I don't get why people say President Obama is really an atheist.

[hrmjustin]

There is no reason to assume he is lying about this at all. I find it ridiculous and insulting that they say he is lying about his faith.

[Arkansas Granny]

1. Many believe that calling someone an atheist is the worst slur you can make about their character.

They really feel that atheist are the worst people that inhabit our planet.

Google "atheists are worse than" and you might be surprised at some of the answers.

[hrmjustin]

2. I agree with you but the question is why do they assumehe is lying about his faith?

[Arkansas Granny]

3. I can't answer that one. Maybe because he was active in church before he was elected,

but, apparently, has no church affiliation now. I don't keep track of such things, but I don't recall seeing any mention of him attending services anywhere. Just a guess.

[hrmjustin]

4. He goes to St. John's Episcopal across the strret every few weeks.

[rug]

5. Because if they didn't, they would have to call him a deluded, racist, misogynist homophobe as well.

[el_bryanto]

6. This is really simple - they want to cling to their stereotype of what religious people are like

And when they are faced with someone who challenges that stereotype they have to prove that that person is either not really religious or they have to tear them down to confirm their stereotype of what believers are like.

I saw it all the time in the religion forum - there's a significant subset of people who cannot accept that a person might be a believer and decent person. So they might for a while try and convince a believe he or she doesn't really believe, and failing that, go on the attack.

Bryant

[UrbScotty]

7. Fear is a powerful thing.

A lot of Christians have this (irrational, IMO) fear that we're becoming too secular or atheist as a society.

That's also what drives the "Obama's a Muslim" canard - this fear of Muslims taking over our country and imposing Sharia law, etc.