Can an American citizen be a real atheist?

[reverendjeremiah]

I wanted to be one good atheist after I turned my back on Christianity.
Since I can't really obey "love thy neighbor" and "don't be angry" types of rules, therefore I'm a hypocrite Christian,right?

Well, being an American citizen with "IN GOD WE TRUST" in my wallet, using and reading the text everyday to buy stuffs will dis-qualified me as a real atheist, and become a hypocrite again for the second time?

Give me your $.02

Fine, this is what I want you to do.

Give me all of your money.

Then I will scratch over all of the god bullshit, therefore turning it into atheist money.

Now I am no longer a hypocrite.

...patiently waiting for your reply

[walknh2o]

I wanted to be one good atheist after I turned my back on Christianity.
Since I can't really obey "love thy neighbor" and "don't be angry" types of rules, therefore I'm a hypocrite Christian,right?

Well, being an American citizen with "IN GOD WE TRUST" in my wallet, using and reading the text everyday to buy stuffs will dis-qualified me as a real atheist, and become a hypocrite again for the second time?

Give me your $.02

History lesson:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Public Law 140 making it mandatory that all coinage and paper currency display the motto "In God We Trust." The following year, Public Law 851 was enacted and signed, which officially replaced the national motto "E Pluribus Unum" with "In God We Trust" All of this occurred at the height of cold war tension, when political divisions between the Soviet and western block was simplistically portrayed as a confrontation between Judeo-Christian civilization and the "godless" menace of communism. Indeed, the new national motto was only part of a broader effort to effectively religionize civic ritual and symbols. On June 14, 1954, Congress unanimously ordered the inclusion of the words "Under God" into the nation's Pledge of Allegiance. By this time, other laws mandating public religiosity had also been enacted, including a statute for all federal justices and judges to swear an oath concluding with "So help me God."

Is it a futile form of protest? A symptom of frustration? Some Atheists and separationists are crossing out the national motto on paper money. Whatever your opinion, the history of how "In God We Trust" ended up on currency shows that the motto is religious, not secular, in its origin and function today.

[walknh2o]

I wanted to be one good atheist after I turned my back on Christianity.
Since I can't really obey "love thy neighbor" and "don't be angry" types of rules, therefore I'm a hypocrite Christian,right?

Well, being an American citizen with "IN GOD WE TRUST" in my wallet, using and reading the text everyday to buy stuffs will dis-qualified me as a real atheist, and become a hypocrite again for the second time?

Give me your $.02

Fine, this is what I want you to do.

Give me all of your money.

Then I will scratch over all of the god bullshit, therefore turning it into atheist money.

Now I am no longer a hypocrite.

...patiently waiting for your reply

First: I didn't fell off a turnip truck .

Second: it is against the law to write (intentionally ruined) the IN GOD WE TRUST money....I am law abiding citizen of America and a proud disabled American veteran.

---

What can you suggest?
Leaving and renouncing my country? Will never happen, scratch that $.02 from your book of recommendations.

I'm not suggesting anything. I'm asking what YOU think should happen. You can't choose whether or not you're an atheist. If you don't believe in God, you are one.

So what should these people do instead of using dollars, to avoid being hypocrites?

Believing in God will not make one a Christian, so likewise, not believeing in God makes one an atheist.

It is "in actions and deeds" and things you possessed and adored.

Getting a black sharpie pen will violate....

Article 331, Title 18 of the U.S. Code prohibits defacement of currency only if it is performed with such deceptive intent, or the depicted face value of the currency is altered in a significant way.

---

I wanted to be one good atheist after I turned my back on Christianity.
Since I can't really obey "love thy neighbor" and "don't be angry" types of rules, therefore I'm a hypocrite Christian,right?

Well, being an American citizen with "IN GOD WE TRUST" in my wallet, using and reading the text everyday to buy stuffs will dis-qualified me as a real atheist, and become a hypocrite again for the second time?

Give me your $.02

Fine, this is what I want you to do.

Give me all of your money.

Then I will scratch over all of the god bullshit, therefore turning it into atheist money.

Now I am no longer a hypocrite.

...patiently waiting for your reply

Sorry ,no scratching allowed........
Article 331, Title 18 of the U.S. Code prohibits defacement of currency only if it is performed with such deceptive intent, or the depicted face value of the currency is altered in a significant way.

