I wonder if the economy should crash (our money is now worth the same as Canadian money for cripes sake — Canadian!!!) will God rescue the dollar as a courtesy for putting His name on it? I mean shouldn’t we get something out of offending the atheists and non-theists and those who believe in multiple gods and those religious people who feel it’s sacrilege to put His name on our grubby, root-of-all-evil money? Perhaps Pat Condell is right that Jesus and God are myths and it doesn’t matter. Anyway, Happy Birthday, four words!
Fifty Years of “In God We Trust”
It’s been 50 years since “In God We Trust” first appeared on U.S. paper currency, and those four little words have proven to be the source of big debate in the courts.
Michael Newdow, the California atheist known for trying to strip “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, has asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to declare “In God We Trust” an unconstitutional mingling of church and state. In Indiana, the American Civil Liberties Union has gone to district court, arguing that it’s unfair for the state not to charge administrative fees for “In God We Trust” license plates when a plate advocating for the environment carries extra fees.
Why, decades after the words were made the nation’s official motto and printed on our dollar bills, do they still inspire ire?
“A great many Americans are angry … when the government promotes religion and a great many other Americans believe that this is not promoting religion — they’re just representing who we are as a nation,” said Charles Haynes, senior scholar at the Freedom Forum’s First Amendment Center.
Thanks Hop!
>>Personally, I am spiritual.
That’s a tough one to swallow, m’hijito. You and your Xian-bashing.
>>I don’t agree with you at all.. There is NO anti-spiritual
>>sentiment on this site that I can see
Ah, there are none so blind as those who will not see. If you’ve missed all the slanderous references to Xian fucktards, delusional psychopaths, and the like, you are truly in denial.
UU churches are fine, for those who like Religion-Lite, and Buddhist temples are fine for westerners who want to pretend that they are cosmopolitan world travellers when they’re not. However, there’s much more to spirituality (as I guess you know, being a “spiritual” person in spite of your hatred for most things spiritual), and most of it doesn’t involve tearing Darwin symbols off of cars, handling snakes, or fighting over meaningless slogans on coins.
Personally, I am in favor of removing “In God We Trust” from the money AND retiring it as a national motto. It serves no purpose, any more than putting up the 10 Commandments in a courtroom is going to convert felons and murderers. Waste of time and energy. There are more important issues to be dealt with in today’s society, and very few of them can be solved by sticking a McDonald’s-like “I’m lovin’ it” cliché up in public view.
#86 – Heh heh heh. In other words, “I don’t know”. I lived in Chicago for quite a while, and there’s a lot of shitty pizza made in Chicago by Chicagoans. If you knew anything about it, you’d name a spot. You sound like one of those “Xian fucktards” you’re always railing on about.
My Pi on Clark north of Fullerton and J.B. Albertos in Rodgers Park. Specific enough for you?
I’m not always railing about Xian fucktards, but I’m also done explaining to you who the Xian fucktards are and that you aren’t one of them. If you want to keep taking it personally, that’s on you.
By the way, this jackass Wizard in #89 is one of the Xian fucktards I’m talking about, and I’ll stand by that even if he writes back to claim he’s not a Christian at all…
#92 – Being religious and being spiritual are two different things.
Now I know you are on the side of your manic swing that makes you moody and disagreeable, but those “Christians” who are waging war on education, art, media, and society are Xian fucktards.
The fact that I correctly identify and defend against against these asshats does not mean I can’t be both spiritual and atheist. Spiritual does not require a myth or a supernatural entity. It only requires a profound respect and reverence for _X_. Whatever X is for the particular spiritual person.
#92 – There are more important issues to be dealt with in today’s society, and very few of them can be solved by sticking a McDonald’s-like “I’m lovin’ it” cliché up in public view.
Now THAT is a statement I can get behind 100%
>>f you want to keep taking it personally, that’s on you.
Well, if you want to take it personally when I point out that some Atheist zealots are un-holy rollers on par with the best of the Bakkers, the Haggards, the Falwells, and the Swaggarts, and that they’re every bit the evil unthinking adherents to their faith that Mao, Pol Pot, and Stalin were, that’s on you.
As to J.B. Alberto’s, that’s an evil fellow, if you want to park in the area:
http://tinyurl.com/38678y
http://tinyurl.com/398pos
I’ve never tried his pizza, though. I prefer the Jamaican beef patty place on Howard, when in the Rogers Park area.
>>Now THAT is a statement I can get behind 100%
High-five me, Compay!
>>those “Christians” who are waging war on education, art,
>>media, and society are Xian fucktards.
I’m with ya there, Brother. You CAN get a “hallelujah”! By the same token, those painfully obnoxious buzz-kills who go on the warpath about somebody saying “Merry Christmas” in Bergdorf’s or dressing up like Santa Claus are Atheist fucktards.
