Poll: Religiosity in Politics

[Exaltist Ethan]

Religion for Breakfast just published a video on YouTube detailing some statistics on religious affiliation in the national United States congress. If you want to watch the video it will be here below so you can see it.

Apparently there are three major outliners in religious affiliation: Muslims, atheists and Mormons. People are less likely to vote for a candidate who is one of those three. They rate those groups poorer than others.

I'm just going to get this out of the way so people know where I stand on this issue. Pretty much every member of Earthseed is a Democrat. If it were some Earthseed progressive Democrat vs a staunch fundamentalist Christian Republican, I would still vote for the Republican, but I would not donate to the Republican's fundraisers. On the other hand, if it were both Earthseed and Republican, then I would donate, get involved and vote for that person too.

Ultimately who I vote for is mostly determined by political party, as I don't vote in primaries very often. The last primary I voted in was 2016 Republican Presidential primary and I chose John Kasich for President in that primary. Of course, I didn't get my way, and Trump won anyways, so I voted Libertarian Party for President instead now, even though I realize that the Libertarian Party is just full of crazy anarchist radicals.

I think a lot of people are going to say not important at all, but I don't believe that is entirely true for most people. Most people want to be represented by someone in their own religion, or at least someone who overall religious world view is close to their own. I intend on answering this poll with "Little importance". If it were a Christian Republican vs a Earthseed Republican, unless I personally knew the Christian Republican my vote would go towards the Earthseed Republican, so it does have some vague importance to me.

And I know John Kasich is a staunch Christian, but Earthseed is so small that finding representation for my religious beliefs isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Note: I purposefully put this in religious debates so we can debate on how important it is that a political candidate has the same religion as your religion. Please use this space and thread to discuss religiosity in politics and how important religion is to you in politics. How important is it to you that the person you vote for has the same or similar religion as you? Please discuss this topic with us below.

 

[Viker]

If having the same or similar religious beliefs were important for me I would never get to vote at all.


If their religious beliefs are completely antithetical to my own, there's a strong chance I would vote against them.

 

[metis]

IMO, it's not at all important that they are of the same religion or denomination as I am.

 

[Secret Chief]

I don't even know the religion (if any) of the candidates I vote for.

 

[Sand Dancer]

Unless Christian of one sort or another, people can't hold their breath on finding a candidate with the same religious values as themselves. I do wish that the make up of elected officials reflected that of the country. It would be a lot nicer. Are there Buddhist candidates? Probably, but I don't know who they are. As long as the person holds centrist values, I don't give a flying flip what religion they are.

 

[JustGeorge]

If having the same or similar religious beliefs were important for me I would never get to vote at all.


If their religious beliefs are completely antithetical to my own, there's a strong chance I would vote against them.

Same.

 

[SomeRandom]

Religion for Breakfast just published a video on YouTube detailing some statistics on religious affiliation in the national United States congress. If you want to watch the video it will be here below so you can see it.

Apparently there are three major outliners in religious affiliation: Muslims, atheists and Mormons. People are less likely to vote for a candidate who is one of those three. They rate those groups poorer than others.

I'm just going to get this out of the way so people know where I stand on this issue. Pretty much every member of Earthseed is a Democrat. If it were some Earthseed progressive Democrat vs a staunch fundamentalist Christian Republican, I would still vote for the Republican, but I would not donate to the Republican's fundraisers. On the other hand, if it were both Earthseed and Republican, then I would donate, get involved and vote for that person too.

Ultimately who I vote for is mostly determined by political party, as I don't vote in primaries very often. The last primary I voted in was 2016 Republican Presidential primary and I chose John Kasich for President in that primary. Of course, I didn't get my way, and Trump won anyways, so I voted Libertarian Party for President instead now, even though I realize that the Libertarian Party is just full of crazy anarchist radicals.

I think a lot of people are going to say not important at all, but I don't believe that is entirely true for most people. Most people want to be represented by someone in their own religion, or at least someone who overall religious world view is close to their own. I intend on answering this poll with "Little importance". If it were a Christian Republican vs a Earthseed Republican, unless I personally knew the Christian Republican my vote would go towards the Earthseed Republican, so it does have some vague importance to me.

