Atheist soldier sues for 'unconstitutional' discrimination

Post by **Skylace** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:08 am

[web]https://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/08/atheis ... topstories[/web]
I have always felt there was a large problem with the separation of Church and State here in America. This doesn't surprise me at all.

Post by **faceless** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 12:31 pm

That's just mental! You'd think that someone who didn't fear the 'wrath of God' would make a much better soldier - then again, they couldn't be duped as easily into Holy Wars like the one that Bush and his cronies want.

There was a story here a couple of years back about some soldier who was given time each week to practice his Satanist 'mass'. He's still in the army as far as I know.

SpursFan1902 · Post by **SpursFan1902** » Wed Jul 09, 2008 4:48 pm

As much as the Christian right doesn't want to believe it, the US is not solely a Christian nation. So much of US culture revolves around the Christian calendar and it wasn't until I found a much different path that I realized it. Christmas day is a national holiday. We have references to god in our Pledge of Aliegence and on our money. Now it only says "God", so you could interprete it as any god that you want it to be, but it was originally intended as the Christian god. I agree that there is FAR too much overlap between Church and State and some of it has been going on for so long that we don't even realize it. In the military, if your sexuality is "don't ask, don't tell", why isn't your religion? It really is no one else's business.

seshme · Post by **seshme** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 1:40 am

SpursFan1902 wrote:We have references to god in our Pledge of Aliegence and on our money. Now it only says "God", so you could interprete it as any god that you want it to be, but it was originally intended as the Christian god. I agree that there is FAR too much overlap between Church and State and some of it has been going on for so long that we don't even realize it.

From memory the money and pledge references to superstition are relatively recent though and only added in the 1950s?

SpursFan1902 · Post by **SpursFan1902** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 2:23 am

seshme wrote:
SpursFan1902 wrote:We have references to god in our Pledge of Aliegence and on our money. Now it only says "God", so you could interprete it as any god that you want it to be, but it was originally intended as the Christian god. I agree that there is FAR too much overlap between Church and State and some of it has been going on for so long that we don't even realize it.
From memory the money and pledge references to superstition are relatively recent though and only added in the 1950s?

The reference on the money was introduced during the 1860's, but you may be right about the Pledge of Alliegnce...time for some research!

Post by **Skylace** » Fri Jul 25, 2008 10:56 am

SpursFan1902 wrote:
seshme wrote:
SpursFan1902 wrote:We have references to god in our Pledge of Aliegence and on our money. Now it only says "God", so you could interprete it as any god that you want it to be, but it was originally intended as the Christian god. I agree that there is FAR too much overlap between Church and State and some of it has been going on for so long that we don't even realize it.
From memory the money and pledge references to superstition are relatively recent though and only added in the 1950s?
The reference on the money was introduced during the 1860's, but you may be right about the Pledge of Alliegnce...time for some research!

The pledge was originally written without "Under God" and was added in the 1950s. You can even see an old "Merry Melodies" cartoon from the 40s where Porky Pig is learning the Pledge and the words "Under God" were not in it yet.

However, it wasn't really superstition that lead to it. Here's Wiki's entry

[web]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_ ... der_God.22[/web]