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Does God Still Belong On Our Money?

Posted by majestic on November 16, 2011

1in_god_we_trust

An opinion piece by Skeptic Magazine’s Michael Shermer in the LA Times has stirred up lots of strong opinions amongst Angelenos. What do disinfonauts think?

The House voted 396-9 this week to reaffirm as the national motto the phrase “In God We Trust” and encouraged its pronouncement on public buildings and continued printing on the coin of the realm. The motto was made official in 1956 during the height of Cold War hysteria over godless communism and — in the words of Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper in “Dr. Strangelove” — “Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.”

As risible a reason as this was for knocking out a few bricks in the wall separating state and church, it was at least understandable in the context of the times. But today, what is the point of having this motto? There are no communist threats, and belief in God or a universal spirit among Americans is still holding strong at about 90%, according to a 2011 Gallup Poll. The answer is in the wording of the resolution voted on: “Whereas if religion and morality are taken out of the marketplace of ideas, the very freedom on which the United States was founded cannot be secured.”

What is troubling — and should trouble any enlightened citizen of a modern nation such as ours — is the implication that in this age of science and technology, computers and cyberspace, and liberal democracies securing rights and freedoms for oppressed peoples all over the globe, that anyone could still hold to the belief that religion has a monopoly on morality and that the foundation of trust is based on engraving four words on brick and paper.

If you think that God is watching over the U.S., please ask yourself why he glanced away during 9/11 or why he chose to abandon the good folks of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and why he continues to allow earthquakes and cancers to strike down even blameless children…

[continues in the LA Times]

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  • ChristianHypocrite

    What we need currently is MORE money.  More currencies, local currencies.

  • ChristianHypocrite

    Hopefully because this issue is a symbolic waste of time.  Honestly, WHO GIVES A FUCK, there are a billion more important matters.  The dollar is evil anyways, so might as well be honest and keep “GOD” on there, since the “God” that Americans bow down to is a sick sadistic fuck.

  • Andrew

    Care to back up your allegations?  How many rapes and sexual assaults have there been?

  • http://twitter.com/MiGaOh Michael G. O’Hair

    Our Money is our God.

  • ALL SEEING

    How about the all seeing eye, should that be on the money?  Can’t have god without the devil, right?

  • ALL SEEING

    Oh yea that Owl is on the money to, I almost forgot.

  • Jebus 3.0

    NO!

  • Jane

    Read the song “In God We Still Trust” and that is why we need to keep the meaningful phrase on our money…he is always watching over us and can see everything, good and bad!!

  • Anonymous

          I’d like to respond to you as a clinician.  I fully understand your sentiment and know that there are many flaws that exist within the modality of biomedical psychiatry.  Patient’s can be treated with the wrong medication or overmedicated and it is often an arduous process and delicate balancing act to find the proper drug regimen.  Yes, psychiatric medications can be abused by those that wish to control.  They are far too often used as a form of chemical restraint particularly with the elderly and in prisons.  The possibility of psychiatric medicine being a form of social control is something that I am keenly aware of and constantly try to ameliorate by remaining devoted to therapeutic applications and assisting others in stabilizing their lives when in crisis. 
         As to your stating the primary purpose of said medications is to shrink the mind…I understand the notion but ask you to look at some MRI scans of common psychiatric disorders and see how areas of the brain have actually atrophied.  Medications can slow, halt or restore this process. 
         If you know someone who has, or you yourself have had a bad experience with psych meds or the psych establishment, I am truly sorry.  I know this is a common experience. I don’t take it at all lightly to be involved in medicating someone and altering their mind state.  There are risks, but calling it murder is a very strong sentiment and I know of a number of individuals who are alive today only because of the care they received.

  • Anonymous

    …better watch out for us dark souls roaming the night.

  • Big T
  • http://hormeticminds.blogspot.com/ Chaorder Gradient

    I appreciate your honest answer. I do understand your perspective, and I do agree there can be some benefits to certain kinds of medications in this vein. However, I’ve seen a lot of different kinds of damage from the pharmaceutical industry, from someone being dosed with lithium before even puberty, to people becoming suicidal AFTER being prescribed MAOI’s.

    I’m sure you’re aware of the many problems in the industry from advertising direct to “consumer” (as if consumer is a viable term for psychoactive drugs… theres a cymbalta commercial on the tv behind me as i type this), to drug pushers influencing doctors to sell more drugs, to the treatment of side-effects with more drugs(with compounding side effects), to the marginalization of talk therapy in favor of a quick “fix”. Its all a nice way we socially ignore the actual cause of, and meaning of depression and other assorted mental problems

  • Voidthought

    I was simply droning rhetoric for the Venus Project. I enjoy Jacque Fresco’s ideas about a “resource-based economy” but it is simply too advanced for our narrow-minded culture, which means I don’t think we will ever see the concept manifest itself in our lifetime, for various reasons. If we could revamp our economic system to weed out social stratification and many other problems then we would still be in the same boat with maybe a better engine. The answer lies in teaching children absolutes and not interpretations, or we could just design a computer to do our thinking…

  • Mysophobe

    Let’s be honest here. If you really cared about anything other than discrediting this movement in any way possible, you wouldn’t be projecting the rape victims’ association with OWS onto the assailants and trying to paint an entire unorganized group as organized criminals. With the exception of the ABC new article, everything you linked to is emotional ranting based on conjecture and hyperbole with no specifics. So…how many rapes have actual serious OWS activists been arrested for?

  • Big T

    Let’s test this logic.  How many people involved in the protest have not been involved in something like this?  Unless you can give me an exact number I am right.  Indeed let us be honest, not everyone involved in the protest is peaceful, correct.

  • Big T

    Let’s test this logic.  How many people involved in the protest have not been involved in something like this?  Unless you can give me an exact number I am right.  Indeed let us be honest, not everyone involved in the protest is peaceful, correct.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Iam-Skycake/100001620503494 Iam Skycake

    The dollar has only declined in value and buying power since American put “In God We Trust” on the currency.  We should have put “In Gold We Trust”  We would be better off and more honest. 

    The people that say that want to be close to god more often want to get closer to gold. 

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Iam-Skycake/100001620503494 Iam Skycake

    Andrew – check out my facebook page – it’s filled with christians raping children. 

  • NarwhalNecropsy

    Let’s test your logic: You both would be wrong, so shut the fuck up.

  • NarwhalNecropsy

    Actually, that’s a good idea. Constantly reminds you of their intentions.

  • NarwhalNecropsy

    He sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake…

  • Mysophobe

    It was not your original “raping for freedom” assertion, but yes, not everyone involved in any movement is peaceful. Not every human is peaceful. Should we abandon any organization that has a few bad apples? What organizations are you involved in that have bad apples? If OWS had a stated goal of violent revolution you might have a case, but they don’t. You accused OWS in general of rape and sexual assault. Prove it. Be specific.

  • Andrew

    How many Christians have never raped anyone?  Unless you can give me a specific number,  then they were raping for Jesus.

    Stupid, isn’t it?

  • Bob

    Not hard to see how left of center readers of this site are.

  • Jin Onikoroshi

    you say that like it’s a bad thing. personally i love it that way.

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