Should "In God We Trust" stay on currency?

Started by Moondazed, February 11, 2009, 09:04:27 AM

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Caity

I think the country is facing bigger issues than this. 

Kroduk

I think it's a bit hypocritical to put 'In God We Trust' on the primary currency of a country that, as a whole, doesn't.
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Trieste

Quote from: Zakharra on February 11, 2009, 10:13:47 PM
Since the majority wants this, it must be wrong. After all, some think it is a violation of the church and state and must be striken.

I can see that being used as an agruement to get it removed.

I understand what you're saying and see what you mean. Just to be clear for future posters, that is not what I meant and I'm pretty sure Zakharra didn't take it that way.

/pre-empt

Zakharra

 *nod nod* I understand. I wasn't aiming at anyone here, but at those that do use arguements like that to get the minority's view/needs/wants thrust into people's faces and into law.  Sometimes that is good, sometimes it's bad. There is a reason this nation was set up as majority rule. My responce was slightly tongue in cheek. Humor and satirical method doesn't always translate well on the internet.  :)

HairyHeretic

Quote from: Zakharra on February 12, 2009, 08:29:02 AM
Humor and satirical method doesn't always translate well on the internet.  :)

Unfortunately very true.
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Will

I don't care what the money says personally, as long as I can buy groceries with it.

It seems to me like after the Bush administration, the religious right has been floundering quite a bit.  Why give them something to rally around?  This particular issue could even be made into a "patriotic" one, thereby gaining them the middle ground in some areas.  I just don't think it's worth making a big deal about, at least not right now. 

I hate to sound corny, but we really have bigger problems to worry about, and the last thing we need is politicians arguing about what our money says.  I'm more concerned with not having enough of it, and it comes and goes so fast that I really have no time to sit and appreciate what's on it. >.>
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Quote from: HairyHeretic on February 11, 2009, 11:06:58 AM
I can't say I have any real issues with that. The Law should be secular.

And to add to that, when our Founders were discussing the idea of 'God' in a lot of cases they used the word 'Creator' or were referring to 'God' in a general term. Our founders were not right-wing fundies at all, and in fact, many were Deists that would have a hard time relating to the current right-wing fundies that are outraged at all of this stuff. Jefferson wrote his own New Testament and he surely wouldn't have taken a more fundamental approach to God in those terms. So the phrase should stay. I'm not a Christian either, but I am not anti-religion either. In fact, I have no issue with all of us practicing our religion. Separation of Church and State and Freedom of Religion is not Freedom From Religion, and I think you have to look at the Founder's intent when dealing with historical issues like this.

Oniya

Quote from: Will1984 on February 12, 2009, 08:50:19 AM
I'm more concerned with not having enough of it, and it comes and goes so fast that I really have no time to sit and appreciate what's on it. >.>

Probably the best assessment of this situation, in my opinion.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
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Nessy

Freedom of religion, is not the same as freedom from religion. 

Our founding fathers were, indeed, religious but most of them were against organized religion, think nationalized religion, not religion as a whole which could explain why so many of them were affiliated with different churches or not affiliated at all. Our founding fathers were not exactly confident in the masses either, which one reason why we don't have a direct vote for the presidency. As for the majority ruling, true and false. True for the House. False for the Senate, and the Supreme Court was designed to protect the minority not the majority which is how segregation could be found unconstitutional when the majority of the country was still in favor of it. It's not the job of the Supreme Court Justices to rule in favor of the majority or do what is most popular at the time, which one reason they have lifetime appointments. It's also not the job of the government to try to make everything PC and erase history to do so.

Are we supposed to rewrite Lincoln's speech to make people happy. How about Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech? How about Dwight Eisenhower's speech? Should we remove Jefferson's image from money because he owned slaves, that might offend someone? How about Jackson, the guy was likely psychotic on some level.

I'd much rather look forward then try and smooth over the lingering visuals of our history. Besides that, cash accounts for less and less of our financial transactions each day. Credit cards, debit cards, checks are more prevalent. In 50-100 years time, we might not even have cash in circulation anymore. And if our credit cards are any indication, we're not likely to stick with historical images or quotes with our new found toys. ;)
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Quote from: Caity on February 11, 2009, 10:32:26 PM
I think the country is facing bigger issues than this. 

Here I have to agree. We're fighting two wars, the nation's infrastructure is hemorrhaging jobs at a faster rate than ever due to outsourcing and a crap economy, and we're actually concerned about a few characters stamped on the coin of the realm?

Lindra

While there are more important issues at hand, the presence of 'God' in our government is the root of so many other conflicts as well. The idea of the separation of church and state was Thomas Jefferson's idea, I definitely agree with him.  I feel that, 'In God we Trust,' should be removed, because in the current context of the christian idea, it doesn't hold true to what the founding fathers believed. Even though a number of them were christian, they didn't feel that god gave us innate morals that we must follow, but logic. God gave us logic, and from there we could take it and make our own logical decisions.
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Nessy

Quote from: Lindra on February 22, 2009, 10:07:43 PM
While there are more important issues at hand, the presence of 'God' in our government is the root of so many other conflicts as well. The idea of the separation of church and state was Thomas Jefferson's idea, I definitely agree with him.  I feel that, 'In God we Trust,' should be removed, because in the current context of the christian idea, it doesn't hold true to what the founding fathers believed. Even though a number of them were christian, they didn't feel that god gave us innate morals that we must follow, but logic. God gave us logic, and from there we could take it and make our own logical decisions.