[Cosmic Ape]

This is rigodamndiculous. I can hold a Bible and still be an atheist. /story Go find something else to overanalyze, like why you are pretending to be an atheist.

Right on! You can hold a bible and still an atheist, but hold and use dollar bills you legally(by default) enforced the saying written in it "IN GOD WE TRUST".

"We" exclude all 11 million illegal immigrants having dollar bills in their wallets.

"WE" means ALL American citizens!
"WE" doesn't mean the land,country or government.....but ALL American human beings", "WE" the people of U.S.A. "IN GOD WE TRUST"

So we would prefer it not to be there,(not that I have any say being a citizen of the greatest Nation on the planet, the only country with Great in the name Great Britain), It is there.
My shirt said dry clean only and I put it in the washing machine.
Money cant make me trust in god just as my shirt label can't make me fork out a fortune for dry cleaning.

I is a rebel.

Well, try ordering a T-shirt with front side saying "IN GOD WE TRUST" and at the back side "I'm an Atheist".

People need money, I guess we should we trade clogs of dirt instead.

I'm not gonna let some fake Atheist tell us we shouldnt be using money or we're hypocrites. Fuck that, it's not my fault that the majority stockholder religion of this country is so Christy that they had to put religious propaganda on the currency. I use money and feel no remorse about using it.

I will go out and buy stuff tonight with Atheist attire on buying things in the name of me and my personal Atheism, it in no way supports the christian religion and in fact can be used for Atheism. There's no other way to survive in this country but to make a living making money, unless you wanna be a leech or a fuckin bum your whole life. If you don't want to then tough shit, sack up, drop your pide and make some greenbacks.

Religion will be mostly dead in the next 40 years anyway and the money you know with the In god we trust will be long gone from future currency if any which would just be digital anyway.

[walknh2o]

I wanted to be one good atheist after I turned my back on Christianity.
Since I can't really obey "love thy neighbor" and "don't be angry" types of rules, therefore I'm a hypocrite Christian,right?

Well, being an American citizen with "IN GOD WE TRUST" in my wallet, using and reading the text everyday to buy stuffs will dis-qualified me as a real atheist, and become a hypocrite again for the second time?

Give me your $.02

History lesson:

President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed Public Law 140 making it mandatory that all coinage and paper currency display the motto "In God We Trust." The following year, Public Law 851 was enacted and signed, which officially replaced the national motto "E Pluribus Unum" with "In God We Trust" All of this occurred at the height of cold war tension, when political divisions between the Soviet and western block was simplistically portrayed as a confrontation between Judeo-Christian civilization and the "godless" menace of communism. Indeed, the new national motto was only part of a broader effort to effectively religionize civic ritual and symbols. On June 14, 1954, Congress unanimously ordered the inclusion of the words "Under God" into the nation's Pledge of Allegiance. By this time, other laws mandating public religiosity had also been enacted, including a statute for all federal justices and judges to swear an oath concluding with "So help me God."

Is it a futile form of protest? A symptom of frustration? Some Atheists and separationists are crossing out the national motto on paper money. Whatever your opinion, the history of how "In God We Trust" ended up on currency shows that the motto is religious, not secular, in its origin and function today.

"inner conviction" using "IN GOD WE TRUST" money just gives me guilty feelings to be a real dedicated atheist.

"An atheist loves himself and his fellow man instead of a god. An atheist accepts that heaven is something for which we should work now – here on earth – for all men together to enjoy. An atheist accepts that he can get no help through prayer, but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and to enjoy it. An atheist accepts that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help lead to a life of fulfillment."

[reverendjeremiah]

First: I didn't fell off a turnip truck .

Second: it is against the law to write (intentionally ruined) the IN GOD WE TRUST money....I am law abiding citizen of America and a proud disabled American veteran.

Okay, lets try this again:

Step one, give me all of your cash

Step two, I will perform a ceremony over the stacks of cash that procalims that the word "God" on the cash now means "godless"

Step three, I will place all of that money into my bank account (an atheists bank account, by the way), therefore laundering the money of a "true" god

Step four, I will use my debit card for all purchases, thefore legally avoiding "in god we trust"

Presto...it is now atheist money

[walknh2o]

This is rigodamndiculous. I can hold a Bible and still be an atheist. /story Go find something else to overanalyze, like why you are pretending to be an atheist.

