2009-11-05 14:52:29

IN GOD WE TRUST: IT’S MONEY!

Filed under: currency
Posted by: John

The U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia has ruled that “In God We Trust” stays on our currency, which raises the obvious question.

Do we trust the currency?

We may or may not trust God, but do we still believe in the coin? That’s the real question.

Using arguments based on the Establishment Clause, which mandates separation of church and state, an atheist plaintiff brought the suit Kidd v. Obama against the President of the United States and the Federal Reserve Board Chairman.

Wow. We can’t seem to get so much as a tongue-lashing against the people who invented credit default swaps and thereby robbed the nation, but someone spent huge amounts of time and money to erase four words from the bills. The court ruled that the use of the motto “is of a patriotic or ceremonial character and bears no true resemblance to a governmental sponsorship of a religious exercise.”

Bravo. Here’s a case of misguided energy if ever there was one. Who cares whether god is on the currency when the currency itself plays god?

Surely there are more important battles to fight, even for atheists.

Comments (2)

2 Comments »

1. Many of us who find notions of gods to be silly superstitions with dangerous consequences care plenty. Is this a top priority? Of course not. But it is certainly a symptom of what ails us.

   Comment by vjack — November 7, 2009 @ 9:51 am

2. You sound a little superstitious about the words on the bill. Could it be that a stone-cold rationalist like yourself, so quick to dismiss immensely complex thousand-year old bodies of belief and thought as silly superstitions with dangerous consequences, has a touch of the religious fervor? But then, all committed atheists do.

   I say that as an ambivalent atheist. Belief and disbelief are symbiotes. They can’t exist without each other. Neither ever wins, neither ever dies out. Your belief that religion can or ever will die out is as poignant and beautiful as the religious belief that believers live on after death, and equally implausible.

   Move on.

   Comment by John — November 7, 2009 @ 1:10 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Name (required)

Mail (will not be published) (required)

Website