This just isn't true. The Declaration of Independence not only references God, not "god", but it says that we were certainly given morals that we must follow, that each of us have inalienable rights. If you follow the logic that you have an inalienable right and therefore that right should not be taken away, then it would be immoral for me to take that right away. This means that moral choice was given to me by a Creator (note the capital here), or God and that I should follow that moral guidance not to take away someones inalienable rights, rights that were given to all man kind. I am not suggesting that politics haven't gotten in the way some of the messages in the USA's early history's messages or meanings, but you can't just rewind the clock and try to make our founding father more progressive than they really were.

You can't erase history. They were religious white men who didn't trust in the masses, who were opposed to national churches and while they talked about religious freedoms clearly used Christian beliefs to formulate some of our most treasured documents. And it's not as if they were hypocritical from the get go, talking about liberty of Men while owning slaves. Our Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, etc. etc. isn't perfect, neither were the men who drafted them.
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Oniya

One thing to keep in mind is that at the time, the American colonists were all flavors of monotheism, and if you asked any given Catholic, Protestant or Jew of the time who created the universe, they would say 'God' (possibly Yahweh or Jehovah) - with the capital letter.  We didn't have a large (if any) Muslim population, let alone any of the polytheistic faiths, and even the atheists and agnostics were pretty quiet on that argument.  The key point is that none of these branches of monotheism were to be put ahead of the others as a 'national religion'.
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Nessy

Well we were talking about the founding fathers right. The founding fathers were, by and large, christians but not from one particular church or denomination. I am certainly not suggesting that all the colonist were christians, or that some people in our history said they were christian, for obvious reasons, but really want. If we are talking about a document drafted primarily by publicly christian, educated white men, then there is a very good chance that God and the Creator are referring to the christian faith's God and not some other god that some of us might have learned about in a more progressive 21st century religious class or discussion. History is what it was. And my argument is simply, we can't exclude history in all forms because there are aspects of that are unpleasant to someone. Yes, we can be more PC and probably should be even but not on everything. In God We Trust has a more historical importance than a religious one.
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HairyHeretic

Quote from: Nessy on February 24, 2009, 03:34:18 PM
In God We Trust has a more historical importance than a religious one.

I believe the religious right would disagree with you there.

Loudly.

Whilst damning you to their hell.

;)
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cattycutie

"In God We Trust."

It's never been an issue before, right? It's just the fact that people that strive for political correctness are trying to remove anything that may be offensive to any type of people. Like I said, it's never been an issue, why should it be made into one now?

When I think of an English note, I think of the Queen. Should she be removed from our currency to appease the anti-monarchy peoples?
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The most amazing thing is that people have energy to bicker about such an insignificant thing. Wether it is there or not will not affect anything at all :p
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HairyHeretic

Quote from: Lithos on February 24, 2009, 04:34:12 PM
The most amazing thing is that people have energy to bicker about such an insignificant thing.

Welcome to teh internets  ;D
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Quote from: Lithos on February 24, 2009, 04:34:12 PM
The most amazing thing is that people have energy to bicker about such an insignificant thing. Wether it is there or not will not affect anything at all :p

This is the most amazing thing you have encountered... i mean even this week?
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Apple of Eris

In respone to the question posed in the title, "Should 'In God We Trust' stay on currency":

No.

Thank you, have a nice day.
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Inkidu

Well then you've got to pull the eye in the triangle, the unfinished pyramid and a few other Illuminati (Freemason) symbols from the dollar bill. I think it's a genius movie. How do you get more plausibly deniable than God?
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Oniya

Let me guess, you were watching the History Channel today?  Interesting note, Roman Catholics were not allowed to join the Freemasons, leading to the founding of the Knights of Columbus.
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
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Inkidu

Quote from: Oniya on February 25, 2009, 08:03:26 PM
Let me guess, you were watching the History Channel today?  Interesting note, Roman Catholics were not allowed to join the Freemasons, leading to the founding of the Knights of Columbus.
Was that on?
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.

Oniya

There was something about the 'Secrets of the Dollar Bill', and I actually thought about this thread when I noticed it was on.

(*is geek*)
"Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women.~*~*~Don't think it's all been done before
And in that endeavor, laziness will not do." ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think we're never gonna win this war
Robin Williams-Dead Poets Society ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~Don't think your world's gonna fall apart
I do have a cause, though.  It's obscenity.  I'm for it.  - Tom Lehrer~*~All you need is your beautiful heart
O/O's Updated 5/11/21 - A/A's - Current Status! - Writing a novel - all draws for Fool of Fire up!
Requests updated March 17

Inkidu

Quote from: Oniya on February 26, 2009, 12:39:51 AM
There was something about the 'Secrets of the Dollar Bill', and I actually thought about this thread when I noticed it was on.

(*is geek*)
(*Geek too*)
If you're searching the lines for a point, well you've probably missed it; there was never anything there in the first place.