Right on! You can hold a bible and still an atheist, but hold and use dollar bills you legally(by default) enforced the saying written in it "IN GOD WE TRUST".

"We" exclude all 11 million illegal immigrants having dollar bills in their wallets.

"WE" means ALL American citizens!
"WE" doesn't mean the land,country or government.....but ALL American human beings", "WE" the people of U.S.A. "IN GOD WE TRUST"

So we would prefer it not to be there,(not that I have any say being a citizen of the greatest Nation on the planet, the only country with Great in the name Great Britain), It is there.
My shirt said dry clean only and I put it in the washing machine.
Money cant make me trust in god just as my shirt label can't make me fork out a fortune for dry cleaning.

I is a rebel.

Well, try ordering a T-shirt with front side saying "IN GOD WE TRUST" and at the back side "I'm an Atheist".

People need money, I guess we should we trade clogs of dirt instead.

I'm not gonna let some fake Atheist tell us we shouldnt be using money or we're hypocrites. Fuck that, it's not my fault that the majority stockholder religion of this country is so Christy that they had to put religious propaganda on the currency. I use money and feel no remorse about using it.

I will go out and buy stuff tonight with Atheist attire on buying things in the name of me and my personal Atheism, it in no way supports the christian religion and in fact can be used for Atheism. There's no other way to survive in this country but to make a living making money, unless you wanna be a leech or a fuckin bum your whole life. If you don't want to then tough shit, sack up, drop your pide and make some greenbacks.

Religion will be mostly dead in the next 40 years anyway and the money you know with the In god we trust will be long gone from future currency if any which would just be digital anyway.

Atheists had been fighting the removal of IN GOD WE TRUST and failed.

"One of the first legal actions to challenge religious sloganeering of this type was made in 1978 by American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair. In the case of MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR et al. v. W. MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, et al. (462 F. Supp. 19 -- W.D. Tex 1978), the court opined: "Its use is of a patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of religious exercise." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reached a similar conclusion in the 1970 case ARONOW v. UNITED STATES. Subsequent cases also fell short, even though they argued that the motto clearly encouraged religion and made a statement about god and theology. On September 14, 1988, then-President of American Atheists Jon Murray addressed the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs and Coinage concerning proposals to redesign the nation's currency. At that time, Murray expressed concern about including "In God We Trust" on the national currency,

[Doubting Thomas]

It's not my fault that our currency has (in violation of the Establishment Clause) "In God We Trust" printed on it. If I had my way, it wouldn't be on there. So I don't feel like a hypocrite whenever I use money to buy something. If they'd provide atheists with alternative bills, I'd gladly accept them.

The Supreme Court ruled that the "God" in "In God We Trust" is such a generic god that it has no real religious meaning. I don't agree with this, but that's what they've said.

If it really bothers you so much that you feel like a hypocrite for not believing in God while our money carries his name, then do what I do and mark it out. Or write "No we don't" underneath. Who cares if it defaces our currency? It's not like anyone's going to actually throw you in jail for it, and I always imagine how upset it must make Christians to see that written on their dollars. Even if it is illegal to deface currency, having a phrase which claims that all Americans (the "We") believe in God is illegal according to the First Amendment because it's establishing religion. So it shouldn't even be on there in the first place.

[walknh2o]

First: I didn't fell off a turnip truck .

Second: it is against the law to write (intentionally ruined) the IN GOD WE TRUST money....I am law abiding citizen of America and a proud disabled American veteran.

Okay, lets try this again:

Step one, give me all of your cash

Step two, I will perform a ceremony over the stacks of cash that procalims that the word "God" on the cash now means "godless"

Step three, I will place all of that money into my bank account (an atheists bank account, by the way), therefore laundering the money of a "true" god

Step four, I will use my debit card for all purchases, thefore legally avoiding "in god we trust"

Presto...it is now atheist money

All 4 steps not "legal binding"...therefore religulos in nature.

Atheists fought and lost......

