Should all references to God be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance and other national symbols?

Question

I have to write a paper for my economics/government class about whether or not the Pledge of Alligiance and other national symbols should have all references to God removed. In my paper, I have to choose one side and argue that side. However, I'm still at the point that I am jumping back and forth. So I wanted to see what you guys thought, and maybe you had some information that I could use to help me decide and possibly use in my paper. All answers are appreciated. Thanks!

Answer 1

Absolutely. The government "shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion".

Using religious symbols and phrases is a direct violation of the plain text of that constitutional prohibition. It does far more than just "respect" religion. It affirmatively endorses religion, and more specifically one particular group of monotheistic religions.

Answer 2

I'm an atheist. And, for various reasons that I'm not going to go into here, I despise many of the effects of religious influence on our society. But it doesn't bother me at all that there are references to God in some of our national symbols. However, I would see the removal of these references as a major victory for rationality in the current political climate. I'd like to see the references to God removed not because I want them gone, but because I believe that the religious Right has far too much influence over the polics of our nation (as in, the influence of this group is vastly out of proportion to the portion of the population that it represents), and removing these religous references would indicate that this group is losing influence. Of course, they're not going to be removed.

As a previous poster stated, the "under God" clause of the Pledge of Allegiance was added during the height of the Cold War to distinguish Americans from "the godless communists" since communism shuns all religion. It has nothing to do with the sentiments of our Founding Fathers, but does represent a piece of our history, though a rather more recent one. To me, removing this clause from the Pledge would not only indicate greater acceptance of the portion of population that does not adhere to a monotheistic religion, but would also be symbolic of moving on from the Cold War era, something that many Americans have yet to do.

I'm less sure of the history of other religious references in national symbols, so I don't have anything much specific to say about them. But I do think that in general removing refefences to God from official government stuff would be a political step in the right direction.

Answer 3

Well as a christian my first instinct is to say leave it in. I think that we are much better recognizing God in our life. However as a citizen of the united states I would have to say, it might be time to take it out. The pledge as I'm sure you know did not originally say "under God" It was put in during the 50's when we were trying to separate ourselves from communism.

Wow don't that open up a whole nother can of worms? You could go on forever with a paper about what will be symbolized by taking it out now! The liberals will say it's just a separation of church and state. and the Republicans will say the left is a bunch of communists! Gee thanks alot now you are gonna have me thinking about this.

Good luck with your paper I don't know what to tell you. It should be interesting though!

Answer 4

Yes. I'm not an athiest, but it does seem rather strange that we have incorporated so much of religion into politics in view of the fact that the U.S. Constitution is partly based upon separation of church and state and we're actually prohibited legally from mixing the two of them, but we do it anyways. I've always thought that everyone uses God to drive their own agenda's home. There are many stories of various wars where both sides are praying to God to let them win over their evil enemies that they're about to be in combat with. I think it's how politicians corral the masses into fighting for some higher power--disgusting.

Answer 5

I am on the fence about it myself.

On one hand, I understand the entire thing about removing it. It is a religious reference, and in this day and age, not all of our citizens have "GOD" as their "almighty". Having GOD referenced discriminates against those that are not of the Christian faith. I feel that is wrong, and we should remove the references so that we are truly representing ALL of our citizens.

On the other hand, the reference to GOD is done more out of the spirit of things rather than to base religion into our government. If it were meant to put religion into our governing ways, then we would not have the Freedom of religion clause as well as the separation of Church and State. It is the spirit of using a faith to begin our country - not to use Catholicism or Protestant as a basis of our government and country. So in that vain, I feel that all references to GOD should be left in everything to show that our founding fathers used their skills and whits as well as their faith in one another to lay down the laws of this country and begin a truly free governing style that allowed no one to rule in entirety.

I am sure with those explanations you can start something of a paper, and with aid of those that are going to respond, you can formulate some more of your own wording.

Good luck!! Hope I did something more than confuse you.

Answer 6

No! God and the foundations of Christianity are what this country is founded upon. The separation of Church and State is an antiquated notion that came in to place hundreds of years ago to keep the Church at that time from becoming too powerful. This is no longer a problem. Even if one doesn't believe in God or a god, all religious teachings promote good morals, honesty and truth. These are three things of which the government could certainly use more.

Answer 7

Absolutely not. Do you know that it's getting to where some schools won't allow their students to wear a cross necklace or the star of David? Religion will soon be an "unmentionable" subject if things keep going they way they are going. Do you really want this nation to become one of nonreligion? You can't please one person without stepping on the toes of another. Get over it, people.

Answer 8

It depends on your interpretation of the law. You should see the questions I asked earlier today regarding "separation of church and state" and the 1st amendment.

As of now the courts have decided that they can stay but I imagine they will eventually be taken away. People claim whatever they want but our founding fathers were christian. Our nation is christian....but it won't remain unless our christians walk the walk.

Answer 9

No they should not be removed. Our country was built on our belief in God. You don't have to be too smart or look to far to see what our country would be like if we were to have built upon Islam, or Buddhism, or any other religion. If these other religions were so great, that these other countries were built on, it would be a moot point because their followers would be at home not here. As for the Atheist, if you really didn't believe, you wouldn't care.

Answer 10

It might be helpful to know that the words 'under god' were not originally in the pledge. They were added in the 1950's during the red scare, to reaffirm those who pledged it weren't godless commies. I may have made some of that up, though. . . check out wikipedia - they usually have some good stuff (although you shouldn't quote it for sources)

Answer 11

Absolutely NOT! The constitutuion guarantees freedom OF religion--not freedom FROM religion (Use that as your title). coagraph only gave you a portion of the first amendment he left out ........."or prohibit the free exercise thereof."

The "establishment of religion" clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the federal government can **set up** a church. Neither can pass laws which aid one religion, aid all religions, or prefer one religion over another. Neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. No person can be punished for entertaining or professing religious beliefs or disbeliefs (unlike this board), for church attendance or non-attendance. . In the words of Jefferson, the clause against establishment of religion by law was intended to erect "a wall of separation between church and State." (As opposed to eliminating church from the state.)