In God we Trust/Under God

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They should also change the national motto back to E Pluribus Unum. If that isn't an establishment of religion, then I don't know what is.

When did it ever change?

Politically correct? I expect the government to be politically correct, yeah. I don't much care about anybody else, though.

Extremists? Hardly. Removing misplaced religious zealotry from government is not extremism. It's moderation. Forcing your religion into the government is extremism. Taking it out again is moderation.

I don't expect the government to endorse my beliefs. I just expect it to be neutral, and secular. Why should Christians expect it to endorse theirs?

Zealotry? Hardly. One short phrase in an optional pledge, and another in an unbetrusive area of the currency, does not constitute zealotry. Nor is anyone "forcing" religion on you. Should I have the right to have a particular poster along a street I walk on removed because it annoys me? No, that would violate the First Amendment.

No, it was not added to promote capitalism, or at least not simply to promote capitalism. It was added to combat atheism, which was associated with communism, and had a very negative stigma at the time. The fact that the communists were characterized as "godless" and that this was intended to be derogatory (as if atheism was a bad thing) just makes it even worse.

I'm sorry, but if the government is using atheism to vilify people that makes it much worse than if they are simply promoting religion.

I think it's rather obvious that it was against communism, NOT just atheism itself.

 

[Eor]

When did it ever change?

1956

Zealotry? Hardly. One short phrase in an optional pledge, and another in an unbetrusive area of the currency, does not constitute zealotry. Nor is anyone "forcing" religion on you. Should I have the right to have a particular poster along a street I walk on removed because it annoys me? No, that would violate the First Amendment.

Straw man fallacy. That has nothing at all to do with our discussion except to try and change what we're saying.

I think it's rather obvious that it was against communism, NOT just atheism itself.

Communism has nothing to do with religion, meaning that there is no way "In God we trust" could be against communism alone. The communists at the time, yes, but not the system

 

[Mediocre]

Zealotry? Hardly. One short phrase in an optional pledge, and another in an unbetrusive area of the currency, does not constitute zealotry.

The zealotry I speak of is on the part of the people who forced the insertion of the phrases into the government in the first place, not the people who are currently in government.

I don't have any idea how the people currently in government feel about it, because for the most part they haven't addressed the issue.

Anyhow, I don't know what else to call it other than zealotry. They felt the need for the government to endorse their particular religion. To me, that smacks of religious zealotry. Even if you disagree, it really has no bearing on this issue, so there's no reason to argue it further.

If you want to respond this part of my post, you're welcome to, but this is the last thing I'm going to say about it in this topic.

Nor is anyone "forcing" religion on you. Should I have the right to have a particular poster along a street I walk on removed because it annoys me? No, that would violate the First Amendment.

I've said it before and I've said it again: the government does not have rights under the first amendment. The first amendment was created specifically to prevent individual rights from being violated.

I think it's rather obvious that it was against communism, NOT just atheism itself.

Only being partly against atheism doesn't make it okay, sorry.