In honor of Presidents’ Day, I am posting a list of our Presidents and their religions, courtesy of Factmonster.comQuestion: what do we have to do to get an Atheist elected president? Do we need one? Is it a valid belief that America needs a nonreligious president, or do we really just need a more powerful voting bloc?
1. Washington – Episcopalian2. J. Adams -Unitarian 3. Jefferson- Deist 4. Madison -Episcopalian 5. Monroe -Episcopalian 6. J. Q. Adams -Unitarian 7. Jackson -Presbyterian 8. Van Buren -Reformed Dutch9. W. H. Harrison -Episcopalian 10. Tyler -Episcopalian 11. Polk -Methodist 12. Taylor -Episcopalian 13. Fillmore -Unitarian 14. Pierce -Episcopalian 15. Buchanan -Presbyterian 16. Lincoln -Liberal 17. A. Johnson – unchurched18. Grant -Methodist 19. Hayes -Methodist 20. Garfield- Disciples of Christ 21. Arthur -Episcopalian 22. Cleveland -Presbyterian 23. B. Harrison- Presbyterian 24. Cleveland -Presbyterian 25. McKinley -Methodist 26. T. Roosevelt – Reformed Dutch 27. Taft -Unitarian 28. Wilson -Presbyterian 29. Harding- Baptist 30. Coolidge – Congregationalist 31. Hoover – Quaker 32. F. D. Roosevelt – Episcopalian 33. Truman -Baptist 34. Eisenhower – Presbyterian 35. Kennedy – Roman Catholic 36. L. B. Johnson – Disciples of Christ 37. Nixon – Quaker 38. Ford ? Episcopalian 39. Carter ? Southern Baptist 40. Reagan – Disciples of Christ 41. G.H.W. Bush ? Episcopalian 42. Clinton ? Baptist 43. G. W. Bush ? Methodist ?
And in responst to Mesoforte…
That “study” is kinda kooky on more than one level. How would you know that someone is not being prayed for, after all? I am sure that if I fell ill and was sitting in a hospital, SOMEONE would pray for me. Even if nobody prayed specifically for me– there are plenty of people offering up prayers every day for the sick, just a generic ill entity.
elliejay-
That study doesn’t seem right to me either. I’ll probably talk to my professor after class about it.
reluctantatheist-
I would have to agree that it was a placebo effect. Like I said, I’m going to talk to her on Wedensday.
The Seeker
It is ant-Christian, but it is also part of an anti-religion-forcing- itself-on-the-impressionable-minds- of-children. Its kind of giving them a break before they have to deal with and almost entirely religious society. I’m certainly glad that I didn’t have to deal with too many religious icons in my school, and I used to be Methodist. Sure, we had the fellowship of Christian athletes meeting every week, but no one worked to stop them. (BUT I was the only non-beleiver there and quiet one at that.)
Mesoforte
Go to this skeptic prayer study.
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/archives/2005/05-09-02.html
JIM
Thanks Jim.
Mesoforte:
What college/university do you attend?!? I hope it’s not a public university, when shoddy scholarship like that is tolerated…
There was ONE study that was published in a reputable medical journal about 6 (?) years ago that showed that people being anonymously prayed for by Christians had slightly better medical outcomes. I think it was Duke university that ran the study.
However, in a much larger study done more recently, data showed no difference in outcomes between people who were being prayed for and a control group who were not receiving prayers.
I wish I had those references handy.
cjn
OOPS
I should have read Jimmerone’s link. I always suspected a dodgy use of statistics in the original (called MANTRA I) study.
Bogus
cjn
I think we’ll have a black woman president before an infidel.
Tarleton State University. Its in a primarily Conservative town that is dominated by G-fearing Baptist types. Don’t worry, I’ll be rubbing this in my professor’s face on Wedensday.
Mesoforte and drchris06,
I located an article from the Washington Post from July 2005 (I clipped it out) reporting the results of the MANTRA II study which were published in the July 16 issue of The Lancet medical journal. The experiment involved 748 patients who underwent treatment at nine hospitals across the country between 1999 and 2002. The patients were divided into four groups. The first quarter had people praying for them. The second quarter received MIT therapy (music, touch, and imagining calming images). The third group received prayer and MIT, while the fourth received nothing.
At the end of the study, there was no difference among the four groups. Although there seemed to be some benefit to those receiving MIT therapy because they experienced less stress, those who had people praying for them from a distance and without their knowledge were no less likely to suffer a major complication or die.
The research was very complicated enlisting congregations of various Christian denominations, Jews, Muslims and Buddhists around the world to pray for some of the patients, giving them names, ages and descriptions of the illness.
This study really intrigued me because I couldn’t help but wonder who paid for such nonsense.
I don’t have the exact date of the article in the Washington Post, but it was in the first half of July 2005 and was written by Rob Stein.
Susan, that’s pretty cool.
