Monday, March 18, 2013




Atheists Sue U.S. Treasury in Effort to Remove ‘In God We Trust’ From Currency‏

Atheist activists are taking legal action against the U.S. Treasury. Their target? Currency.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), a church-state separatist group, put out a press release on Tuesday announcing that the organization was joining 19 other plaintiffs in challenging “In God We Trust” on federal currency.

The challenge, being made in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, was filed on Feb. 1 — and a familiar face in the battle over the First Amendment will be leading the charge.
Well-known atheist activist Michael Newdow, who has fought incessantly to have U.S. courts rule that recitations of the “Pledge of Allegiance” in public schools are unconstitutional (the utterance includes the words ”Under God”), will be representing the group.

In the complaint, non-believers allege that “In God We Trust’s” presence on currency is problematic in that it is purportedly “proselytizing, discriminatory and a per se establishment of monotheism.” These accusations, in the eyes of non-believers, constitute a violation of the U.S. Constitution’s Establishment Clause.

Non-believers also claim that they are being discriminated against and excluded due to the fact that they do not embrace a higher power. The “we” in “In God We Trust” is, thus, problematic for them, as it does not include their non-theistic worldview.

Source


22 comments:

Use the Name, Luke said...

My first thought was, "Why didn't they go after the status of 'In God We Trust' as the national motto?" So I did a little research. It turns out some atheists did try that; and lost in 1970. (It only went as far as the Ninth Circuit court of appeals. Aronow v. United States)

So if it's constitutional as the national motto, why wouldn't it be constitutional to have the national motto on money? (It's been on coins since 1864.)

Anonymous said...

It should be "In Godless Chinese We Trust" as the atheist Chinese have to be trusted not to ruin the US economy by demanding redemption on all the US Dollars they hold in US debt!
How ironic: the oh-so God-fearing Americans effectively selling their country (if not their souls) to the God-less Asians!

Anonymous said...

Aside from my personal belief that all atheists are simply vermin and should therefor have a bounty put on their heads, i think the thing that offends me most about them is the fact that, while degrading and attacking my religious beliefs, all they're doing is trying to force me to adhere to (their) religious beliefs. Don't we normally call that hypocrisy?


http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/03/17/sorry-but-atheism-is-religion/?intcmp=HPBucket

Anonymous said...

In Science We Trust

downtown dave said...

We trust God. That's the way it is. By the way, if the FFRF wants to continue to take these types of things to court, let them use their own money and stop using taxpayer dollars.

Anonymous said...

"Aside from my personal belief that all atheists are simply vermin and should therefor have a bounty put on their heads"

It is my personal belief that you are going to HELL. God does not care for those who hate.

Anonymous said...

So I take it that they want the Declaration of Independence re-written for its inclusion of "God" and "creator"?

And do they want the Constitution re-written due to the inclusion of a direct reference to Jesus Christ where it was signed "in the year of our Lord"?

The sad truth is that they probably do.

Anonymous said...

Jesus, Our Lord
Lord Voldemort
Lord Vader
Lord of the Rings

Four works of fiction.

Anon 4:34 said...

Anon 10;12 said:
"It is my personal belief that you are going to HELL. God does not care for those who hate..."

I'm already in hell, except we call it NYC. And, unlike mortal cretins, God knows the difference between hate and opinion.

Anonymous said...

"I'm already in hell, except we call it NYC"

That explains a lot.

Anonymous said...

Didn't Jesus ask what image was on the coinage, and as it was the Roman emperor's, he said we should render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's, so it's rather blasphemous to have God's name on "filthy lucre".

Anonymous said...

I think its time the people started minting their own money. Use gold and silver coins. US money is going to be worthless soon, it's a matter of math and economics.

Anonymous said...

Religion is like cheap mass-produced beer.

Anonymous said...

They should change the motto to in Allah we trust than any attempt to change the motto by these Godless assholes will result in them being beheaded and meeting the real God they hate.

Anonymous said...

So the atheists feel "excluded" because they do not believe in God. The poor dears. Sorry, but "In God We Trust" does not constitute establishment of a religion. Besides, athiests in order to "know " that there is no God would themselves have to be all knowing about the universe, visible, parrallel and otherwise to be able to state there is no God. Therefore they are their own gods.

Anonymous said...

4:33 It is usually impossible to prove a negative, so most atheists do not claim absolute knowledge, they only doubt the claim there is any kind of immaterial "god", and certainly not the rather puerile, anthropomorphic god of the Abrahamic religions.

Use the Name, Luke said...

5:09,

Yet to hear them speak, they are absolutely certain of what they cannot know.

Anonymous said...

Luke: so are you saying you are NOT certain there is a "God", and/or do you claim to know what you cannot prove, and can only "know" in some subjective way or sense?? If so, you are no different in principle from the minority sub-set of atheists who are "gnostic atheists".

Use the Name, Luke said...

3:43 sez, "Reading for comprehension is hard!"

"them" = "most atheists" from the previous comment.

Anonymous said...

So we are expected to guess what is meant by "them" and that it's supposed to be only "most", although the point was that only a small minority of atheists do what he/she thinks (ie. claim to actually know there is no immaterial god"). So much for "reading for comprehension"!
I wonder if it is "most" Christians, or only a "minority" like Luke who like to mis-represent atheists out of spite (what a "Christian" emotion) ?!

Anonymous said...

If the atheists are soooo offended by the words on the currency, the could free themselves of the offense by donating all their oppresive symble to the Salvation Army. I'm sure the SA would put to use somewhere the atheist would never be bothered, like shelter for the homeless and orphanages or Christmas dinner for the poor.

Anonymous said...

3:36 - that sounds like "socialism"!