Oh the meme isn't technically inaccurate but it's misleading to
prove a point. It's used as rhetoric - a convincing tool rather
than a "just the facts" tool. == Hmm.. well I'd agree except
that I always thought it was from the 1950s too because that's
the impression ppl who want "in god we trust" taken off seem to
bring up. I had to look it up myself to find out that it's older
than that. Now that I know how long it's actually been in use, I
understand a little better why the people who want to keep it
are fighting to keep it on there. They're NOT fighting for a
thing from the 1950s but for a Civil War era thing. Some ppl get
caught up in that stuff. Not saying they're right - I honestly
don't care either way - just that I don't like things that are
"technically correct but..." == Well here. This is more related:
Is it ethically justifiable to state a fact that implies a
misleading fact in pursuit of a political goal? My criticism
rather with the meme creator and the spreading of an
implication] == Well, it would be but remember church =/= God. A
church is an organizing structure for people. Official
representation of one particular church as a seat in government
gives power to a church body. That's what the law is there for.
== Personally? I don't think it needs to be there. But at the
same time, I don't care that it's there either. I don't mind if
people fight to keep it or get rid of it but I don't think it's
a separation of church + state issue. Maybe it is, but as far as
I know, there's no organization that's getting a seat in
government because of it. == As far as I know, money's still not
an official religion. Having to use money isn't a religious
practice. I don't see the bearing the markings on currency have
in inhibiting someone's free practice of religion or not. I'm
not defending that it should be there. I'm just saying, the
fight isn't likely to go anywhere for a long time because
there's no religious freedom being inhibited with it. == What
they CAN argue is that it's offensive. That's a different
matter. They'll have trouble fighting that as well because
Jehovah's Witnesses, a recognized religious body in the USA, are
iconoclasts. They have fought to get religious and pagan icons
and songs taken out of schools, citing separation of church and
state but they simply get removed because it's annoying having
complaining parents. They ALSO have been fighting for a very
long time to get "In God We Trust" off of the money as well as
the freemason symbols. But they've been unsuccessful. They're a
very large group but in the end, all they can say is that it
offends them. That's about as far as other organizations want to
get it off of the money can say as well. == It's just not that
big of a deal to most people. There aren't that many people that
care that it's on there, and there aren't that many people that
care if it is removed. There's an over-representation of several
bodies of people online. One is atheists. Another is
libertarians. Neither group has much political clout because
they are scattered and their numbers are small. They seem
important online and numerous, but offline, they're marginal.
This can all change of course. But for now, it's not an atheist
world nor a libertarian world. ==
