Hirohito18200 said:
Don't you think that the words on the bills help stress that this nation was founded on the principle that we are held accountable to a higher standard than our own?
Then it's odd that the founders never thought of it, and had all been dead for decades before the motto was placed on any of our money. It was placed on all currency during the hysteria of McCarthyism, and that's the ideology it represents. Since that hysteria is still alive and well in the form of the Religious Right, it still has massive support, too, but it has nothing to do with the founding principles of the United States.
In fact, the idea that "we are held accountable to a higher standard than our own" is completely nonsensical. We have no standards higher than our own, none at all. I'm aware that the most backwards, bigoted, and ignorant segments of the population imagine that their standards coincide with those of the Almighty, and even have their origin in Divine Providence, but there's not the slightest bit of evidence that it's true.
Hirohito18200 said:
I don't think that this can be all bad. and how bout "In Faith We Trust" or something, cause that would include athiests, satanists, pagans, and christians in the same happy family.
No, faith is precisely what I don't trust, and I'm sure there are plenty of Christians and members of other religions who would hasten to tell you it's not what they trust, either.
lasthope said:
Not being an intellectual or a person who quotes or references web pages, I think you should all just deal with it and get over it.
I think it's always good to work to change things for the better. Of course that always bothers religious fanatics, who so often work to change things for the worse.
lasthope said:
If you live in this country and use the American dollar as way of living, then you have no justifiable arguement.
What kind of morally bankrupt person would use the dollar "as a way of living"? The dollar is a tool, and it's a tool that can be improved in its design.
lasthope said:
Do your job, earn our paycheck, and cash it in for money that is marked "In God We Trust". Otherwise, quit your job, stop earning your money and get the he** out of our country.
Who in the hell do you think you are to tell me to get the hell out of "your" country? What irks me far more than that stupid motto on our money is the supreme arrogance of religious bigots who imagine that the country belongs to them. It's not "your" country, jack, it's
our country -- and I'll get out when I'm damned good and ready.
As a matter of fact, I'm trying to put together a plan to emigrate, because I'm sick and tired of living in a country where hateful religious fanatics and the spineless, amoral politicians who pander to them set the policies. But for now, and until the blessed day when (and if) I manage to become a citizen of a country that does not lay under the darkness of ignorance and bigotry, the United States is still my country as well as yours, and you forget that at your peril.
