Atheists want God stricken from inaugural oath

[Buffoon]

I'm an atheist. I want the entire planet to get rid of religion altogether.

 

[cuddly_tomato]

I'm an atheist. I want the entire planet to get rid of religion altogether.

I can see you are very devout in your own faith, but that does not mean that other people should be denied theirs.

 

[Aardvark Soup]

I'm an athiest... and I don't care. Really, what does this simple line matter? The US is a very Christian nations and logically a lot of their traditions are based on that religion. If Obama himself has no problems with saying this single line, then why should you care?

Wheter you are an athiest, Christian, Hindu or worshipper of the holy teapot, you just shouldn't force your beliefs on other people and be offended by small stupid things.

Oh come on dude that makes sense.

And since when does anything that makes sense actually become part of the political process?

Yeah, you're right. Forget what I said.

 

[James Raynor]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_on_go_ot/obama_under_god

Title was taken directly from news story.

The gist is some Atheists what "So help me God" taken away from President-Elect Obama's inauguration speech. Thoughts?

Well remember that it's more symbolic then any real pledge of oath. Like if someone says "OMG" they don't really mean the god part, but it's more or less symbolic. Also when people say this is a christian nation, they forget that this nation was founded by deists.

 

[neoman10]

If Obama believes in God, then having him swear to God makes sense. If he didn't believe in God I would say yeah, don't make him say it, but when someone that believes in God says "so help me God", it means that if they don't keep their promise they'll be letting their god down.

this seems to be the best to me

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090115/ap_on_go_ot/obama_under_god

Title was taken directly from news story.

The gist is some Atheists what "So help me God" taken away from President-Elect Obama's inauguration speech. Thoughts?

Well remember that it's more symbolic then any real pledge of oath. Like if someone says "OMG" they don't really mean the god part, but it's more or less symbolic. Also when people say this is a christian nation, they forget that this nation was founded by deists.

Who believed that the moral lessons inherent in the bible were the best way to build a good and moral nation. They basically wanted to ditch all the superstition, like Jeffersons bible.

 

[Datalord]

BIG FRICKIN DEAL
America was founded by christians, with chrisitan principles.

Moreover, it doesn't specify which "god" it refers to, it could be Yahweh, or Allah, Or Shiva, or Satan, or a set of arbitrary rules that control the universe

 

[Alex_P]

That is nonsense. Religion has always been a part of our nation to a certain extent, "under God" being in the pledge of allegiance for example. If Mr. Obama wants to say it their is no reason why he should not in this case.

Religious folk spent well over half a century trying to smuggle God into the Pledge of Allegiance but they kept failing because nobody in Congress cared. Finally, during a time of anti-communist paranoia, Eisenhower helped out because he thought "under God" sounded pretty when Lincoln used it in a speech.

And now those same religious folk act like it's some kind of ancient tradition.

-- Alex

 

[James Raynor]

BIG FRICKIN DEAL
America was founded by christians, with chrisitan principles.

Moreover, it doesn't specify which "god" it refers to, it could be Yahweh, or Allah, Or Shiva, or Satan, or a set of arbitrary rules that control the universe

Wrong, it was founded by deists.

 

[Alex_P]

America was founded by christians, with chrisitan principles.

Enh, America was founded by Christians with Enlightenment principles. That's not really the same thing.

-- Alex

 

[Aiden Rebirth]

it's tradition. whats wrong with keeping our heritage?

 

[PureChaos]

i can see why they want it removed. i'm an agnostic and, though i wouldn't want God to be mentioned while taking a inaugural oath, i wouldn't want it to be taken out all together. just having the option as to weather 'so help me God' was included or not would be fine.

 

[bioVOLTAGE]

My Friend and I are Athiests, and we just don't really care about anything religon. Worship a God, don't worship a God, whatever gets you through the day. We really don't understand why other Athiests are trying to get every reference to God removed from everywhere. If you beleive, you beleive. If not, then they're just words that have no meaning.

As near as we can tell, there are two kinds and one of them is giving all of us a bad name.

 

[Shurikens and Lightning]

Get an athiest president and then it is stricken.

 

[deewank]

look our nation was founded on god fearing men, who made it apart of our school oath and even in the constitution It states "IN GOD WE TRUST" take that you atheists

 

[Cadren]

Oh my zeus, there is so much ignorance about America's history here it hurts. No, nowhere in the constitution does it mention the state as having to be secular, but ALSO nowhere in the constitution is "god" mentioned. In an age where religious phrases were everywhere, this can't have been anything but deliberate. (http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050221/allen)

Yes, the majority of people in this country are christian of one flavor or another, but the next largest group is people who don't subscribe to any religion. There are more people in the US who don't subscribe to a religion than there are Blacks and Asians COMBINED. (See CIA Factbook)It's fair to say that the US is a nation OF christians, but not A christian nation. This fact was illuminated in the Treaty of Tripoli, 1797. Article 11 states "the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion" This treaty was passed unanimously (how many times does congress do that?) and many of the founding fathers were present to vote on it.

Furthermore, "Under god" was not added to the pledge until 1954, after a vigorous campaign by the Knights of Columbus, the nation's largest catholic fraternity. It was a successful attempt by the religious to extort the atmosphere of fear rampant in the McCarthy era and wed religion with patriotism. To be against the religion suddenly made you unpatriotic, which was a social death sentence in the 50's.

The "so help me god" part of the inauguration is actually not part of the offical oath. It was became popular after Roosevelt. Only 18 of the 43 presidents thus far have uttered the phrase at the end of their oath.

I think it's funny when people say it doesn't violate the establishment clause of the first amendment because "god" is not religion specific. It is. god = masculine, singular. This automatically excludes polytheists, female centered religions, and the non-theists. Everybody knows it means the judeo-christian god, hell, perhaps even the muslim god, but nobody wants to acknowledge it. It's evident by that little twinge of disgust you would get if they said "so help me Vishnu, or Sheba, or Zeus, or Jupiter, or Kinich Ahau, or Ra, or (insert never ending list of possible imaginary beings here).

I'm sorry if this pisses you off, but non-theists are never going to stop being treated as second class citizens by sitting down and shutting up.

PS. Oh, and not having "god" in the government would not be government professed atheism. It'd be neutral. If the money read "In god we do not trust", that too would be unconstitutional and would have to go. It's just best if the government didn't go there...

I couldn't agree more.

 

[deewank]

excuse my previous bigotry my very passionate friend got loose on my key board

 

[Shakespear]

For the sake of argument, you guys live in a "free" country. You beleive, say, think and do what ever you like. Isn't a little contradictory to banish one saying?

They do, don't they? Well, they also said they wanted to seperate church in state, no? Either way, America is made of broken dreams and fail.

 

[lousyshot55]

The seperation of church and state is supposed to be vital to how the U.S. runs and it doesn't matter whether 1 or a million people want God in the oath, it still implies a God even if you don't believe in it. What about polytheists? This is also ceremonial too so their can be a measure of understanding on behalf of the aetheists.

 

[deewank]

oh why the hell does anyone care. there are way to many people that believe in some sort of higher being to make a difference. Tell you what though if they really wanted to make a change come up with some valid shit for these so called miracles in the world. I believe in god myself but i also believe in factual science. also as a side note Scientology is completely ass backwards fucking retarded. Also i believe budists have a good theory on that reincarnation because i can think of a couple people who have died and someone exactly like them just pops back up. Oops Im getting off point so just disregard the last part if you STILL DON'T FUCKING CARE