Question for the Atheists and Agnostics

[_Some Schmo]

It mildly irks my that my daughter is required to say the pledge everyday, and for more reasons than just the "under god" thing. I think to pledge allegiance to a piece of cloth is kind of stupid, especially to the exclusion of all other countries. Perhaps if we cared about flags and people from other countries a bit more, as a nation we wouldn't be so quick to stupid war decisions.

But the simple fact that so many people believing in god is the real problem. All the god stuff in government is just a symptom of that real problem. Removing it from the pledge, the money, etc. would not solve the problem. People need to start relying on themselves, not their imaginary friend, and the silly god references would take care of themselves.

[_Who Knows]

But the simple fact that so many people believing in god is the real problem. All the god stuff in government is just a symptom of that real problem. Removing it from the pledge, the money, etc. would not solve the problem. People need to start relying on themselves, not their imaginary friend, and the silly god references would take care of themselves.

I agree with you about the problem being the widespread belief in god. However, I think one way to slowly erode that, is to remove all references to it. We all know how impressionable young children are. The less places people see or say the word 'god', the less likely they are to believe it, in my opinion.

[_Some Schmo]

But the simple fact that so many people believing in god is the real problem. All the god stuff in government is just a symptom of that real problem. Removing it from the pledge, the money, etc. would not solve the problem. People need to start relying on themselves, not their imaginary friend, and the silly god references would take care of themselves.

I agree with you about the problem being the widespread belief in god. However, I think one way to slowly erode that, is to remove all references to it. We all know how impressionable young children are. The less places people see or say the word 'god', the less likely they are to believe it, in my opinion.

Good point.

[_Gorman]

But the simple fact that so many people believing in god is the real problem. All the god stuff in government is just a symptom of that real problem. Removing it from the pledge, the money, etc. would not solve the problem. People need to start relying on themselves, not their imaginary friend, and the silly god references would take care of themselves.

I agree with you about the problem being the widespread belief in god. However, I think one way to slowly erode that, is to remove all references to it. We all know how impressionable young children are. The less places people see or say the word 'god', the less likely they are to believe it, in my opinion.

Interesting. So your objective in taking out all references of God in the government would be for the government to promote atheism as opposed to theism. Can the government ever really be neutral?

[_Sethbag]

But the simple fact that so many people believing in god is the real problem. All the god stuff in government is just a symptom of that real problem. Removing it from the pledge, the money, etc. would not solve the problem. People need to start relying on themselves, not their imaginary friend, and the silly god references would take care of themselves.

I agree with you about the problem being the widespread belief in god. However, I think one way to slowly erode that, is to remove all references to it. We all know how impressionable young children are. The less places people see or say the word 'god', the less likely they are to believe it, in my opinion.

Interesting. So your objective in taking out all references of God in the government would be for the government to promote atheism as opposed to theism. Can the government ever really be neutral?

No. No. No. No. No. Removing references to God isn't promoting atheism. It's refusing to discuss the existence, or non-existence, at all. Removing references to God from the government sphere is not the same as the government saying "there is no God."

[_Who Knows]

But the simple fact that so many people believing in god is the real problem. All the god stuff in government is just a symptom of that real problem. Removing it from the pledge, the money, etc. would not solve the problem. People need to start relying on themselves, not their imaginary friend, and the silly god references would take care of themselves.

I agree with you about the problem being the widespread belief in god. However, I think one way to slowly erode that, is to remove all references to it. We all know how impressionable young children are. The less places people see or say the word 'god', the less likely they are to believe it, in my opinion.

Interesting. So your objective in taking out all references of God in the government would be for the government to promote atheism as opposed to theism. Can the government ever really be neutral?

I'm curious to hear from you regarding other forms of atheism that the government is promoting, by simply not referencing them.

[_Gorman]

Interesting. So your objective in taking out all references of God in the government would be for the government to promote atheism as opposed to theism. Can the government ever really be neutral?

I'm curious to hear from you regarding other forms of atheism that the government is promoting, by simply not referencing them.

I'm not speaking of specific forms of atheism and I don't think you were either. I just find it interesting that your statement appeared to propose that the populous might lean more toward atheism in general if the government never mentioned God. If that is not a possibility in your mind, then you may recant your statement. If it is a possibility, then we need to ask the question, "Can the government ever really be neutral?"

[_Who Knows]

I'm not speaking of specific forms of atheism and I don't think you were either. I just find it interesting that your statement appeared to propose that the populous might lean more toward atheism in general if the government never mentioned God. If that is not a possibility in your mind, then you may recant your statement. If it is a possibility, then we need to ask the question, "Can the government ever really be neutral?"

The populous might lean more toward atheism in general if NO ONE ever mentioned god (the government being a part of that).

I don't understand why you feel that not promoting god would make them not neutral. I never talk about the color "cornflowerblue", does that mean I'm promoting atheism towards that color? Or does it simply mean that I don't have an opinion one way or the other, and if I did, I don't share it with anyone else.

So what's your opinion PGuy? Do you think the government should promote 'god'? And if so, why?

[_The Dude]

How do you feel about the use of 'God' in our government - specifically:

The pledge of allegiance - one nation, under god
Money - 'in god we trust'
The 10 commandments on public property
The national anthem

Those four things don't bother me. My 10 year old son, who has never believed in god, thinks they are oddities and it gives us something to talk about.

What does bother me is this: those four things are recent additions to our government "stuff", and they represent an erosion of church/state separation which I find very disturbing. I don't care too much about little symbols, but I do care about my tax dollars going to faith-based drug treatment programs, or church-centered family counseling programs, or not going to stem cell research because our holier-than-y'all president continues to veto the will of the majority of Americans.

[_Gorman]

The populous might lean more toward atheism in general if NO ONE ever mentioned god (the government being a part of that).

I don't understand why you feel that not promoting god would make them not neutral. I never talk about the color "cornflowerblue", does that mean I'm promoting atheism towards that color? Or does it simply mean that I don't have an opinion one way or the other, and if I did, I don't share it with anyone else.

So what's your opinion PGuy? Do you think the government should promote 'god'? And if so, why?

I personally think the government should be neutral in religious matters.

In reality, the amount of sway the government has in this topic is probably very little. The government would be promoting atheism if two items were true, 1) it never mentioned God, and 2) that people in general thought the government should have a stance on the existence/non-existence of God. If a lot of people thought it should have a stance, then you may be able to say that it is promoting atheism by not mentioning God. As to whether people actually do think this way, I don't know.