The Other Michael

I just fired this off to the San Francisco Chronicle. I hope it isn't too long (they prefer 200 words or less.

Feel free to borrow anything that looks useful:

I was very pleased today to see the Ninth Circuit Court take a bold step to uphold the Constitution .

Their clear reasoning that many American citizens do NOT hold beliefs that our secular nation exists "under God" was refreshing, and hopefully we can soon be rid of this legacy of Tail Gunner Joe McCarthy and his anti-Communist witch hunts.

I was shocked by Senator Kit Bond's statement:
"Our Founding Fathers must be spinning in their graves. What is next? Will the courts now strip 'So help me God' from the pledge taken by new presidents? This is the worst kind of political correctness run amok."

Article II , Section 1 of the Constitution shows the oath of office to be:

''I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.''

You'll note that our Founding Fathers (many of those who wrote the Constitution were Deists, Agnostics, Atheists and other freethinkers) quite deliberately left out any mention of "so help me God".

I'd like to see our elected officials uphold the Constitution they swore to protect and defend when they took office. instead of imposing their sectarian beliefs on the American people.

Michael

Toto

I don't think there were any atheists/agnostics around when the Constitution was written. Deists were the freethinkers of the day.

Otherwise, a great letter.

SanDiegoAtheist

Jefferson himself remarked on Atheists, as did George Washington. They were around, but more prevalent in Europe. Most who deconverted from Christianity in the Americas deconverted to Deism, in Europe, it was more often deconversion to Atheism.


Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist

One of the last sane

With regard to how the President is sworn-in, doesn't the babble say something about not making oaths using God or Heaven or whatever, anyway? I vaguely remember something to that effect, help me out here someone...(spare me having to look it up myself)...

SanDiegoAtheist

Some Christian denominations hold that making an oath is taking God's name in vain, as he cannot absolutely guarantee that his oath will hold.
LBJ, as an example, did NOT take that oath...as his version of Xianity forbid oaths to God

Cheers,

The San Diego Atheist

[ June 26, 2002: Message edited by: SanDiegoAtheist ]</p>

Jamie_L

One of my favorite Jeffersonian quotes (which I can't put my hands on at this computer) goes something like this:

He's giving advice to a younger relative (nephew I think), and it includes a plea to question everything, including God, for if there is a god, he's likely to not take offense at using the reason he granted you.

Now, this is but a bit of a letter taken out of the context of life (and paraphrased without source here, at that), but the idea of questioning God, "if" there is one, sounds pretty agnostic to me.

Jamie

Mike Rosoft

The quote is:
(from <a href="http://www.positiveatheism.com/hist/quotes/qframe.htm" target="_blank">Positive Atheism</a>)


Mike Rosoft

[ June 27, 2002: Message edited by: Mike Rosoft ]</p>