Question about atheists...?

Question

Okay well to start off, I'm an atheist. I'm not starting a fight here, I'm just asking a few questions.

Why is "one nation under God" in the pledge of allegiance? Should that be changed any time soon, just because of the whole freedom of religion thing?

And I noticed the other day that in court, you have to swear to God to tell the truth and everything, then put your hand on the Bible. Is that a law, or can you choose not to do that?

I know it's really not a big deal, I'm just curious.

Lol. Thanks.

Answer 1

thats i good question and u raise a good point and i have no idea

Answer 2

Once they write that stuff it's carved into stone!

Answer 3

The one nation under god was not in the original pledge. It was added in the 1950's under anti communist hysteria to make the US seem more "godly" (and hence presumably magically more worthy) than supposedly atheist communist states (you may have noticed if you ever visited a communist state that there is no lack of religion in fact).

Courts do not require you to swear - you can choose to affirm. Ironically, it is Christians who should be most concerned to do this because the Bible specifically forbade taking oaths.

Answer 4

I agree. I dont think its a big deal but it IS a direct violation of separation of church and state. If God is on the dollar so should satan be. (example)

Answer 5

I believe in god but I am muslim and I think they should take the whole Pledge of allegiance out I mean we all know about our country and they shouldn't use the Bible in court. Thank you for commenting on my question.

Answer 6

To the court question, you can choose not to do it.

As to the one nation thing, I'm presuming that means America?

God is the One and Only. There are no other gods but Him. We are all (in the world) one nation under God.

Answer 7

You don't have to swear on a bible in court in the US...

And "One nation under god" is in the pledge because some wingnuts got their panties in a twist about communism during the Cold War.  This phrase should be removed.

Answer 8

It's a hangover from the '50's when you Yanks were hyperparanoid over atheistic commies

Answer 9

I think that you have the whole 'one nation under God' thing in the pledge of allegiance, and on a dollar bill, kind of cheapens the idea of state and church being separate. It's making it blatantly clear that it isn't really and America is while, in theory, secular, in practice it is often more of a theocracy-it's obvious by the way that when senators etc are opposing a bill that's been brought forward that they continue to use religious reasons. And then there's that whole 'God bless America' thing going on.

I don't know about the US, but in the UK, you can choose in course to swear on another holy book if you're not Christian, or you can choose to 'affirm' instead, which is basically just promising to tell the truth without the religious element.

It's actually quite funny that in the US religion is always a factor in elections, i.e. people want to hear that candidates believe in God, because in the UK it's the complete opposite, we don't want to hear that they believe in God, to the point that Tony Blair had to wait until he was no longer the prime minister before showing any hint of his religion and converting to catholicism. The UK is much more secular; if someone stood up in the house of commons and said a law shouldn't go through because it was against what it said in the bible, they'd be ignored, in the US, they get away with it.

Answer 10

As an atheist, I don't really care about under god being in the pledge or "in god we trust" being on the coins.  It's not going to slow down the rise of atheism in this country one bit.  It doesn't make christianity's BS any less apparent.

Answer 11

Let's make a pact to burn money until that insensitive phrase is off the money!

Then those silly God-believers will know we mean business!

Deal?

I'm Atheist!