No currency in atheism
MSNBC ran a ‘live poll’ online the other day asking this:
Should the motto “In God We Trust” be removed from U.S. currency?
The two answers readers had the option of checking read like this:
Yes. It’s a violation of the principle of church and state.
No. The motto has historical and patriotic significance and does nothing to establish a state religion.
How about…..
What? It’s a statement of the founding principles of this nation, invoked in founding documents, inscribed on Washington’s most noble monuments, and included in the preamble to every state’s individual constitution.
Anyway, the results were 13 percent who said yes, remove it. And 87 percent who said no. (They probably have a lot more to say than that, but the poll only allowed a pin dot response.)
0 Comment
All MSNBC polls do this — they give you a choice between two or three boxes into which your opinions should fit. Why not just say “yes” or “no.”
“In God We Trust” wasn’t offically added to U.S. currency until 1956, although it appeared on some coins from time to time going back to the Civil War. However, there were long periods of time after the Civil War when it did not appear on any currency. Its offcial inclusion on currency in the 1950s likely had more to do with contemporary fears of communism than as a statement of founding principles.
Although God is referred to in the preamble of many state constitutions, God is not referred to in the preamble of the U.S. constitution.