrior before his term is out.

[PFunk]

11. I agree.

Already many young people have a bad taste for religion thanks to the fundy idiots from all branches (primarly christan, jewish, and muslum).

[RufusTFirefly]

8. We already have a socialist senator

It may happen sooner than you think.
(Even so, I voted for within the decade.)

[moobu2]

12. I’m sure many already have been.

I think it will take some major catastrophe brought on by religion (I. e. the holocaust), before enough people here will turn away from it, so that a candidate could publicly announce their atheism, and still be elected. But I just cant believe that so many highly educated people have all been so ignorant and superstitious. They just cant say anything about it publicly.

[Boojatta]

14. Can you explain that?

some major catastrophe brought on by religion (I. e. the holocaust)

Wasn't the good Christian/ bad Jew distinction set up to distinguish between what was originally a small splinter sect that could have been classified as a denomination of Judaism? Isn't it clear that Saul who became Paul was a Jew before he was a Christian? Was Saul who became Paul described in very clear terms as being of non-Jewish ethnicity and does the New Testament also assert that this is very important information?

Do you have any evidence to suggest that the holocaust was an attempt to kill people based on their religion and not based on their ethnicity? If you do have such evidence, then do you also think that all efforts to convert people to Christianity have been undertaken in direct violation of the teachings of the New Testament?

Also, would you say that someone who has read the entire New Testament and reflected upon its meaning would take mass killing of ordinary civilians based on nothing but their religion to be fully consistent with the spirit of the New Testament? For example, where did Christians come from if the penalty for being a non-Christian was to be death?