»Bush says atheists should not be considered citizens!«
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  Sherman: What will you do to win the votes of the Americans who are atheists?
Bush: I guess I'm pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me. Sherman: Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists? Bush: No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God. Sherman (somewhat taken aback): Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation of state and church? Bush: Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I'm just not very high on atheists. Yep, I know... it's Bush Senior, not the current president. Even so, any thoughts? posted by fatpie42 |
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| in-my-opinion.orgReligion and Mysteries, from worship to werewolvesReligious & Philosophical TopicsBush says atheists should not be considered citizens! |
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 classic...bush rocks  posted by the anomaly |
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 Um, wow, that's blunt..  posted by Nianza |
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"one nation under god" ♣ The very fact that people have to swear allegiance to the flag seems crazy enough. Even accepting that, is it acceptable to make people say "one nation under god" when they don't believe in God? I'll leave out my personal feelings on this for now. But I don't think anyone will be surprised by my feelings that Bush Snr. was being a bit of an arrogant bigot in his above statement. posted by fatpie42 |
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 growing up over here (in the US), in school every morning we had to get out of our seats, stand up and say the pledge to the flag. about the time i was in high school i quit (not because of atheism, but because i was starting to think for myself and started to wonder about religion/god in general and wanted to find out about god and OTHER religions on my own before i branded myself as a certian thing just because i was told to). they still had the 'morning announcements' and stuff where you got out of your seat and said the pledge, but (i cant remember exactly) i think there was something going on in the news about the whole "under god" thing and the students were no longer required to stand up and speak the pledge if they did not want to...due to the fact that there were atheists, among many other different religions at my school. some teachers still tried to make you stand up, out of respect, but if you didn't want to, there was nothing that they could do. a friend of mine, who was hindu, refused to stand up for the pledge and was sent to the principal. he came back from the principals office and told me that they couldnt punish him in any way for not wanting to stand up for a pledge to a flag under a god that he did not believe in. just wanted to share that. (oh, and side note...i met george bush sr. this past saturday, feb 5...at a shopping mall in houston...funny story) posted by allone |
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 allone: he came back from the principals office and told me that they couldnt punish him in any way for not wanting to stand up for a pledge to a flag under a god that he did not believe in. the allegence is to the flag, not the god or it would go "i pledge allegence to the God..etc etc.." you can still stand for that, doesn't mean you have to say the god part but you ARE living in this country who is paying for you to be in school in the first place and I only remember saying the pledge through elementary school, but never high school..you had to do that in high school still allone? posted by The ONEder Man |
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not daily though, weekly. we had once-a-week morning announcements in which we were asked to stand and say the pledge. but they changed the wording (i guess to avoid any type of "conflict") to something like, "if you would like to, please stand for the pledge.." a lot of students were not wanting to stand and were protesting and it was causing certain problems. i stood sometimes, and other times i remained seated. just depended on my mood that day, i guess. posted by allone |
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The ONEder Man: the allegence is to the flag, not the god Surely a flag is a stranger thing to pledge allegiance to anyway? Why does a flag need your allegiance anyway? Allegiance is defined as "Loyalty or the obligation of loyalty, as to a nation, sovereign, or cause."  But you are claiming that you aren't pledging allegiance to America because then you would say "I pledge allegiance to America" not "to the flag". But then again the obvious reply to this is that it is 'what the flag represents' which you pledge allegiance to. Well if one of the things highlighted in the pledge is that you are a nation under God and the flag 'represents' a nation under God, it seems that the allegiance is, to a certain degree, towards God. Is that not a fair assessment? posted by fatpie42 |
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 I remember seeing that transcript a long time ago. I think they're all nuts. As for pledging allegiance to a flag, it sounds ludicrous to me, frankly. What's most annoying is people who think it's always been "under god" and that means it has to be a christian country 
We don't have any of that here, fortunately. posted by bluewolf |
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Bluewolf, I decided to check out which country you meant by 'here'. It reminded me of a funny story, so here it is: "When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, "Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?" Quentin Crisp posted by fatpie42 |
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Ah, I forgot to mention. Yep I've heard that one before =) Well I'm in the republic anyway. posted by bluewolf |
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The time now is 24 May 2012, 05:58 php B.B. |