Here’s a funny thing. Very little of America is openly atheist (most surveys seem to put the figure at between 5 – 15%) and yet, most of the atheist blogs I read are American!
Anyway, Mitt Romney (a presidential candidate for 2008) has been making the news on these blogs (and elsewhere) for his recent speech on his faith.
It just boggles my mind!
Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom opens the windows of the soul so that man can discover his most profound beliefs and commune with God. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone.
Freedom requires religion??? The purpose of his speech was apparently to affirm his faith and also to reassure voters that his faith did not come in the way of him performing his duties but in fact helped it. But if this what he thinks, well then, what of atheists in America? They are to be denied freedom since they don’t have religion?
He goes on to say:
No religion should dictate to the state nor should the state interfere with the free practice of religion. But in recent years, the notion of the separation of church and state has been taken by some well beyond its original meaning. They seek to remove from the public domain any acknowledgment of God. Religion is seen as merely a private affair with no place in public life. It is as if they are intent on establishing a new religion in America – the religion of secularism. They are wrong.
The founders proscribed the establishment of a state religion, but they did not countenance the elimination of religion from the public square. We are a nation ‘Under God’ and in God, we do indeed trust.
Thus propagating the myth that the founders of the United States wrote the words “under God” and “In God We Trust.”
In point of fact, “One nation under God” is actually a phrase from the “Pledge of Allegiance” which was first written in the 1890s and even then didn’t include the phrase “under god!” The “under god” part was added in in the 1950s after the lobbying of a Christian organisation and a pastor!
As far as “In God We Trust” goes, it was adopted as the national motto only in 1956! It was preceded by “E Pluribus Unum” by a century and a half.
So to all my American friends, atheists and otherwise, don’t look askance at Mitt Romney because of his faith, but because of his ignorance of American history! Or if he does know history, he certainly seems to be blithely lying about facts in a speech he expects to be his turnkey!
