Originally posted by Coredweller
[BWhy do individuals who are devout in any religion need to have symbols and language of that religion posted on every visible surface of their environment? Having the ten commandments tablets posted in front of a courthouse implies that those who are of that religion will likely be receiving a higher quality of justice than those who are not. Likewise with the pledge. Children are required to pledge to "Our Nation Under God" You don\'t believe in God? Maybe it\'s really OUR nation, and not YOUR nation! What are you doing in our nation? We\'re not used to thinking about it that way because we grew up with it and we were programmed by it. However, an immigrant child coming to the US school system at age 14 might well consider such logic.
BTW, could you rephrase your paragraph that started with "As far as the "liberal" debate is concerned," I didn\'t understand what you meant by that. Thanks. [/B]
You know what I meant
I have a great disdain for religious zealots... there are way too many of them here in the South, but our country was founded upon Christian ideals and to reject them rejecting our history.
The only reason I am really against removing the words is because I am a sucker for tradition and it seems our country loses a little more of it in each passing year regarding holidays and anything that has to do with God.
Example of Christianity used in the forming of our nation.
"The Continental-Confederation Congress, a legislative body that governed the United States from 1774 to 1789, contained an extraordinary number of deeply religious men. The amount of energy that Congress invested in encouraging the practice of religion in the new nation exceeded that expended by any subsequent American national government. Although the Articles of Confederation did not officially authorize Congress to concern itself with religion, the citizenry did not object to such activities. This lack of objection suggests that both the legislators and the public considered it appropriate for the national government to promote a nondenominational, nonpolemical Christianity.
Congress appointed chaplains for itself and the armed forces, sponsored the publication of a Bible, imposed Christian morality on the armed forces, and granted public lands to promote Christianity among the Indians. National days of thanksgiving and of "humiliation, fasting, and prayer" were proclaimed by Congress at least twice a year throughout the war. Congress was guided by "covenant theology," a Reformation doctrine especially dear to New England Puritans, which held that God bound himself in an agreement with a nation and its people. This agreement stipulated that they "should be prosperous or afflicted, according as their general Obedience or Disobedience thereto appears." Wars and revolutions were, accordingly, considered afflictions, as divine punishments for sin, from which a nation could rescue itself by repentance and reformation.
The first national government of the United States, was convinced that the "public prosperity" of a society depended on the vitality of its religion. Nothing less than a "spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens," Congress declared to the American people, would "make us a holy, that so we may be a happy people."
Which comes from here:
http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/religion/rel04.htmlWhy do most atheists feel that Christians are attempting to make our government a theocracy?
Nobody is attempting to make this a country run by a single church. People are attempting to recognize our heritage, and prevent religious tests for offices within the government.
