An Atheist Should Not be President of the United States

The burden of proof is solely on my opponent, as they are arguing for a change and going against the current norm. R1: America was founded on Christian/religious principalsMy opponent has given his example of the declaration of independence, however he hasn't said why that applies to this topic. I will use an example of a mcuh more important document, the US constitution. Which is a secular document, as it doesn't mention the word "God" or even the word "creator" once. In fact, two of America's founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, used the constitution to establish seperation from church and state. Jefferson was a deist who supported a government with limited powers, and Madison wrote that human rights are determined from secular, natural laws, and not by gods and religions. These two founding fathers obviously favored secularism, and it shows in the US constitution, so my opponent's claim that America was founded on religious principals is false. My opponent has also failed to give the importance of this argument, why does the claim that America was founded on christianity excuse the exemption of quite a few Americans from the political process? R2: Atheists have no objective reason to be moralThis is true, atheists have no objective reason to be moral. However this doesn't make them unfit to be president. Morals are subjective, and that's the truth. In fact, what my opponent believes to be "moral" probably isn't the same as what other people believe. This is a pretty weak argument because my opponent doesn't even tell us what he means by the word "moral. " Does he mean the morals provided by religion? Because these morals aren't always good, and have given us quite a bit religious extremism and violence throughout history. Why is someone who subscribes to these morals better than someone who admits that morals are subjective? Another alarming thing that my opponent states is that people have no reason to be moral without fear of reprisal by an all powerful god. I will use his example here. An atheist says murder is wrong, and they believe it's wrong. Whereas a religious person believes murder is wrong because they will be punished if they commit the crime. I would much rather have a person who truly believes murder is wrong than someone who only avoids it in fear of punishment. My opponentsays that "opinions do not create ethical standards," but then what does? I'll counter my opponent's last statment here. I would much rather have a person in office who believe in their morals based on their subconcious and their own reasoning, than someone who's had morals indoctrinated into them from a centuries old book, and who's only reason to follow these morals is fear of punishment. My opponents "objections" don't make any sense. They say that benefiting society is a part of what it means to be "moral. " But obviously my opponent doesn't know what "moral" means. Since they haven't done so I'll provide a definition here, from Oxford dictionaries. Moral: concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character: The entire fact that my opponent is using the word moral expecting us to know what he means by it, is proof that morals are subjective. We don't know what he's talking about, because morals are different for each person. Objection 2 doesn't relate at all to the topic. My opponent says morality is an instinct, however it isn't. I'll define morality here, again, from Oxford dictionaries. Morality: principles concerning the distinction between right and wrong or good and bad behavior. Your principals and instincts can be two totally different things. What someone decides is right after a long time of delibiration is not the same as their split second decisions in dangerous situations. So my opponent has demonstrated their complete lack of knowledge as to what morals are, and is acting like the term "moral" describes only one final set of proper morals. That's the end of my opening round statements. I'll toss the ball back to my opponent.