The pledge of alliegence is for our nation regardless of your belief in a higher power. Religion has no place in govt nor does is determine your loyalty to our Nation.

Former Marine, Current Atheist.

Non-believers or folks that believe in some other form of ‘higher being’ are not being asked to believe in one particular God. The wording is recognition of the fact that this Nation was founded on certain religious principles.

One does not have to believe in those religious principles to appreciate the vast array of freedoms that are provided for under our form of government. A person should not be offended by this reference, but rather thankful for the influence these principles had on the basic formation of our government. Remember that government put in place to serve the people who were to be governed was a revolutionary idea back then. The fact that it is similar to the radical model of leadership that Christ demonstrated while he was on earth is not a coincidence.

http://atheism.about.com/od/churchstatemyths/a/freedomfrom.htm

Well shouldn’t it? If it’s unnecessary, why keep it?

The words “under God” weren’t in the pledge before 1954. Are you saying there was nothing special about America before 1954?

In fact, there was NO PLEDGE at all before 1892. Are you saying there was nothing special about America before 1892?

Don’t be silly, ok?

“Fiduciary Bag”, er, what? Oh, and yes, his ancestors were monkeys, well, apes, and so were yours.

“Matthew Barry is offensive. He’s a rabble rouser. He needs to be put on the Light-Rail and sent over to Fremont where he can frolic with the commies” I know, isn’t freedom of speech an annoying thing. Great solution, though, put those silly atheists and commies in a ghetto, yeah, that worked well for Hitler.

“Now some idiots want to limit our freedom”, jeesh!

“Matt Barry is an offense to God and to those who worship Him”, really? Why? Is your god really such a douche that he would be “offended” by someone not believing in him? Surely he could just ignore them and they’ll go to that “other place”? Oh, that’s right, Hell is just something the church invented – it’s not actually in the Bible, is it? It’s heaven or nothing, which still sounds like little grounds for offense.

And my favourite:
“What idiots like Matt Barry fail to understand (you guess at the reason) is that we exist as a nation becuase our founding fathers had a steady, unwavering and constant belief in God. ” – Chip

What ignorant blowhards like Chip fail to realize is that many the founding fathers were demonstrably non-christian at best, and in some cases atheist, (see http://jeromekahn123.tripod.com/thinkersonreligion/id9.html, or http://www.atheists.org/law/founding_fathers for some analyses – there are many others). Chip may be thinking of the Pilgrims, but they weren’t the founding fathers now, were they?

Get your facts straight. There are, and always have been, a great number of non-believers and atheists in this country, and their numbers are growing all the time. It comes down to Occams razor. God is unnecessary in order to live a good life, or to explain the origins of the natural world, so it must be discarded as an explanation until reasonable grounds can be found to support it’s existence. I’ve yet to see any reasonable grounds.

You’re kidding right? When I read that, my heart broke. Not only are the Constitution and Declaration of Independence beautiful pieces of literature written by Thomas Jefferson but they are also the grand foundation and symbolic beauty of American history. I’m taking AP American History this year, and we read the whole Declaration of Independence. Yeah, it was long but I am so glad that we do that because I realized how beautiful the creation of America is. Why don’t you read it again and think about why it’s actually important. And do a little research about why America is a great nation. I promise it’ll open your mind to something grand. And silly? No offense man but I think you’re statement is rather silly.

To Herr Drossylmeyer “You can say the pledge 24/7 to your heart’s content. So stop your childish whining.”

Yeah you can say the pledge as much as you want, but think realistically. If school were to ever become something optional because some people said it was unnecessary and someone said “you can go to school on your own time to your heart’s content” would the generations after that go to school? No, because there’s no one there to tell them to go and people have lost the value of going to school. So, who’s going to remind the next generation to say the pledge by themselves when ALREADY teens take for granted the value of being an American and living in America? They’re not going to say the pledge if the Board take it out, and soon enough there won’t be anything special about America. The Pledge, the Constiution, the history of America and it’s pride and tradition is what makes it a great nation. What happens if we forget about it? Then we have just become any other bland country that is no longer the land of the free or the home of the brave.

And childish whining? If anyone here is childish, it is those asking to change the Pledge. “Under God” is not suggesting people to believe in the Christian God. It is simply encouraging unity amongst us so we can all proudly identify ourselves as Americans all together, not necessarily forcing us to be Christians.

Already, people are asking to rid of the Pledge and rid of the Constitution even when we’re required to perform the Pledge. What’ll happen when the Pledge is gone and all our history is gone? Gosh, I don’t even want to think about it. Please, without being so close-minded, just ponder for a moment about why America is so great. It is through our pride and trust in our country and its history that we are able to strive, but we seem to be losing that…

Those opposed to “under God” in the pledge use rational arguments.

Meanwhile, comments from those in favor of “under God” are full of childish name-calling: idiot, offense to God, ass, buffoon, monkey, big fiduciary bag (whatever that means). It’s very revealing when all they have are insults. Oh, and of course those ever-so-mature “move to Russia” and “let’s kick them out of my town” comments. My, how “Christian” of you.