"In God We Trust" ok for coins. How about schools?

[dena]

What do you think?

[bohica-migration]

Which "God"? The white folks God? The God of some Far East religion? The God of Mohammed? The God of Abraham?

Your God? Mine?

[Hoot]

I agree with T. Roosevelt that if there is such an entity, that such mutterings are below the deity. How about "In unity we trust"?? To answer your question, it does not belong in public schools. Schools have the right to teach the difference between evidential constructs and belief, but they should not tell you what to believe in or trust in. (This is a very confused culture and society when it comes to the difference).

 

Hoot

[gmarguli]

It should be removed from our money. I think it implies that the government of our country believes in god. Clearly the citizens have a wide ranging belief in god (both whether there is a god and which god).

 

I'd just assume have no religious statement on our coins. It's one thing to have a national motto, but it is another thing to have a religious motto.

[coinhead1]

Dena,

Did you wake up this morning and say, "Monday morning, I think I will stir the pot a little!!!"

 

Should it be on our coins Yes, in the schools YES.

 

Lets give the kids something to believe in besides drugs,sex, guns and violence. Now that we have tried to do just that and found out how badly it works. There are times in your life when you need to know you are not alone. Why shouldn't it be in God we trust?

It sure does not work to believe in man (or woman ) we trust. Who would YOU buy a used car from? Clinton, Nixon, Hilery, Monica, OJ, Tyson, or am I rambling. Yes well just My opinion.

[Hoot]

I second your motion Greg. Belief can be taken care of outside the schools and government. And Gary, <i>"Lets give the kids something to believe in besides drugs,sex, guns and violence."</i> If we are so ineffectual as parents, then we need to turn the wary eye on ourselves.

 

Hoot

 

You were right Gary that this one stirs the pot! Peace.

[BOILER78]

Amen brother coinhead1!

[chrisfuccione]

I am about to go off subject a little. I am looking at a 1995 quater. For words on the coin there is LIBERTY, IN GOD WE TRUST, The date, the mint mark, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. E. PLURIBUS UNUM, and QUATER DOLLAR, to much clutter, not enough for a good design! CHRIS

[CappedBust]

Amen brother coinhead1!

I'll echo that!

[coinhead1]

Hoot, I dont think there is really a doubt about if the family unit is lacking in proper guidance but to what degree. I agree with the statement that "we need to turn our eye inwards", that is the whole point of a belief in a higher power.

[gmarguli]

Why shouldn't it be in God we trust?

 

Why shouldn't it be "In Allah We Trust" or "In Cows We Trust" or "In Mother Nature We Trust" or "In The Sun We Trust"? Different people worship different things. Why should our coins have to pick one? Does it really matter to the value of a coin? Why don't our tax forms say "In God We Trust"? Why don't our Stop Signs say "In God We Trust" on them? Why doesn't everything produced by the government say "In God We Trust" on it?

[coinhead1]

Greg, Hum, why indeed. Do you have an answer for why they should not? Personally I'm glad they dont say in Clinton we trust. Or in Enron we trust. Kind of like the in cows we trust idea better than the others you mentioned. Guess it kind of boils down to what or who you have trust in. Opinion only.

[Weidel Legacy Collection]

Well...if you look at the charter for this nation (forgetting the weaknesses of our founding fathers) God and our belief in Him was written very strongly into pretty much all the documents from that time associated with our founding. But, forgetting that, how about something as simple as the 10 commandments being discussed and displayed in our schools.

 

Thou shalt not lie, not steal, not kill, not commit adultry...

 

not bad words of advice for a generation of confused youth!

[Hoot]

RWW - What's interesting about the ten commandments is that they are social mores. "Liberty" on our coinage is a reflection of a social more. As a society and culture, we have applied them in the course and action of our civil structure, irrespective of beliefs in deities. It isn't necessary for one to believe in God to adopt social mores and act upon them for the betterment of one's fellow human. So I reckon I have no problem with those constructs. We should, perhaps, also have a copy of the constitution and the Bill of Rights hung in every school, simultaneously taking coursework in constitutionalism more seriously. But let's leave coins unto Caesar. (Where'd I hear that?)

 

What's funny in these discussions is that there can be so very much hidden in the beliefs of those espousing opinion. It's too much to feel the edgey judgement involved in a theological approach to our governmental actions. We should all practice our beliefs and let them be a guide and a signpost to the way that we conduct our lives. These things will be evident to those we encounter. But our ability to live in the harmony of social mores requires each of us to transcend the barriers that our beliefs impose and take up a sociality that is informed in manners of acceptable and harmonious living. I don't have to impose my beliefs in deities upon anyone to do that.

 

Teach your children well and they'll know what you need them to know.

