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Did you know? PA bans atheists from office

According The Friendly Atheist site, Pennsylvania’s State Constitution bans atheists from holding office.

Religion
Section 4.

No person who acknowledges the being of a God and a future state of rewards and punishments shall, on account of his religious sentiments, be disqualified to hold any office or place of trust or profit under this Commonwealth.

From: http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Constitution.html

Anyone want to try this law out? We could use some fine, moral folks in the Capital these days…

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December 22nd, 2009 in Atheism, Government, Pennsylvania | tags: , , ,
  • satanhimself

    Well, it could be construed differently. It doesn’t exactly ban atheists, but it does protect believers. Read it closely.

    It should be removed by the legislature, but you don’t think those rodents in the Capitol would do anything to help those “odious” atheists, do you?

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  • Jon Reed

    I agree with Satan. The statement is definitely unconstitutional, but to say that it forbids atheists from holding office doesn’t seem accurate. Let’s not go tilting at windmills when there are many legitimate issues to battle over.

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  • sharon

    It’s written in annoying regulatory-speak with double negatives. Translated, it says — a person who acknowledges God and believes in Heaven and Hell, is qualified to hold office due to his obvious religiosity.

    That’s a quite a load of crap. I was just pointing it out. We don’t still have laws banning certain personal preferences or interracial marriage, do we?

    This atheist in office stuff has turned into a kerfuffle in North Carolina.
    http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/12/13/20091213GodlessPolitician1213.html

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  • Kindred16

    My understanding of this section is that it aims to protect believers of any religion from being disqualified for having the wrong religion. It seems to exclude atheists from consideration for disqualification by assuming everyone belongs to some religion. This section has nothing to do with atheistic beliefs.

    That said, it does appear odd that a section like this would even need to exist. Might be the result of one religion vs. another. We need sections like this to keep the faithful from abusing the rights of other faithful.

    It could probably be amended to acknowledge that non-belief in gods also cannot disqualify someone from running for public office.

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  • jehovahgodofgaps

    could you use this to get out of jury duty? if you would wish avoid it.

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