Quote:
Originally posted by adduncan
Third, the "knee-jerk, anti-Commie" concerns were not as trivial as posts on this thread are making them out to be. Another nation, about as powerful, militarily, as the US of A wanted to destroy our way of life. That isn't minor. There was a very real possiblity of world war, possibly nuclear, that would have ended the freedom to choose to be religious or not. Read the Communist Manifesto some time--one of the main goals was to eliminate religion. Now, who's imposing on others' rights??? The two words: "Under God" was a reaffirmation that the choice to believe in God, as a fundamental underpinning of our nation, would not be diminished.
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[nitpick] The goals of 'real' communism, as put forth by Engels et al, was never 'elimination' of religion - that would just be a byproduct of worldwide communal culture . . . the terror-tactic elimination of religion wouldn't have flown with those who developed communism.
[/nitpick]
Anyway, I see where you're going, but you bastardize the logic a little to make your point, to my mind. Either way, it doesn't apply today, as the "evil empire" has been reduced to bread lines and splintered territories. It doesn't really work for me as a universal affirmation of your right to believe whatever you want - it's an affirmation of a "god" watching over our indivisible nation.
Personally, if I'm say Zen Buddhist, I couldn't care less about some imaginary 'god' you have, so why force me to affirm my religion through a word I don't even use?