And I know John Kasich is a staunch Christian, but Earthseed is so small that finding representation for my religious beliefs isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Note: I purposefully put this in religious debates so we can debate on how important it is that a political candidate has the same religion as your religion. Please use this space and thread to discuss religiosity in politics and how important religion is to you in politics. How important is it to you that the person you vote for has the same or similar religion as you? Please discuss this topic with us below.

Born Hindu in a Western country here.
I very much doubt any of my politicians have that in common with me lol
Btw, since I’m not American, what’s a primary?

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

Btw, since I’m not American, what’s a primary?

A primary is the election before the general election. In primaries Democrats face other Democrats and Republicans face other Republicans. Typically when this is done there's caucuses that support one candidate or the other. It's because of this that I view the two party state a myth, because both Democrats have three major congressional caucuses and Republicans have two major caucuses - Democrats having progressive, centrist and conservative caucuses, Republicans having conservative and libertarian caucuses. More information here. In many ways I view the primaries just as important as the general election, if you have two or more candidates in different caucuses.

 

[Quintessence]

Somewhat to extremely important, but marked on the low end because I do not care what someone believes I care what they actually do.

Do they or don't they actually and routinely vote in support of science, education, and nature?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Note that "religious beliefs" is a pretty broad category. If your religious beliefs do not inform your socio-political attitudes, they're effectively irrelevant. Otherwise, I am very interested in how they're manifested.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I'd prefer they be like Washington and just keep that stuff to themselves.

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

I voted "somewhat important," but no doubt @Exaltist Ethan won't much like why I voted that way.

See, for me, I think religion is generally not a good thing, and I think it is an especially bad thing when it figures into the politics of making choices for a whole nation of people who are, each and every one of them, individuals.

Therefore, were I an American (fortunately for both me and America, I'm not), if I had a choice between two equally intelligent people, one committed religionist, the other an atheist, I would almost certainly mark my "X" for the atheist.

 

[Orbit]

I wouldn't vote for a theocrat; other than that it doesn't matter to me as long as they believe in separation of church and state.

 

[Altfish]

The religious beliefs of a candidate is not important UNTIL they start basing their campaign, policies and candidacy upon it.
I expect everyone to represent ALL their constituents, not just those of the same religion.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

I voted "somewhat important," but no doubt Therefore, were I an American (fortunately for both me and America, I'm not), ...

Interesting ... :D
[QUOTE="Evangelicalhumanist, post: 8049195, member: 47768"]I voted "somewhat important," but no doubt [USER=36587]..., if I had a choice between two equally intelligent people, one committed religionist, the other an atheist, I would almost certainly mark my "X" for the atheist.[/QUOTE]
More interesting, but also perhaps more worthy of concern.

There is absolutely nothing that prevents an atheist from being a right-wing chauvinist xenophobe. And I've met any number of "committed religionists" with a strong commitment to human rights. The picture that comes to mind is that of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching with Reverend Martin Luther King.

You might wish to reconsider your presumptions concerning "committed religionists."[/user]

 

[Heyo]

Religion for Breakfast just published a video on YouTube detailing some statistics on religious affiliation in the national United States congress. If you want to watch the video it will be here below so you can see it.

Apparently there are three major outliners in religious affiliation: Muslims, atheists and Mormons. People are less likely to vote for a candidate who is one of those three. They rate those groups poorer than others.

I'm just going to get this out of the way so people know where I stand on this issue. Pretty much every member of Earthseed is a Democrat. If it were some Earthseed progressive Democrat vs a staunch fundamentalist Christian Republican, I would still vote for the Republican, but I would not donate to the Republican's fundraisers. On the other hand, if it were both Earthseed and Republican, then I would donate, get involved and vote for that person too.

Ultimately who I vote for is mostly determined by political party, as I don't vote in primaries very often. The last primary I voted in was 2016 Republican Presidential primary and I chose John Kasich for President in that primary. Of course, I didn't get my way, and Trump won anyways, so I voted Libertarian Party for President instead now, even though I realize that the Libertarian Party is just full of crazy anarchist radicals.

