Proof that religious wording isn't "secular" or "benign"

[cleanhippie]

Proof that religious wording isn't "secular" or "benign"
Public religiosity rarely brings a pluralistic society together
Published on April 21, 2011

When nonreligious Americans object to the words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, or to "In God We Trust" as the national motto, we often hear opponents claim that the wording is harmless, secular in purpose, and that nobody interprets the words as being a religious affirmation of any kind. Sometimes the excuse given is that such wording merely "acknowledges the nation's religious heritage."

Of course, just about every society has some kind of religious heritage, but even if we find it desirable to "acknowledge" America's religious heritage one could question why we must do so by affirmatively stating that God actually exists. After all, America also has a strong secular heritage - many of our founders were quite anti-clerical, some rejected Christianity and supernatural religion outright, and certainly many of them were far outside the framework of traditional religion. Thus, would we "acknowledge" that secular heritage by affirming in our national Pledge and motto that there is no God

--snip--

It should be no surprise that to most people affirmative statements of religious truth - such as "In God We Trust" and the unambiguous claim that we are a nation "under God - are not secular and are not mere acknowledgements of heritage. They are religious truth claims that make outsiders of all who disagree, that necessarily slant government and public policy away from the outsiders and toward those who promote the affirmations.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201104/proof-religious-wording-isnt-secular-or-benign

[Angry Dragon]

1. The religious just believe in the god Chaos

Or the god Ra
Zeus, Thor, and all the good gods.........

[Sadena Meti]

2. Deism

If we want to honor America's religious heritage (and I see no reason why we should, any more than we should honor our heritage of slavery) but back to the point, we should honor Deism, the belief of most of the Founding Fathers, and quite a few early presidents.

[humblebum]

3. Excuse me, but there were only 2 admitted deists who

signed the Declaration of Independence, plus a couple Unitarians. The rest were Congregationalists,

Presbyterians, or Episcopalians, and one Catholic.