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Will we ever have an atheist president? Why or why not?
In short, yes.
We already have, of course, though my confidence depends on how one defines the term. Thomas Jefferson, our third, was dubbed an atheist by some of his critics, and it’s doubtful his deist theology would cut the mustard among the Tony Perkins Kulturkampf set of the modern era. I’d say yes, too, for the more general proposition, just as we have a black president, and will eventually have a woman POTUS (perhaps even as early as Jan 2017).
How long it will take for a self-identified, outspoken atheist to get elected is harder to say, but the swing in public perception on LBGTQ, among other things, suggests that the issue is very much open to change.
