Space Potato

From the good folks over at Yahoo:

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - A U.S. district court judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit brought by a California atheist against the U.S. government for its use of the phrase "In God We Trust" on its coins and currency.

Now, here's my two cents (the first coin to have the God motto was the 2 cent piece, nice pun eh?), I don't really give a shit. Honestly you could have a portrait on the back of the 10 dollar bill of baby Jesus being born with Alexander Hamilton consuming the placenta, and I really wouldn't care. It simply won't affect me when I hand it to the pimple faced kid with the crossed eyes at Carl's Jr. Do I think that "In God We Trust" is a violation of separation of church and state? Probably, but I can tolerate this one. That's right, I'm tolerant of other people's religious beliefs. And if they want to print a little phrase on a coin to make themselves feel better about spreading their "word", then they can go right ahead, but don't play dumb when we point out what you're doing.

How many people really look at coins? I use to, afterall I had a pretty cool coin collection when I was a kid. Why? Well some kids were starting rock bands, others skate boarded, some joined the football team, but I thought I would go ahead and sabotage any chances I had at getting laid before college by collecting coins. It worked. But other than that I would say a majority of the population never really looks at coins. In fact only a couple of years ago did a friend ask, "Hey why does this quarter have a picture of a racecar on it?". I explained the State Quarter Act, and he replied, "When the hell did they start that? 1999? Shit man." Shit man indeed. People rarely look at currency. And when they do, they're usually "on weed".

If you know anything about coins and currency, you will know that the "In God We Trust" tripe didn't start until the middle of the 19th century shortly after the Civil War, or what I like to call, The First Time The South Became a Pain in the Ass. It isn't suprising since war seems to bring out the best religious wackos. The die was cast and it was done.

This of course led to much irony (or coppery) when in 2000 the U.S. Mint decided to release the new Dollar Coin with a Native American woman, Sacagawea, with the motto stamped clearly next to her head as our last slap in the face to their culture. Take that you pagan savages! Even more ironically, it's usually these coins that frequent casinos run by...yeah you get the picture.

But isn't it interesting that we would place such a motto on our money. Is this really the one we pray to, or prey to. Pat Robertson I'm looking in your direction! That's a different topic for a different time though.

But here was this guy's argument:

Newdow claimed that by using coins and currency bearing the phrase, he is forced to carry religious dogma, proselytise and evangelise for monotheism.

Well I think Newdow is creating a false dichotomy here, and it's not as simple as flipping a coin. The problem is, you really aren't forced to do it. He might have made a better case 30 years ago, but there are checks, credit cards and debit cards out there now. You have secular options when it comes to capitalism! And it's not as if you have to look at it. And when is the last time you held out a hand of change and someone said "Oh you must be a Christian."? This just isn't a strong argument.

I was just about to completely understand why the judge struck this down when the he goes and says something stupid like this:

Judge Frank Damrell of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California held in his opinion that "In God We Trust" is secular in nature and use, and its appearance on coins and currency does not show government coercion on behalf of monotheism.

What? Are you fucking kidding me!? "In God We Trust" is somehow secular? The very use of the word God presents itself as limiting the statement to monotheism. Also, remember when I talked earlier about the end of the Civil War? Well here's the whole story from Wikipedia, which in I do trust.

The motto In God We Trust was placed on United States coins largely because of the increased religious sentiment existing during the American Civil War. Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase received many appeals from devout Christians throughout the country, urging that the United States recognize God on United States coins.

This doesn't show some "government coercion on behalf of monotheism.", but it definitely proves the inverse. Which, guess what, shows that monotheists were simply using the government as a proxy.

Like I said though, if they want to put their mouth where their money is, fine, I don't really care. But don't pass the buck and tell me it's secular and don't even attempt to tell me the people responsible didn't have motives and agendas and used our government to subtly carry them out. So my advice to those who do find this offensive, use your debit card. At least banks and corporations can still be counted on to be ungodly.