Poll: "In God We Trust" on coins?

Damnright it should be there!! If only to annoy the ACLU.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

If I knew it would annoy them, I'd want it to stay there!

 

Funny, I'd rather annoy the Christians by removing it since it was they that had it put there in the first place.

 

I'm not so sure. If you think it's bad to have majority rule(as do I), let the ACLU get their way and have the sensitivities of various groups trample rough-shod over the rights of individuals.

 

For practical purposes religion is God. The ancients may have directly experienced God or Gods but people today don't. God for most individuals and the vast majority of religious individuals (most of the US population) defined by their religion. Of course this isn't universal and more latitude is allowed in beliefs now days by most religions but Most Catholics didn't eat meat on Friday in 1955 and they don't even think about it now.

Everything is always in a state of flux and this includes religious interpretations of the nature of God as well as individual interpretations.

Individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are supposed to be engrained in our society. It is not supposed to take a vote of the supreme court or anyone else to prevent such words appearing inappropriately from the government any more than it's supposed to take a vote not to deprive someone of life, limb, or property unjustly.

I believe in the long term the courts will simply be considered to be in grave error on this matter.

 

Relatively few of the founders were athiests but they were almost all pragmatists. If you read the papers of these men you'll see that their public words and more private beliefs coincided only literally. Concepts like men are and ought to be free are very difficult even today to express without invoking a deity. Man derives his freedom from his nature or from his God dependent on individual beliefs but the fact remains that we do have a right to freedom and many millions of Americans have died to maintain that right.

There are numerous good solid God fearing reasons to oppose the motto but none of these should be needed since the fact is that this motto interferes with life, liberty, and/ or the pursuit of happiness of some Americans.

 

I think I, at least, am at a stalemate with others. I think it shouldn't be there. I also think as Cladking said, in the long run the lower courts will be overturned on this one. The majority may want it there, but to quote Reagan, "...they don't speak for the rest of us." When any group, be it majority or minority, can impose upon the Government to make metaphysical blanket statements for its citizens, we do move further away from the intent and spirit of the 1st Amendment.

I've thoroughly enjoyed this discussion. Thanks to everyone for demonstrating that these matters can be discussed much as they would if we were all sitting down over a beer or two: in a civil manner.

Now I'll just quietly follow along until the first hot-headed newbie becomes the bull in the china shop and gets the thread closed down!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

Just for clarification. You highlighted the GOD, but ignored the preceding word which was important, philosophically speaking. Nature's God was indeed a pretty irreligious concept.

 

Men have certain inalienable rights and these are not granted by the king nor the Constitution.

Of course you're quite right.

 

God fearing people usually don't want to offend others and this motto does.

This motto might even be consider blasphemy and could be offensive to the Deity.

The motto clutters up our coinage and will detract from almost many possible design. This might be mitigated a little by the use of acronyms like "USA" but Congress has refused to do this in the past.

This motto does not present our best face to our friends in the world. It implies things about us to future generations which are not entirely true.

While there might be nothing wrong with the sentiment expressed this is not the sort of "can do" spirit that made this country great. We didn't wait for divine intercession to accomplish those things which needed to be done. Trusting in God is great but this statement can be misconstrued to mean not to medically intervene to save lives or to sit on our hands when cities flood.

It might encourage some to pay attention only to God's law while forgeting man's law. It's not enough to tithe, we also have to give uncle Sam his cut. It's not enough to attend church, we al;so have to know the proper way to dispose of acetone or to ploacard a semitrailer carrying firecrackers. Trusting in God that they won't blow up or we won't get caught isn't proper procedure.

It instills in some children the concept that serving God might be more important than serving country, others, and principles. Considering how many serve only themselves now days the motto doesn't seem very effective anyway.

 

Dougs posting this, "
Where we may or may not differ is if you think that men have additional rights that are over and above those defined/listed by the Constitution."

Made me remember that there was a clause in the bill of rights that said something to the effect that there were unumerated rights that the constitution reserved to the states and the people.

It has been years since my Constitution class in High school, so I do not remember the clause by number as I should, it may have been a sort of catchall tenth or last of the bill of rights amendments.

Personally, I think that times and the peculiar character of different generations will assure that we will always have political conflict, often, it seems to me that the solutions for some problem trumpeted today turns out to be the cause of future problems tomorrow.

 

Hello everyone,

I have tried so hard to stay out of this, but have been keeping tabs on it as well. I do not like getting into Political or religious debates. I prefer to let others decide for themselves what is right, in those regards, and for the most part keep my views to myself, which are shared with close friends and family.

However the below comment struck me and now here I am.

I do not agree with this statement. Believing in God, and following His rules would mean one would want to follow Man's rules as well. Following his rule does not stop, hinder, prevent anyone from obeying laws nor serving there country.

This does not just go along with the God of my understanding but all divine beings, as far as I know.

Sorry had to get that out there quickly.

Concerning the argument as to the motto. I have been following the thread as I stated above. Call me conservative, traditional, what ever, etc. I like it.

I don't see how a simple motto could drastically change ones life, or a countries opinion of our great land. However I am sure to some degree this has actually happened. Great I don't care. I like it.

I don't see how this motto is offending, a person place or thing. If it does I am sorry, I actually don't care. I like it.

I will apologize if this offends anyone, not my intention. Just stating that I simply like the motto, and did vote yes, and am very glad to see many others feel the same way.

To be honest, this country has gotten to liberal as it is. Let something from our past be left alone already! If we keep changing our mottos, traditions, etc for others who come here we will not be The USA our founding fathers wanted. Or is that what they wanted? I don' know. I don't care, I like it.

Thats my two cents, pun intended as in 1864 the motto "In God We Trust" was first placed on the 2 Cent coin. I am sure most already knew that, it was shortly after that the Civil War ended in 1865. Both sides believed heavily in a God of there understanding, and felt they where doing His will.

OK I am done, see why I did not want to get involved. There is so much it entails. And why I said I don't know, I don't care. Because in the whole scheme of things it really does not matter, IMO.

With all that said I will be lurking in the background, smiling and shaking my head.

Kind regards,
Stan

 

But man's rules and God's rules do conflict at times.

This isn't really my point though. There's nothing wrong with being God fearing. Mostly it's just an observation that this motto isn't working anyway. So are we now to add slogans like some of nations that are threats or warnings to proper behavior? How about Bible passages?

There can be an effect on some people to take this to mean something which is detrimental to themselves or society. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with trusting in God, merely that praying as the boat is sinking and your children are drowning is highly maladaptive behavior. You'd be much better off to flip a coin to see whether to seek a flotation device, or trust that God will save you. Heads and you'll quite probably lose.

 

I typed out a post to this effect and deleted it.

The founders most assuredly believed we had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness which entailed anything we wished to do or believe so long as it didn't conflict with state (and federal) law.

It looked too political as written so it was deleted.

 

I do agree with the fact they do conflict, however if we all do the "next right thing" aren't we following both laws/rules?

I do agree there are some extremist who do take religion to seriously. Those that do mo, are much like extreme political activist, uneducated...just my opinion however. Maybe it is i that need to learn more, who knows.

Regards,
Stan

 

I'm not going to wade into debate. I'd cite that most all major faith followings believe in a God. But again, not wadeing in. So I'll just vote yes.