tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post124859658076779347..comments2023-10-24T04:29:23.693-06:00Comments on Atheist Ethicist: Court Upholds 'Under God' and 'In God We Trust'Alonzo Fyfehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05687777216426347054noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16594468.post-81349763721785122072010-03-12T23:54:30.809-07:002010-03-12T23:54:30.809-07:00I wrote a couple of letters to the editor. I can p...I wrote a couple of letters to the editor. I can probably only use one.<br /><br />I hereby offer this letter to anyone who wishes to use it, under your own name, assuming it conveys what you believe. Feel free to change anything to make it sound like your own voice.<br /><br />-----<br /><br />The Ninth Circuit Court ruled that the teacher-led recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance does not count as an establishment of religion prohibited by the constitution.<br /><br />If someone were born yesterday, that would seem a reasonable conclusion. But given that the words "under God" were added in 1954, the two non-dissenting justices had to make some logical contortions to pretend that the words "under God" don't really have anything to do with religion. <br /><br />Their plausible-sounding explanation goes like this: the founders used the words "endowed by their Creator" to explain that that our rights as individuals come from that creator. Even the government cannot do anything to take those rights away, since they weren't granted by the government in the first place. The real meaning of "under God" has nothing to do with God. "Under God" is an expression of individual rights and a declaration of humility from the government.<br /><br />Yeah, right. <br /><br />The dissent puts it rather more bluntly: "Surely, our original Pledge, without the McCarthy-era effort to indoctrinate our nation’s children with a state-held religious belief, was no less patriotic. [...] The only difference between the original secular Pledge and the amended religious version is that the former did not subject, and was not designed to subject, our children to an attempt by their government to impose on them a religious belief regarding the existence of God."Martin Mapesnoreply@blogger.com