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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

North Carolina atheists' ad vandalized

Organized religion has a stranglehold on the U.S. Most adherents of the monotheistic religions in the U.S. are at least civil if not completely accepting of other faiths (admittedly, it would be asking a lot for more than civility when the subject is religion). However, a disturbingly high-profile minority of cement-headed jackasses regards the least challenge to the putatively Christian character of the nation as a threat that must be countered by force or, as in this case, vandalism of a billboard suggesting that the Pledge of Allegiance worked quite nicely before Congress shoved "under God" into it.

Is this worse than Jake Knotts' ignorant braying about Nikki Haley's (possibly former) beliefs? I can't decide.

"One nation, indivisible." Is it so hard to imagine that phrase? More to the point, is it so damned threatening?

Until the hysteria of the McCarthy-era 1950s, "under God" was not part of the Pledge of Allegiance. A number of us believe we have the right to declare our allegiance to this country without simultaneously declaring an allegiance to a deity in which we do not believe.

To the ignorant and paranoid yahoos who decided a billboard was a threat to their precious religion -- all you've done is to confirm our suspicions that religion softens the brain. The defacement shows that you didn't start out with much in that department.

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