Atheists! Look in your purse or your pocket;
There’s God on the money you carry around!
The motto is yours, though you atheists mock it,
And God’s how we know that our money is sound!
Your using this money is clearly hypocrisy
Atheists ought to refuse it—the fools!
Sucks to be you, though; our Christian democracy
Trusts in our God—and majority rules!
The courts say it’s legal, so quit your complaining—
No reason to get all your bills in a wad!
We Christians find atheists so entertaining—
Each time you use money, you’re praising our God!
Rant, after jump:
Daniel, over at Camels With Hammers (love the new banner!)unpacks his thoughts about “In God We Trust”–on our money, and in the House vote. I am in complete agreement (well, near-complete; I don’t quite come away from Jon Stewart’s piece with the same feeling that Daniel does, but hey, if we have complete agreement then one of our blogs is redundant) with his analysis of the real message of IGWT.
In the comment threads of news stories on religion and atheism, I have (as I think I mentioned in an earlier post) frequently seen the “atheists must be hypocrites if they use US money!” gambit, where you can practically see the self-satisfied smile on the face of the writer, puffed up with pride at his or her own cleverness.
I wonder if a collection of such comments might serve to show the SCOTUS that the notion of “ceremonial deism” may well be the theory, but it is not the practice.
Related post: To Phrase A Coin
Interestingly it’s one of the principle points of FACTS (First Atheist Church of True Science) that one cannot use such money that contradict the religious beliefs of the church. The point being that this religion has perfectly reasonable beliefs but the aversion to hypocrisy and the unconstitutional actions of the government require that most cash money cannot be used by adherents which places a serious burden on individuals because of the clear violations of the first amendment. Dr. Rev. Michael Newdow is a very clever man.
It’s not defacing money to cross out God and add the deity of your choice or to cross out the motto entirely, as you are not changing the denomination or signatures.
Quite a few people in New York are now praising the Flying Spaghetti Monster every time they spend money.