Should "God" be taken out of our pledge of alligance and our goverment? Atheists and Christians!!!?

Question

Now I am an atheist, but I don not feel that should be taken out of our pledge or our goverment in general. Mainly for the sake of our history as a country. We established our goverment based on a belief in God and our country was built by great men and women who truly believed in that. I think it would be wrong to try to erase the historical references of God in our country. That's just me though, so what do you think atheists and christians?

Since this is new info to me, what was the original pledge without "under god" was it the same just minus that part?

Answer 1

Our country was not founded on Christianity. It was founded on Deism. And anyway Congress added "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in like 1958 to combat "godless" Communism. It has nothing to do with our history. It wasn't a part of the original pledge. And yes, in my opinion it should be removed from the pledge.

Update: Yes, it was the same pledge without the "under God" part.

Answer 2

I do not believe there should be a national pledge of allegiance at all. People should be able to take whatever loyalty oath they want to take, and not have one foisted upon them.

Forcing children to take a loyalty oath that they do not understand is wrong.

I also do not pledge allegiance to the "flag" of the U.S.A. I pledge allegiance to the U.S.A. A "flag" is just a piece of cloth.

Under God was, incidentally, not originally in the Pledge. It was added long after the pledge was first adopted - in the mid-1950s, I believe. So, if you want to go back to "original intent" -- that original intent did not include "under God" in the pledge. And the founding fathers said nothing about a Pledge of allegiance. Nothing at all. I am sure that Jefferson would not have been in favor of one.

Jefferson, Adams, Hamilton, Washington -- these were men of the Enlightenment. They believed in freedom of thought and individual liberty. They did not favor such nonsense as loyalty oaths.

They didn't, for example, put the Bible in any oaths of office. The president does not have to say "...so help me God," or swear on any book. They volunteer to do that - which is fine, and that is their right as men to do so. But, the founding fathers did not REQUIRE it.

Answer 3

Okay, if you want to be true to the founding fathers, lots of them were deists and some were atheists. And the under God in the pledge and in God we trust on the money... Those were added more than 100 years later.

Separation of Church and state is a good idea and true to the wishes of the founders. I think I can speak for the majority of the nonbelievers here when I say that we do NOT want to keep people from having their religion or their beliefs. We just don't want it shoved down our throats or sponsored by the government (can't be fair to all the religions for one thing).

Answer 4

I'm a Christian... and I don't care! I think the "it is part of our history and doesn't hurt anything" argument is fair enough. I think the "we don't all believe in God and the pledge should represent us all" argument is pretty solid, too. It is obviously a matter of opinion, and either way is going to offend someone. It is a lose-lose situation. Frankly, I think people on both sides of the issue overreact. This simply is not that important. It is just being used by Christians as a dig against atheists and by atheists as a dig against religious people. The simplest solutions would probably be to leave it, because it is not like atheists can't just not say that part, or eliminate the pledge all together. That latter solution worked pretty well for my parents when I was a kid. Then no one gets what they want. We learned to get along and share really quick when our toys started disappearing! Alas, I doubt anything is going to stop people from being obtuse and frivolous on issues like this. What a pity. There are so many things in life more important.

Answer 5

I am an atheist as well, I think God should be removed from our pledge and our government. Because the US was built from the blood@sweat of slaves.The government is using God and Jesus for money and political power.Revelations is the only correct book of the bible.There is alot more I have too say on that subject but I don't have the time.

Answer 6

Yes, the reference to god should be taken out of the pledge. I won't argue the references to god on national monuments, that has more of a historical precedence. But the pledge was altered from the original (that didn't have the god reference) in 1954. Thats hardly long enough to be a historical institution.










In a nutshell, here's the history of the pledge:

Answer 7

It was put into the pledge in 50's. Why? What was wrong with the original version? I DO have a problem with having to mouth the words under God ( I won't say them, even in the pledge), although I could care less about the money. It's unfair for someone of a different faith to have to pledge allegiance to the Christian god. I say, remove it from the pledge.

Answer 8

Religious beliefs survived long and well before the pledge of allegiance, but in government no particular belief or non-belief should be the norm. From a practical stand point, it just makes more sense.

Answer 9

The "under god" was not in the original pledge so I agree, let's go back to the historical way of saying the pledge. That being, without the "under god" part.

This country was founded on the principle of freedom of religion, but that also includes freedom FROM religion. Separation of church and state should prevail.

Answer 10

When we say under god, we mean the catholic god. We should remove it, because atheist don't feel comfortable saying that, and people from other religions (for example Hindu) have other and more gods. By taking god out of the pledge, we keep it simple without hurting any ones feelings.