Q. “When did you realize that you were God?”
A. “While praying. I realized I was talking to myself.”
–The 14th Earl of Gurney (Peter O’Toole), who has the delusion that he is Jesus Christ in The Ruling Class
Mesoforte
Check on Elizabeth Targ also. She led a prayer study in healing but Halfway through she developed a form of cancer and eventually died. She was very well known ffor her prayer beliefs. And was very well liked. She just happened to be out of luck when it came to her own life.
Thanks Susan and Jim, I’ll really have something to show my teaher that she’s wrong.
I located an article from the Washington Post from July 2005 (I clipped it out) reporting the results of the MANTRA II study which were published in the July 16 issue of The Lancet medical journal.
This study really intrigued me because I couldn’t help but wonder who paid for such nonsense.
I don’t have the exact date of the article in the Washington Post, but it was in the first half of July 2005 and was written by Rob Stein.
______________________
Susan,
I checked a newspaper database and was unable to locate the article in the Washington Post.
However, to answer your question, I was able to find out from another source that the study was done by a professor of cardiology named Mitchell W. Krucoff, MD, at Duke University. That’s where J.B. Rhine did his telepathy studies back in the 1950’s.
Lee
leestein,
The article is available at NewsLibrary.com
It was published in The Washington Post on July 15, 2005. I found it on that website by searching for “Praying for sick strangers” (quotes required) in The Washington Post during the month of July 2005.
http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives
leestein,
The article notes that Mitchell Krucoff of Duke University and his colleagues designed the study. My question: Was it funded by a government grant?
My question: Was it funded by a government grant?
__________________________
Susan,
As far as I can tell, it was funded by the Medtronic Foundation. Medtronic has just given Duke a further 1.000,000 grant for health-related research.
Thanks for the cite. Don’t know why it didn’t come up on the National Newspaper Index.
Lee
A. Johnson was unchurched. What does that mean?
That means he has no religion but he just believes in GOD… u know why? because GOD exists!!!
gahh stupid atheists, don’t u know that without our christian forefathers who created the laws there is no AMERICA, and maybe no one knows the simple “wrongs and right” (examples like it is bad so kill someone or hurt someone). Don’t you think that AMERICA would be chaotic without the things that the Americans did in the past? Actually christianity was the simple foundation to make america’s orderliness back in time…
ughh, think about it
The president next in the list IS A CHRISTIAN!!! blind atheists!!! =P
ok may i correct myself.. our forefathers set a strong foundation for America…yeah ok some of them were Deists , but still they know there is a god…
Hey, I believe a God could have created say the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago to start the evolution, but it’s definitely not the God in the few religions I read. Anyone who can’t see it’s myth, is someone I don’t truly respect. I don’t see any higher being getting involved either good (The Pope was Catholic so why do good as he was suffering- the Catholic faith certainly can’t be right) or bad (the Hitler’s etc.). In my view it’s obvious religion was created to force people to become better and stronger people. Also, I certainly don’t respect the God in the bible I see. Any person who respects discrimination, hate, rape, spite and murder, etc. in a person (whether they created the world or not) or higher being they look up to, needs lots of help. Good people reject evil people (if I create a baby can I kill it because I created it?- No, but lots of religious people respect that their god can- murder is murder, right?) whether they are more powerful or not. I think religious people tend to be selfish in lots of ways (go to church out of being afraid and for getting something out of it). And none of us are any God, so how can we pretend we are, and pretend we know which religion is right, and then accept one religion over all the others, and then discriminate and hate all the others of a different faith or no faith. … Well, I love any higher beings and people with a mind, and real values… I’m not even certain if there is or isn’t a God. I don’t really care though. But I certainly respect atheists more since they don’t tell people they are going to hell if they don’t believe in their views. And they don’t force their beliefs onto others, and they are more able to use common sense, logic and facts, instead of sticking their heads in the sand.
Hello Fellow Atheists,
I am new here, my name is Larry Freeman.
The following is what we have to deal with due to having religious presidents sitting in office.
I hope that one day we will have an Atheist as president, I am going to what I can to help this come about.
I have been watching the news lately and have been alarmed at some
things that the religious fanatics in this nation have gotten
accomplished.
In the state of South Dakota they have gotten an almost total ban on
abortion, no matter if rape, incest, or whatever is involved, the
only reason that an abortion can be performed is if the mother is in
danger of dying, and then they have to attempt to save the baby.
Also here in the state of Gerogia, they have gotten a bill past that
will allow creationism and the bible to be taught in the schools,
right now it is an elective course, but they have an eye on making
it mandatory in the future.
I beieve that it is time for us to start speaking with our votes,
and to get people that are Atheist like us to start speaking with
their votes also and throw these fanatics out of office.
According to research that has been conducted by Atheist groups and
organizations there are just about as many Athiests as there are
Christians in the world, and it is time to halt their attempts at
forcing there twisted values on the rest of us.
They have been doing this for over 2 thousand years now, and it is
time that we put a stop once and for all, through leagal means.
All I am saying here is that we must do something.
Larry Freeman a Fellow Atheist.