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A Call to Action
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It’s time for us to stand up
and be counted. Approximately
14%
of Americans call themselves nonreligious; in California it’s
19%.
A 1998 national survey in Nature magazine showed that only
7% of National
Academy of Sciences members believe in a personal God. However, with all the religious fervor bouncing
around, there is a real danger that this great nation could be wrenched to a full theocracy, from our current
de facto theocracy. Heavy pressure is on our elected officials to add an “Under God” amendment to our constitution. We must do all we can to keep this a secular nation, free of any more
government entanglement with religion. Don’t think that it can’t happen. With GAWD on
their side, the religious feel that they can do no wrong. We’ve already seen 99
senators prostrating themselves to their perceived spirit-in-the-sky addled
electorate. All but three representatives also followed the path of
righteousness. Our constitution is supposed to protect minorities, but there are three hard-core
conservatives on the Supreme Court, so all the religious right needs is the opportunity to add two more and there
will be a lock on our (non)religious freedoms for decades. They wouldn’t even need that if the
constitutional amendment passes. It really could. After all, what politician would
vote against GOD?
Stand up. Be counted. See what we did in the godless Americans March on Washington November 2, 2002 in DC, and on March 24, in San Francisco when we had a Rally in Support of the Secular Pledge of Allegiance.
We have also collected some great articles on the Pledge of Allegiance that should give you better insight into this issue.
If you want to email or call any of your government representatives, go to our government page.
If you want to understand more about Atheism, you can read my article on Atheism or read some of the great articles and websites on our debate page.
"...it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless
minority keen to set brushfires in people's minds."
by Mark Thomas
— Samuel Adams
"Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northern Ireland, or the bombs
bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues
into the affairs of state?"
— Barry Goldwater, "Mr. Conservative"
"The mixing of government and religion can be a threat to free
government, even if no one is forced to participate.... When the
government puts its imprimatur on a particular religion, it conveys a
message of exclusion to all those who do not adhere to the favored
beliefs. A government cannot be premised on the belief that all
persons are created equal when it asserts that God prefers some."
— Harry Andrew Blackmun, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, majority opinion in Lee v. Weisman, 1992
"History furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks
the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves
for their own purposes."
— Thomas Jefferson, 1813
"It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
— Thomas Jefferson
"The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government,
have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man."
— Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah Moor, 1800. For other quotes of his, see
Thomas Jefferson on Politics & Government.
"... the government must pursue a course of complete neutrality toward religion."
— Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38 (6/04/1985)
"Religion has ever been anti-human, anti-woman, anti-life, anti-peace, anti-reason and anti-science. The god
idea has been detrimental not only to humankind but to the earth. It is time now for reason, education and science
to take over."
— Madalyn Murray O'Hair, 1990
" [Non-believers] can't be considered citizens or patriots...this is one nation under God."
— George H.W. Bush, 41st President of the United States
"There may have been a more senseless, ridiculous decision issued by a court at some time, but I don't remember it."
— Senator Lieberman, on the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on the Pledge of Allegiance
(Perhaps he has forgotten the Dred Scott
and the Korematsu
(WW2 Japanese internment) decisions by the US Supreme Court.)
"Today we are engaged in a final, all-out battle between communistic atheism and Christianity."
— Senator Joseph McCarthy, in a speech to the Ohio County Women's Republican Club, 2/09/1950
"As True Christians, we are called upon to marginalize other faiths or people with no faith, and to scream
“PERSECUTION!” when they rudely return the favor."
— Pastor Deacon Fred, Landover Baptist Church (parody)
’Under God’ is Unconstitutional and Divisive
President, Atheists of Silicon Valley
March, 2003
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals again ruled correctly on the reference to
God in the Pledge of Allegiance, saying that it conflicts with the First
Amendment. What part of the First Amendment is confusing? "Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion..." Any
reference to God by our government respects an establishment of religion -
specifically monotheism of the Judeo-Christian-Muslim variety.
Our Constitution was designed to protect the rights of the minorities from the
tyranny of the majority. All Americans have a constitutional right to freedom
of religion. This includes freedom from religion, because we can’t have true
freedom unless we have the right to choose "none of the above."
References to God in the Pledge of Allegiance, our national motto, our national
anthem, or on our money respect an establishment of religion, and are thus unconstitutional.
References to God by our government also imply that the 14% of Americans who
don't believe in a god are lesser citizens. This is similar to when white men
once made blacks and women lesser citizens, often using the Bible as an
endorsement. It wasn't right then. It isn't right now.
Our nation was founded as the first country that derived its power from a
purely secular, nonreligious basis. All nations before then had kings and
queens who used their supposed "God-given divine right" to rule.
Instead of this top-down power structure, our founders wisely created a
government that derived its powers from the consent of the governed. They also realized the
inherent divisiveness of religion, and kept it specifically out of our Constitution and government.
The Treaty of Tripoli, written
during the administration of President George Washington, signed by President John Adams
and unanimously approved by the Senate in 1797, stated "The Government of
the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion."
As shown by the national uproar and debate, religion is still divisive. The
Pledge of Allegiance is supposed to help unite Americans. Having
"God" in it divides us and attempts to link patriotism to public
professions of religious belief. Let's return the Pledge to its previous,
nonreligious form — so we can all once again say "one nation,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."