chazak-amats:

I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat…

This kind of depends on how you define the term “atheist.” If you are referring to a lack of belief, then no, this is not an atheistic country. However, if by “atheist” you mean “does not apply issues pertaining to a belief in deities to official policy” then that’s all over the Constitution.

Christians are strictly prohibited from imposing their views on others in this country. But then so are Hindus, Pagans, Muslims, Zoroastrians, AND even atheists - which is kind of redundant since atheists have no religious views to impose. So it seems to me that when you say, “I don’t like (the concept that America is an explicitly atheist country) being shoved down my throat…” what you are really saying is that you don’t like the idea that you can’t impose your religion down other people’s throats. And since that’s what you’re saying, well … fuck you.

Wonder how they ever called that crap “bread?”

All of the anti-American protests and violence we are experiencing is happening at the hands of religious extremists. People who have been brought up to believe that their holy text and the heroes of their religious culture are sacrosanct and must be respected on penalty of death. They pridefully spew vitriol against infidels and impose laws from their holy books on their own people - whether they agree or not.

If this kind of thinking seems foreign to you, then you aren’t paying attention to our own cultural brainwashing. We have nuts like Pat Robertson blaming homosexuality for earthquakes and ancient deals with Satan for poverty in Haiti. We have entire communities putting up their cities’ fortunes to defend some imagined need to put their religious symbols on publicly owned property. We have people claiming that every calamity our nation faces is the fault of the non-believer for pulling the nation away from God.

How can religious fervor and hatred of the other seem foreign to you? It’s all over this country. The only difference is that we secularists have just enough of a tentative hold on reality to keep these nut jobs from dragging us back into the middle ages with them.

My 4th of July plans include exercising my first amendment rights to good effect.

In America, we constantly hear of the Judeo-Christian God. For the record, this God only exists for Christians. For Jews, the Judeo Christian God is not God. For Muslims, the Judeo Christian God is also the God they call Allah who is the same God only different. Same for Mormons. For non-Abrahemists, (Hindus, Buddhists, Pagans, etc.) the Jewish God is not the same God the Christians believe in. And for atheists, most of us recognize that even Christians don’t all worship the same God.