Americans don't want an atheist president

Quick and rough etymology:
a- prefix means not, none, no.
-theos = god
-gnostic = knowledge

A-theist is someone who believes there is no god
A-gnostic is someone who claims no knowledge of god

And to KhainiWest, the belief that a higher power created the universe but after that point ceased to act on it or interfere is called deism. That's sort of like the higher power's existence being irrelevant. It's not the same as agnosticism though.

So atheists fundamentally aren't allowed to pay religions compliments?

My statement was a little strong, but what I'm trying to say is theres no way to philosophically oppose a faith more than atheism.

Fun fact about satanism, it doesn't inherently reject the reality of whatever faith it happens to be associated with, it just worships a different "power" in the same pantheon, to put things in polytheistic terms. It's like rooting for the Red Sox as opposed to the Yankees. To be a Red Sox fan you practically have to acknowledge the existence of the Yankees, after all. In the same metaphor, atheism is like hating not just baseball but sports in general. Agnosticism is not knowing (or maybe not caring) about sports.

An atheist could say its good that Faith Z is kind to the poor, but simultaneously they believe the opposite of Faith Z's most basic tenet. Muslims and Christians believe in the same god. That's a much smaller gulch between them than between either faith and atheism.

I think it's important to point out that all systems of belief are not equally different. Some are more different than others, depending on your frame of reference.

EDIT:

I'm pretty sure this thread went on a massive tangent, isn't this a discussion about presidents and their religion?

There have been studies before that said the minority Americans like least/distrust the most is atheists (not gays, not muslims, etc). Understanding just what it means to say you are an atheist is a good start to understanding why that's the case.