Two months ago I was at my niece’s 8th grade graduation and when I was looking at the program I saw that the Pledge of Allegiance was on the agenda. I had a moment where I thought about how I would respond. This was the first time as an atheist that I was an event with the pledge. Since I do not believe that we are under God, I had to ponder how to exercise an appropriate level of protest to the words in the Pledge of Allegiance that alienate me personally.
Since I am a patriot, I did stand up, place my hand on my heart, and join in the recitation of the pledge. “I pledge allegiance to the flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation….indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” What was surprising was that in the section of the bleachers I was in it seemed like about half of the people present from this small town in Idaho had also paused, returning the pledge to it’s original form.
Wait a minute. Did I just say original form of the pledge? The two words “under God” were added to the pledge on June 14, 1954 by an act of congress and signed into law by President Eisenhower.
According to the “American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) 2008,” the stated beliefs of Americans are as follows:
70% believe in a personal God.
12% are atheist or agnostic.
12% are deist.
Yes, these numbers have changed a lot over the last few decades. Only 70% of the population believe in a personal god, in other words, the kind of deity that we could be united under. This leaves 30% of the population lacking the belief that would support us being “one nation under God”.
To say that we are “one nation under God indivisible” says that those who don’t share in your belief are not part of this great nation. Considering the current statistics, we can either be “one nation under God” or we can be “one nation indivisible,” but we are not both. Let me repeat that, we ARE not both.
If we want to be one nation, then let’s be inclusive. Lets restore the Pledge to it’s original form, the version before the addition of those two divisive words.
We are “one nation indivisible.”
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Knowing someone who is an atheist gives me a whole new perspective on the Pledge of Allegiance in regards to the part about being under one God. It gives me more sympathy to the beliefs of others who may not believe in God or any higher being.
As far as this nation being one nation indivisible (regardless of whether or not one believes in God), I have always understood that to refer to the unity of the states and not the individual beliefs of it's citizens. If you want to talk about the individual beliefs of the citizens of this country, it will never be unified, or indivisible because it will always have people with completely different beliefs.
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It means so much to hear that my objective in blogging is being accomplished. As far as the second part of the comment, I whole heartedly agree. Personal beliefs are just that, personal, and thus should not be in the realm of the state.
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Knowing someone who is an atheist gives me a whole new perspective on the Pledge of Allegiance in regards to the part about being under one God. It gives me more sympathy to the beliefs of others who may not believe in God or any higher being.
As far as this nation being one nation indivisible (regardless of whether or not one believes in God), I have always understood that to refer to the unity of the states and not the individual beliefs of it's citizens. If you want to talk about the individual beliefs of the citizens of this country, it will never be unified, or indivisible because it will always have people with completely different beliefs.
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It means so much to hear that my objective in blogging is being accomplished. As far as the second part of the comment, I whole heartedly agree. Personal beliefs are just that, personal, and thus should not be in the realm of the state.