One of the first legal actions to challenge religious sloganeering of this type was made in 1978 by American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair. In the case of MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR et al. v. W. MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, et al. (462 F. Supp. 19 -- W.D. Tex 1978), the court opined: "Its use is of a patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of religious exercise." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reached a similar conclusion in the 1970 case ARONOW v. UNITED STATES. Subsequent cases also fell short, even though they argued that the motto clearly encouraged religion and made a statement about god and theology. On September 14, 1988, then-President of American Atheists Jon Murray addressed the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs and Coinage concerning proposals to redesign the nation's currency. At that time, Murray expressed concern about including "In God We Trust" on the national currency,

---

It's not my fault that our currency has (in violation of the Establishment Clause) "In God We Trust" printed on it. If I had my way, it wouldn't be on there. So I don't feel like a hypocrite whenever I use money to buy something. If they'd provide atheists with alternative bills, I'd gladly accept them.

The Supreme Court ruled that the "God" in "In God We Trust" is such a generic god that it has no real religious meaning. I don't agree with this, but that's what they've said.

If it really bothers you so much that you feel like a hypocrite for not believing in God while our money carries his name, then do what I do and mark it out. Or write "No we don't" underneath. Who cares if it defaces our currency? It's not like anyone's going to actually throw you in jail for it, and I always imagine how upset it must make Christians to see that written on their dollars. Even if it is illegal to deface currency, having a phrase which claims that all Americans (the "We") believe in God is illegal according to the First Amendment because it's establishing religion. So it shouldn't even be on there in the first place.

That's the magnificent nature of the green bucks, circumnavigating the first amendments by "you" who is an American citizen, the "WE" who uses the currency by default authorized the motto to be true....IN GOD WE TRUST.

[Cosmic Ape]

Right on! You can hold a bible and still an atheist, but hold and use dollar bills you legally(by default) enforced the saying written in it "IN GOD WE TRUST".

"We" exclude all 11 million illegal immigrants having dollar bills in their wallets.

"WE" means ALL American citizens!
"WE" doesn't mean the land,country or government.....but ALL American human beings", "WE" the people of U.S.A. "IN GOD WE TRUST"

So we would prefer it not to be there,(not that I have any say being a citizen of the greatest Nation on the planet, the only country with Great in the name Great Britain), It is there.
My shirt said dry clean only and I put it in the washing machine.
Money cant make me trust in god just as my shirt label can't make me fork out a fortune for dry cleaning.

I is a rebel.

Well, try ordering a T-shirt with front side saying "IN GOD WE TRUST" and at the back side "I'm an Atheist".

People need money, I guess we should we trade clogs of dirt instead.

I'm not gonna let some fake Atheist tell us we shouldnt be using money or we're hypocrites. Fuck that, it's not my fault that the majority stockholder religion of this country is so Christy that they had to put religious propaganda on the currency. I use money and feel no remorse about using it.

I will go out and buy stuff tonight with Atheist attire on buying things in the name of me and my personal Atheism, it in no way supports the christian religion and in fact can be used for Atheism. There's no other way to survive in this country but to make a living making money, unless you wanna be a leech or a fuckin bum your whole life. If you don't want to then tough shit, sack up, drop your pide and make some greenbacks.

Religion will be mostly dead in the next 40 years anyway and the money you know with the In god we trust will be long gone from future currency if any which would just be digital anyway.

Atheists had been fighting the removal of IN GOD WE TRUST and failed.

"One of the first legal actions to challenge religious sloganeering of this type was made in 1978 by American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair. In the case of MADALYN MURRAY O'HAIR et al. v. W. MICHAEL BLUMENTHAL, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY, et al. (462 F. Supp. 19 -- W.D. Tex 1978), the court opined: "Its use is of a patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of religious exercise." The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reached a similar conclusion in the 1970 case ARONOW v. UNITED STATES. Subsequent cases also fell short, even though they argued that the motto clearly encouraged religion and made a statement about god and theology. On September 14, 1988, then-President of American Atheists Jon Murray addressed the Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs and Coinage concerning proposals to redesign the nation's currency. At that time, Murray expressed concern about including "In God We Trust" on the national currency,

What did this rambling accomplish for you and how did it address what I said at all...You clearly have to find a hobby because this is the stupidest argument I've ever heard not to use money, especially if youre an atheist? sorry but thats a clown shoes answer. "Dont use money if youre an atheist or youre a hypocrite" youre a sensationalist and nobody cares about this retarded agenda you've made up. I think we're all convinced youre a religious person otherwise you wouldnt be telling us not to use money, you'd be telling us to start a revolution that you may be wanting to start up since you brought up the topic. Youre not being relevant or helpful to youre own little problem.