Survey: Atheists still the least popular for U.S. political office

Just in case it hadn’t been hammered home yet that the very existence of godless folk is offensive to a vast swath of the American populace, here’s Gallup with their latest sobering poll:

Transcript: (click the [+/-] to open/close →)

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Between now and the 2012 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates -- their education, age, religion, race, and so on. If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be ______, would you vote for that person?
	Yes, would	No, would not
	%	%
Black	96	4
A woman	95	5
Catholic	94	5
Hispanic	92	7
Jewish	91	6
Mormon	80	18
Gay or lesbian	68	30
Muslim	58	40
An atheist	54	43
Gallup, June 7-10, 2012

These findings are reminiscent to previous surveys that found the vast majority of the American voting public have varying levels of discomfort with the very idea of electing an atheist to office (with Islamophobia in close second). It’s anyone’s guess how long it will take before those numbers reach approximately 100% for “Yes” across the board, regardless of a potential candidate’s given physical and ideological traits. It’s the actions that matter, not beliefs, and even then, only the actions that are limited to defining one’s capacity as an elected representative or leader.

If anything, I’m just surprised there are even 4-5% who are willing to admit that they wouldn’t vote for a candidate on the sole grounds of them being female or having darker skin. The ensuing realization that survey responses are inherently biased towards liberal results, given people’s reticence to admit to their own prejudices, makes one wonder about how open-minded and free our society really is.

Tags: Gallup • atheists • Muslims