I believe the issue with regard to the pledge of allegiance is that there are individuals within the United States who are loyal to the nation, and would like to affirm that loyalty, but cannot due to the implicit recognition of the institute of religion rather than say any particular institution of religion. Atheists are of a class of people who stipulate that god is an entity that does not exist, yet the pledge of allegiance inherently recognizes the existence of god, therefore, in order to affirm allegiance to the United States they must also pledge a belief that they do not have, the existence of god. The judicial branch has stated that atheists are not discriminated against due to the fact that they are not required to pledge allegiance to the United States, however, this does not address those who would like to affirm their loyalty to the nation, but not to god, an entity they do not believe in. If I may interject my own thoughts, I would say that Francis Bellamy, the writer of the pledge, made an appeal to those who are reverent toward god without consideration for those who do not believe in god. Of course, without any evidence, one would have to give him the benefit of the doubt and conclude that he did not intentionally mean to slight non-believers. Perhaps the atheist movement was not even considered, nor the discriminatory aspect of it, during its creation. cnn/2013/09/04/us/massachusetts-pledge-of-allegiance/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Posted on: Thu, 05 Sep 2013 00:38:14 +0000