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  • The phrase is "under God." It is not "under Rama," "under Allah," "under "Ahura Mazda," "under Krishna," or "under the Goddess." This implies that the full weight of the government and school system is behind the concept of the deity of Jehovah and Jesus Christ.
  • Consider the fate of children who do not believe in the existence of a personal God. These include children who are (or who are the sons and daughters of) Agnostics, Atheists, some Buddhists, Ethical Culturalists, Humanists, secularists, most Unitarian Universalists, etc.
  • Consider also the fate of children who believe in a God who is different from the Judeo-Christian deity. The phrase is telling them that the government and school board thinks that their God does not exist.
  • Consider what Christian and Jewish students will feel: that the government and school considers their God to be paramount. The result is to accentuate religious differences among students. The beliefs of Jewish and Christian students are given support; this promotes Christian triumphalism. The beliefs of other students are denigrated. This produces hurt feelings and anger.
  • As Blaise Pascal once said: "Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction." The potential result of supporting the beliefs of Christian students and denigrating the beliefs of others is increased harassment and violence perpetrated towards religious minorities.
  • It would cost money to remove "In God we trust" from coins and bills. But it would be minimal. As new coin and bill designs are created, the phrase could simply be left off. Old coins and bills would, over time, be replace with religiously-neutral versions.
  • We don't feel that we have given excessive attention to the controversy. This section consists of one short menu and three essays on the topic. That represents only about 0.2% of our total web site's contents.