I guess the spirituality all depends on what _X_ is, doesn’t it? If someone has a profound respect and reverence for fucking small children, I wouldn’t call them “spiritual”. Prolly best that the respect and reverence be directed towards a nobler entity.
#92, 95, 97,
I’m lovin’ it!! I’ll agree with both of you on that one wholeheartedly.
#93 – OFTLO, (& #89 – wizard, wouldn’t want to talk about you behind your front (behind one’s back is in front of them (now I feel like a lisp programmer)))
BTW, clearly wizard is a fucktard of the theist variety. However, I would not personally flag what flavor of theist fucktard s/he is until s/he states so. I also don’t give even a single rat buttock let alone an entire rat ass which flavor. Those who cannot understand that an active statement is pushing something and a lack of statement is exactly that, a lack of statement. Also, if anyone out there thinks that freedom of religion does not include freedom to choose none of the above, they’re probably not worth the attempt at having a true conversation.
#96 – Well, if you want to take it personally when I point out that some Atheist zealots are un-holy rollers on par with the best of the Bakkers, the Haggards, the Falwells, and the Swaggarts,
Some atheists are as ferverent. I never denied that… But atheism still isn’t a religion until such time as God appears and changes the dictionary. THAT is what I take personally.
Millions have fought and died to maintain the purity of the English langu— wait… that’s not true… But still, words have meaning.
As to J.B. Alberto’s, that’s an evil fellow, if you want to park in the area:
Bwahahahahahaha
That’s funny… But they make a mean pie, so I say let them double park. I’ve never been there. I always had it delivered.
#98 – Prolly best that the respect and reverence be directed towards a nobler entity.
Such as the grandeur of Mother nature? …as just one example that involves no supernatural element.
#89 wizard writes… “The fact of the matter is this nation was founded by people who wanted religious freedom. That is why they started the reveloution [sic]. That is historical fact.”
Not true really — you must have gotten your “facts” from your clergyman. Granted, many colonists came to the new world to escape religious repression in Europe. But that has nothing to do with the American Revolution, which was started because of the insistence by both King George III and the Parliament that they had the ultimate rights of governance in the colonies. Read about the Declaratory Act, the “Intolerable Acts,” and the Stamp Act, to name a few items of interest.
You should also read the Declaration of Independence again. Although there’s a long list of grievances against the King, there’s a remarkable absence of anything regarding religious repression. The revolution was fought over taxation, trade and import duties, forced quartering of soldiers, trial procedures, etc. If anyone told you the main reason for the revolution was religion, that person is a liar.
Interestingly, the god worshiped by many of the people in America never even supported democracy, only kings. The Israelites of the Old Testament were always ruled by an authoritarian figure, often with the full support of your god, who never showed any democratic tendencies. Maybe this whole American democracy experiment is really inspired by Satan, making a special ironic mockery of our motto “In God We Trust.”
>>Such as the grandeur of Mother nature?
I dunno, OFTLO, you’re sounding an awful lot like a Wiccan (I hope you’re not going to dispute that Wicca is a religion!)
From the book “Nature Religion Today: Paganism in the Modern World”
“The deities of Wicca are understood as embodiments of a life-force manifest in nature. The Goddess and God are seen as complementary polarities and this balance is seen in nature. ”
Or if you just mean that “the leaves changing in the autumn are darned pretty”, I wouldn’t call that spiritual. Any more than the HD-o-phile who’s all hepped up about the quality of actresses’ nipples in high-def is “spiritual”.
As to the double parkers, I am net-neutral on that. I’ve never tried the guy’s pies; I used to get my pizza in the area between Oldtown and the south side. Rogers Park was for Jamaican beef patties. If those Rogers Park whiners want to see double (and triple and quadruple) parking, they should visit Broad St. in Philly. Any complaining, and they’ll put a 9mm cap in your ass.
In Global Warming We Trust.
Bwhahahahaha….
#102 – I dunno, OFTLO, you’re sounding an awful lot like a Wiccan (I hope you’re not going to dispute that Wicca is a religion!)
Dude… You really are assumption driven… I said “as just one example that involves no supernatural element.” I never said that’s what I am spiritual about…
And since post #100 Some Mother Fucker Stole The License Plates Off My Van!
FUCK!
The Darwin Fish wasn’t enough for you bastards!
>>I never said that’s what I am spiritual about…
Heh heh. I guess that remains a secret. I guess you don’t have the cojones to take the kind of abuse I do for my love of Jesus. Tsk. Who’da thunk that the mighty OFTLO was a pussy?
I just hope it’s not the nipples on that girl in the HD soft-core porn flick. That’s so junior high…
>>And since post #100 Some Mother Fucker Stole The License
>>Plates Off My Van!
I thought you lived in Indiana. They have criminals in Indiana? I never saw any. You must have been born under a bad sign, son. Maybe it’s time to pray…..
#105, 107,
Maybe it is time to prey.