A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject, Winston Churchill said, and there’s a growing crop of “new” atheists that fit the description. For some of them, God isn’t a crutch or a delusion, He’s an affront. And they can’t stop talking about Him.
The folks at the Freedom From Religion Foundation, f’rinstance, are filing a lawsuit to have the motto “In God We Trust” removed from all our coins and currency. They reason that, for the atheist, to hand over a dollar to someone is to misrepresent or betray your beliefs. And to make the transaction in a foreign country is to disseminate a false idea about the U. S. of A., where a good many people don’t trust in God.
The suit, to be sure, will be deemed frivolous, or unreasonable because the demands are unworkable, since the phrase is on every coin and bill in circulation. So what’s an angry atheist to do? Well, he could quit carrying money altogether, giving new import to the term “filthy lucre.” Then, if atheists managed to convert everyone to their way of thinking, we’d have a true cashless society.
All this froth over an innocuous catchphrase is typical of some unbelievers’ dreary single- (and small-)mindedness. Why haven’t they objected to the eagle or the pyramid on the dollar? The eagle is just about extinct, and there aren’t even any pyramids here. Don’t those images give a false impression of our country?
It’s because “God” sticks in their craw. Since “In God We Trust” doesn’t represent my views, their reasoning must go, it shouldn’t be legal on legal tender.
Here’s a motto that might satisfy everyone: “It’s my world, and you’re just passing through.”
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