So you prescribe more meaning to it than the people who utter it then?
Once again, I remain in complete and silent awe of the stunning depths of your douchebaggery.
Look at that, we are in the Pit. You just signed up for some verbal abuse when you decided to believe as you do.
Had the Founders known that people like you would have defiled the beautiful idea of the United States, not only would they have not fought in the Revolution, they would have all promptly killed themselves lest any of them accidentally create a place where views like yours would have any traction at all.
The fact that people like you fester everywhere in America is a cause of great despair.
Did you think Matthew Shepard signed up for what he got for wanting to fuck men?
While I agree with you that liberalism has become quite intolerant, I don’t agree with you that conservatism isn’t equally intolerant.
One example would be Prop 8. It’s always interesting though how liberal tolerance for religion extends to all religions BUT Christianity.
This concludes another episode of The Starving Artist - Things Were So Much Better During McCarthyism Show.
That’s because, for the most part, Christianity doesn’t need the left’s help.
No. It’s saying that no belief should be enshrined at all. Roberts should not prompt Obama to say “so help me God”, “so help me Allah”, “so help me universe”, or “so help me Flying Spaghetti Monster”.
What does Proposition 8 have to do with anything?
Well, generally the left is antagonistic to Christianity. Tolerance isn’t about helping as much as it is about not hindering.
People bitch about Christian proselytization, but it’s usually the same people who like to berate people for believing. IE, they want Christians to be atheists.
It’s an example of conservatives using the constitution to oppress people.
Which is why it isn’t really all that “dopey”. If you sit back and let a legal precedent for a small intrusion of religion into government being treated as legal, you are letting the groundwork be laid for a later, much larger intrusion. That’s much of the point behind the constant attempt of the Christians to push their religion everywhere they can, IMHO; it’s a legal strategy, part of their desire to establish a Christian theocracy.
I’m sure it’s lost on you that having to resort to lies like this only shows that you have nothing of substance to argue.
I am simply recognizing the meaning that is there. “In God We Trust” - well, no, we don’t. Some of us believe in God (although there’s considerable disagreement about His attributes among this subset of Americans). Some of us believe in Gods (plural). Some of us believe in a Goddess. Some of us don’t believe there are any supernatural beings. A good, patriotic American can believe in any of those things. There’s nothing neutral about that statement on our money; to pretend it isn’t a divisive statement is to be willfully blind.
“So Help Me God” - again, just why is the Chief Justice going to insert this phrase into the wording of the Presidential oath of office? It’s not included in the official wording of the oath as stated in the Constitution. It’s not a statement that everyone who might be elected to the office of President should feel obligated to repeat. What exactly is its purpose there? Why deliberately insert a divisive phrase into an otherwise neutral oath?
It’s long past time to retire ceremonial Christianity to the dustbin of history. This country is a religious plurality; we can no longer assume that all real Americans are monotheistic, much less Protestant (which is the real underlying assumption behind ceremonial Deism). The alternative will be refighting the 30 Year’s War, and I for one don’t think that will be much fun at all.
It’s a teeter-totter issue, the way I see it. I fully realize that a Christmas tree is related to the Christian holiday of Christmas – the name is right in it – but I see that as more of a secular thing. It’s not like there are Christmas trees in the bible.
Talk about nativity scenes and you’ll get a more vehment reaction from me.
For the record (seeing as this is what the OP was about in the first place), I don’t have a problem with Obama saying “So help me, God” in his oath of office, as that is his right as a citizen.
I would have huge problem if he were *required *to.
Lies. Good one. Am I a commie too?
Why would I want to bang my head againt the wall arguing against your well-documented bullshit about how lovely everything was before we evil liberals ruined everything?
Personally, if I ever had the power to do so, I would persecute and oppress the religious people a lot worse than anything they’re doing to me now. With that in mind I can’t get too worked up over a few god references in government or even laws that I have no intention of following anyway.
Frankly, the religious folks are probably correct to not want people like me in positions of authority.
What exactly does this have to do with atheism?
Is wishing that people would not spread falsehoods and wishing that people would not believe falsehoods somehow contradictory?
Oh, you mean the legally questionable amendment to overturn the California Supreme Court’s decision that the constitution of California mandated that same-sex couples be treated equally? And again, what does Proposition 8 have to do with people trying to oppress Christians? That is, after all, what Starving Artist was discussing there.
Yeah, the Christmas tree thing is kind of weird…there’s really nothing religious at all about it. Putting one up or not is all the same to me, as far as the religious experience of the holdiay is concerned.
ETA: In fact, it probably detracts from the religious experience, more than anything.
It’s all sparkly and green and stuff, in the dead of winter. Regardless of religious convictions, we’re all apes. We like sparkly wondrous things, especially when it’s all dull and grey out.