I think a lot of people are going to say not important at all, but I don't believe that is entirely true for most people. Most people want to be represented by someone in their own religion, or at least someone who overall religious world view is close to their own. I intend on answering this poll with "Little importance". If it were a Christian Republican vs a Earthseed Republican, unless I personally knew the Christian Republican my vote would go towards the Earthseed Republican, so it does have some vague importance to me.

And I know John Kasich is a staunch Christian, but Earthseed is so small that finding representation for my religious beliefs isn't going to happen anytime soon.

Note: I purposefully put this in religious debates so we can debate on how important it is that a political candidate has the same religion as your religion. Please use this space and thread to discuss religiosity in politics and how important religion is to you in politics. How important is it to you that the person you vote for has the same or similar religion as you? Please discuss this topic with us below.

I voted "vaguely important" but it's more complicated. I don't care what someone believes, I care how that influences their policies. If I know that someone is religious, I'm less likely to vote for them (because they thought it important to mention and therefore might influence their policies).

 

[Evangelicalhumanist]

Interesting ... :D
[USER=36587]
More interesting, but also perhaps more worthy of concern.

There is absolutely nothing that prevents an atheist from being a right-wing chauvinist xenophobe. And I've met any number of "committed religionists" with a strong commitment to human rights. The picture that comes to mind is that of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel marching with Reverend Martin Luther King.

You might wish to reconsider your presumptions concerning "committed religionists."[/user]

There's nothing new to me in what you write, but the question in the OP was a generalized one, and that requires a generalized answer.

What, in your opinion, is the primary driving force behind forcing females to cover themselves head-to-toe, not to be able to drive or go out in public without a male relative? What is the primary driving force behind denying women reproductive choice (both abortion and -- often -- contraception)? What is the primary driving force behind the demonization of LGBTQ+ folks? None of these are things that atheists typically bother with (yes, yes, I know some atheists bigots, but not many).

 

[Kenny]

It isn't so much that a representative has to have the same faith, but faith does play into it for me.

As an example, if there is an atheist that has a background of "cancel God" vs a person of faith, I would definitely take that into account because if he is in charge, he would vote against people of faith.

Now, if I had two atheists running for the same position, I would pick the best of the two.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

There's nothing new to me in what you write, but the question in the OP was a generalized one, and that requires a generalized answer.

And your generalization struck me as a bigoted view "committed religionists" (whatever that might be). Sorry if I got it wrong.

What, in your opinion, is the primary driving force behind forcing females to cover themselves head-to-toe, not to be able to drive or go out in public without a male relative? What is the primary driving force behind denying women reproductive choice (both abortion and -- often -- contraception)? What is the primary driving force behind the demonization of LGBTQ+ folks? None of these are things that atheists typically bother with (yes, yes, I know some atheists bigots, but not many).

Ignorance.

 

[Exaltist Ethan]

I voted "somewhat important," but no doubt @Exaltist Ethan won't much like why I voted that way.

Let's hear it.

See, for me, I think religion is generally not a good thing, and I think it is an especially bad thing when it figures into the politics of making choices for a whole nation of people who are, each and every one of them, individuals.

Therefore, were I an American (fortunately for both me and America, I'm not), if I had a choice between two equally intelligent people, one committed religionist, the other an atheist, I would almost certainly mark my "X" for the atheist.

This is exactly how I thought when I was answering this question, just replace atheist with Earthseed. I actually really like the fact that you answered it like this, because I thought most people would answer differently, and not understand the initial point I was trying to get across, but you did, and I thank you for that.

I would also like to note that I answered "little importance" rather than more importance because Earthseed principles won't take root until much later and having cosmism as a theological belief and how that will ultimately shape political belief won't occur until centuries after I'm dead. If this were a few centuries later and there was a politician that was openly against cosmist principles, Democrat or Republican I wouldn't vote for him. The fact that it was Trump that started the Space Force almost made me want to vote for him in fact during his run for second term.