 

I don't think that our money should be a pontiff of our religious beliefs. And our public schools are not designed for it either.

 

Hoot

[Guest]

NOT in Schools NOT on money! Why don't you think of everyone's views and not just your own! Americans will always throw this kind of stuff around the table. Its as simple as this. Issues, Statements and Policies on Religion, Sexual Preferance and Race shoud be kept personal. If you want your kids to be brain washed into beliving that a "GOD" is why you show up at church to give 10% of your income! If your want your kids to belive that being gay is OK as long as you arn't black and Jewish, then thats your buisness. Personally I think anyview that cannot be universally accepted should not be posted on Money! I think people like you who wont except this (because your view is set) need to step back and say, what about?

[coinhead1]

Can you name ONE view that is universally accepted? Seems my view has as much right as yours to be heard. So "what about" Your view is not set?

[Spooly]

I hate Anonymous posters! If you are going to post..... atleast put your handle name on it!

[Weidel Legacy Collection]

Amen bro! Also, either learn how to spell or invest in a spell checker

[Hoot]

Gary - I agree with Spooly that the anonymous poster should have the guts to stand up for himself. If a person cannot claim his/her own viewpoint then they should simply be quiet.

 

I would support the freedom of people in this country to maintain their own personal views with my life. So thank you for your opinions, even though you and I don't see eye to eye.

 

Hoot

[coinhead1]

Hoot and Spooly,

 

Thanks for your comments, I spent 24 years in the military so that he could have the right to any view he wants. Even when I did not have the right to express mine at times.

 

One of the great things about this country is the right to agree to disagree. Some places in the world this is STILL not the case. That is one of the reasons that Americans are not understood or rather misunderstood as being weak and uncommited. Go Bless America still stirs my blood and my soul. It always will!

 

Dena started all this you know! ! Lets ask her opinion.

 

 

[Hoot]

Ya Dena - pipe up!

 

Gary - Thank you for your sacrifices! Hoot

[Spooly]

coinhead1 I never said anything about his opinion, I just don't respect anyone that hides their ID. If you have a opinion on something.... Then stand behind it... post a name.

[dena]

I love a good debate

[BOILER78]

Dena- You sure picked a good topic to start a debate! Just don't start talking about modern vs classic coins.

[coinhead1]

Come on Dena, what is YOUR opinion? How do YOU feel about the issue. How about your co-workers?

 

Spooly, didn't mean to imply that you agreed with me, only tried to thank you for your support of my right to voice mine without anonymous attack. Got a little carried away. Thanks.

 

Hoot, thanks man!!

[coinman1794]

George Washington's Inaugural Address said this: "It would be peculiarly improper to omit in this first official act, my ferverent supplications to that Almighty Being, who rules over the universe, who presides in the council of nations, and whose providential aids can supply every human defect, that His benediction may consecrate to the liberties and happiness of the people of the United States...Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation, seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency."

 

George Washington was a neccessary and intrical figure in the founding of this nation. It is clear that he believed that God was helping out the new country. Therefore, if the nation was founded on the belief that god was helping, then why not thank god for his help? And just because the country MAY (if he exists) owe some gratitude to God for its existence doesn't mean that everyone has to worship, or appreciate him. It's the country itself that theoretically would owe gratitude, so they desided to put "God" on their money. It doesn't hurt anything to thank God on our coinage. No one has to believe because they see the word "god" on something. I THINK MAYBEE WE SHOULD STOP USING THE WORD "GOD" HERE ON THIS MESSAGE BOARD SO NO ONE WILL GET MAD AND SWITCH BACK OVER TO PCGS!

[coinhead1]

Coinman,

A point well made.

[crito]

"As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion - as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, - and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arrising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

-- Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Tripoli, Article XI (Senate ratified.)

 

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."

-- letter by James Madison to William Bradford April 1, 1774

 

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all."

-- The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine, pp. 8,9

[crito]

Events like 9-11 have a way of making even atheists show up at church. I probably can't even fathom how a civil war, where bother fights brother, would affect the psyche of a nation. But, IMO, our founding fathers were explicitly referring to a religiously neutral "God of Nature" and the "Laws of Nature." Not just unifying various religious segments of the country, but bridging the gap between science and religion as well. An amazing feat, really. One that would truly require a miracle in today’s polarized (left or right, black or white) society.

[Oldtrader3]

I agree, no preaching God in schools nor on coinage. I just moved back to California from Salt Lake City where if you are not Morman no have no rights, in fact, you have your children dispised, spite on and socially rejected because they are not LDS. This is what happens when you lose plurality with a particular religion. I will not live that way again!!

 

Look at the facts, this occurs everywhere in the world where there is not plurality of religion.