I'm kind of neutral on this one, while I'm not religious at all, saying God in the pledge or seeing it on a coin doesn't really bother me at all. What does bother me is being forced to say the pledge, but I just plead my first amendment rights when told to do so.<br /> <br /> I don't think that having God in the pledge is necessarily harming those who aren't religious, for we can just omit it when we recite the pledge or not do it at all. Or, we could say what Kit had posted (pledge from before 1950's).<br /> <br /> I don't think I'm being agreat debater becuase I'm neutral, but as Kit said, I'm glad that this is turning out to be a good debate ^^

Point of fact, Kira, Christians and Muslims believe in the same god. A Muslim would not have a problem mentioning 'God' in the pledge.<br /> Your point is valid, I just felt the need to inject that one important detail.<br /> <br /> I like that this discussion is going so well and that no one has gone out of his/her way to personally attack another person. It provides me faith in the denizens of debate.

I think that it should be taken out. Not every last person in America believes in a God/the Christian God. I know lots of Christians would get mad if it was taken out, but what about other people (like Islam, Buddhists, Sikhs, Hindus etc) that don't believe in the said "God" in the pleadge? Yeah, I know that not many of the people I mentioned live in America, but America is called the "Melting Pot", is it not? So there's bound to be lots and lots of different peoples all over the nation who may not share the same beliefs. So for this reasoning, I believe that the pledge should stay generally general and not really convey just a few said religion(s).

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"it's not something to fuss over" well now, some of our citizens are sensative and i think the government should be more considerate because they never know how badly they offend someone. besides, i hate the fact that this country talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. if we say we're a free country with no official anything other than democracy than it needs to be taht way!!!! (those !!! are not pointed at my fellow debators, but at the government)

That's interesting, Kit - I never knew that! Suddenly I'm not as sure about my first post...<br /> <br /> Now that I know it was different originally (I wonder why I didn't learn this in school... o.o), I think it would be pretty cool if we reverted to the original (according to Wikipedia in 1892 it was: "I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all"). I think if it was changed under the pretense of "We're going back to the original Pledge of Allegiance because we want to be closer to our roots as a country" and not as "We're taking out every mention of 'God' in everything because not everyone believes in 'God' and it's unfair/offensive to them," less people would get up in arms about it (at least, I wouldn't - I love old stuff and getting back to history ^.^.<br /> <br /> On another note, I think the money should be left alone. All of the money we have in circulation has "In God We Trust" on it. I'm not sure how it would work, but I can imagine that changing the appearance of the money would cause all sorts of trouble and headaches.

America wasn't founded as a Christian nation. Most of the founding fathers weren't even Christian, so it wouldn't make a lot of sense of them to start a country off that way.<br /> <br /> http://www.rapidnet.com/~jbeard/bdm/Psychology/amr/amerc.htm<br /> <br /> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Founding_Fathers_of_the_United_States#Religion<br /> <br /> Not too into it being part of the Pledge, or stamped on our currency, but it's not something I'm going to make a fuss over. It's the people who consider me a lesser human being for not believing as they do that irritates me.

Actually, the pledge of allegiance didn't "always" have God in it.<br /> <br /> Up until the mid 1950s, the pledge read as follows:<br /> "I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."<br /> <br /> the mid 1950s, as in, when many of our parents, even some of our fellow users, were learning it. Religion was a relatively recent addition to the pledge.<br /> <br /> I have a whole different issue with having school children pledge their undying allegiance to their nation on a daily basis, but that's my own thing.

just because we take God out of our government system does not destroy our history. we will always have our history, but as a respect for different religious people, and for the sake of how things are ran, we should make a change. those were different times then.

It'd be like people who moved to Egypt not liking the Pyramids, and then just because of that the Pyramids were destroyed and the physical evidence of Egypt's history is completely gone.<br /> <br /> But the first people on this content wern't christian they where indians with a totaly different belief system. So they have done that alredy.<br />

Well, I think a good point that Roo pointed out..<br /> <br /> The USA was made off from believing in the Christian/Catholic God, that's just how things started. They were really religious people back then and over times things certainly have changed, the words or thoughts behind the phrases aren't as powerful for some people.<br /> <br /> I personally don't give it a second thought, it's just a poem/song/whatever nor do I with money.<br /> <br /> I don't see why people get insulted by it unless they don't understand it, I also don't see why Americans get insulted by people from other nations/cultures/beliefs by not saying it or whatever. I don't think it should be a requirement, but I also don't think it should be removed just because people complain about it. It feels like if we removed such phrases then what links to history do we have left as a country?<br /> <br /> It'd be like people who moved to Egypt not liking the Pyramids, and then just because of that the Pyramids were destroyed and the physical evidence of Egypt's history is completely gone.<br /> <br /> I don't look at it as religious at all really, you could say I've desensitized myself from it. I said the pledge everyday and I look at money everyday but to me it's just history. But this doesn't mean I don't believe in God..