# Ok atheists, settle the fuck down. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 15, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366 "2009-01-15T02:10:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/21 "2009-01-15T03:30:55Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I’m wondering how long it’s going to be until atheism is held by some crackpot court to be a requirement for public office on separation grounds. After all, how can you separate religion from government if government is run by people who are religious? Oh, that won’t happen until after the armed uprising that finally overthrows the tyrannical Christian Reconstructionist regime that tries to implement Biblical law in America by punishing the public expression of all non-Christian religions and philosophies with death by stoning. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/22 "2009-01-15T03:42:29Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Maybe, but all that’s societal and not govermental, and and taking “In God We Trust” off the money won’t change it. All it does is piss people off, and it doesn’t make atheists’ lives any better. Sincere question, why would taking the motto off money piss people off? Is it because we are a Christian nation in the US, or is it because people believe that we are a Christian nation because of what is printed on our money? I really don’t care what the incoming President says during his oath, but why should it matter if the Oath did say, “so help me God,” and the new President refused to say that line. The US will always be considered to be a Christian nation as long as people implicitly accept the belief in a particular god. I regularly have people wishing me a blessed day as they count back my change, I look them in the eye and say, “No thank you.” I see no difference in what Mr Obama would be doing if those were the words in the Constitution. SSG Schwartz ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/23 "2009-01-15T03:42:55Z")
> [@MEBuckner](#): > > Oh, that won’t happen until after the armed uprising that finally overthrows the tyrannical Christian Reconstructionist regime that tries to implement Biblical law in America by punishing the public expression of all non-Christian religions and philosophies with death by stoning. How Eschatonian. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/24 "2009-01-15T03:49:44Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I’m wondering how long it’s going to be until atheism is held by some crackpot court to be a requirement for public office on separation grounds. After all, how can you separate religion from government if government is run by people who are religious? > > I imagine our forefathers’ spinning has reduced their coffins to splinters by now. :rolleyes: Yeah, I guess they can ignore that pesky little “no religious tests for office” rule! :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/25 "2009-01-15T03:58:57Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > > [@Musicat](#): > > > > Remember when blacks just shuffled along and tried to stay out of trouble? Look what it got them for 100 years. Sometimes being militant is necessary. > > Only we’re allowed to vote, and pee in any public restroom we like, and marry people who _do_ believe in god… Hey, it’s not a perfect analogy. But the point was – just in case it went over your head – that if something needs to be righted, some of us don’t think we should wait 100 years for a Rosa Parks to come along. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/26 "2009-01-15T04:06:39Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Hey, it’s not a perfect analogy. But the point was – just in case it went over your head – that if something needs to be righted, some of us don’t think we should wait 100 years for a Rosa Parks to come along. Hopefully it won’t take 100 years for you to realize that…YOU’RE NOT FUCKING OPPRESSED. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/27 "2009-01-15T04:16:48Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Maybe, but all that’s societal and not govermental, and and taking “In God We Trust” off the money won’t change it. All it does is piss people off, and it doesn’t make atheists’ lives any better. Maybe, but the reverse is true as well, isn’t it? Taking “In God We Trust” off the money doesn’t change individuals’ relationship with God. But all leaving it on does is piss people off, and it doesn’t make religious folks’ lives any better. Honestly, as an agnostic, I don’t care much for it in the pledge or on my money and I really don’t see the need for it other than to stroke some religious people’s egos. I also don’t get the whole God relationship to money thing either. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/28 "2009-01-15T04:19:12Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > Hopefully it won’t take 100 years for you to realize that…YOU’RE NOT FUCKING OPPRESSED. What difference does it make? It’s a wrong that ought to be righted. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/29 "2009-01-15T04:19:19Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I imagine our forefathers’ spinning has reduced their coffins to splinters by now. :rolleyes: That’s the least of their problems. Due to a freak sewing mistake in his burial garments, Thomas Jefferson’s spinning has managed to trap air pockets such that he’s actually gained lift. NORAD’s tracking him somewhere over the Pacific last I checked. I’m less upset about governmental endorsement of God on official currency than I am official endorsement of particular years. 2004 wasn’t all that great, yet there it sits, crudely emblazoned on your coins and notes. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/30 "2009-01-15T04:22:28Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > What difference does it make? It’s a wrong that ought to be righted. Your argument is foolish, inadequate, and evidence of a weak mind. Now, I don’t believe anything like that. I just think you’re wrong. But there’s quite a significant difference between a rather emotionally charged claim and a more reasonable one. The difference between claiming oppression and claiming there’s a wrong that ought to be righted is pretty large, because people are going to react to both of those really quite differently. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/31 "2009-01-15T04:27:21Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > … I imagine our forefathers’ spinning has reduced their coffins to splinters by now. :rolleyes: Somehow, I think having folks adding “so help me God” to the Oath of Office is more spin producing then simply wanting to have the oath given the way the Fucking Founding Father’s wrote it.[Article II - Section 1](http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.articleii.html#section1) … Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:–“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” Think, just maybe, they didn’t have “so help me God” at the end might have been because they didn’t fucking want it there? CMC fnord! ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/32 "2009-01-15T04:29:29Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Think, just maybe, they didn’t have “so help me God” at the end might have been because they didn’t fucking want it there? The Founding Fathers knew well that God would be busy in the nation’s latter years helping boxers punch the snot out of their opponents and quarterbacks throw a tight spiral. No time for that helping Presidents stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/33 "2009-01-15T04:41:53Z")
> [@SSG\_Schwartz](#): > > I regularly have people wishing me a blessed day as they count back my change Seriously? Note to self: don’t move to Paris, Texas. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/34 "2009-01-15T04:42:07Z")
> [@Revenant\_Threshold](#): > > Your argument is foolish, inadequate, and evidence of a weak mind. > > Now, I don’t believe anything like that. I just think you’re wrong. But there’s quite a significant difference between a rather emotionally charged claim and a more reasonable one. The difference between claiming oppression and claiming there’s a wrong that ought to be righted is pretty large, because people are going to react to both of those really quite differently. Okay. I can see how people might feel oppressed by all the God this, God that; personally I don’t, although I do feel distinctly put upon by it. Seems like you can’t turn around without being reminded that as a non-believer you are somehow not a patriot, not a moral person, or otherwise less than everyone else. All I have to do is open my wallet to see that I don’t fit in. I know why you people can’t keep God to yourself, but it’s awfully presumptuous to speak for us all. It really comes down to perception I guess. I’d say it’s viewed more as a social oppression than a governmental one, but the lines seem to blur when society uses the government to reinforce the social oppression. It’s one thing to express your own values on a personal level. It’s quite another thing to express your values as that of society-as-a-whole. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/35 "2009-01-15T05:11:15Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > What difference does it make? It’s a wrong that ought to be righted. I don’t think that recessive cultural accretions are a wrong that ought be righted. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/36 "2009-01-15T05:14:08Z")
> [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](#): > > All I have to do is open my wallet to see that I don’t fit in. Why? You trust in God, too- you just trust that he won’t actually start existing tomorrow, rather than that he’ll Bless America and protect our troops and make sure the markets run smoothly and so on. ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/37 "2009-01-15T05:17:36Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I don’t think that recessive cultural accretions are a wrong that ought be righted. Whatever. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/38 "2009-01-15T05:19:24Z")
> [@mswas](#): > > I don’t think that recessive cultural accretions are a wrong that ought be righted. I’ll remember that the next time you get gonorrhea. ---
**Author:** ![mswas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mswas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mswas)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/39 "2009-01-15T05:19:45Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > Seriously? > > Note to self: don’t move to Paris, Texas. It’s always odd to me how hostile people are to religious expressions. I mean why is a cultural well wish so nasty? ---
**Author:** ![Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brown_eyed_girl/32/3574_2.png) [@Brown\_Eyed\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brown_Eyed_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366/40 "2009-01-15T05:20:52Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Why? You trust in God, too- you just trust that he won’t actually start existing tomorrow, rather than that he’ll Bless America and protect our troops and make sure the markets run smoothly and so on. Well, no, not really. I trust that my legal tender is going to pay my rent, buy me a cup of coffee, put gas in my car. That’s about it. I’m not sure God really has anything to do with that. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ok-atheists-settle-the-fuck-down/481366.md?page=3)