A Culture Of Religion

One nation, under God ...

The Pledge Of Allegiance

I'm putting on my atheist cap for this discussion, since I am one for most practical purposes. Our culture's attitude towards religion and god irks me greatly. It's not even a conscious effort on the parts of those who do it, it's just so ingrained. I don't mean to imply anyone is consciously doing anything wrong, but just to point out a phenomenon which has been bothering me.

References to God are nigh-ubiquitous in our society. In oaths, in songs, in speeches, almost everywhere. Even so-called non-denominational services typically bring up a god with decidedly Judeo-Christian attributes. Even the Pledge of Allegiance has been religified in that way. Hell, it's on every piece of our currency: "In God We Trust"

Questioned about religious references, most people are surprised, even offended at the idea that they could be removed. There's such a casual attitude towards them, such an insistence that they don't mean anything. If they really don't mean anything, then, why do people have such a problem with the idea of removing them?

There's a huge unconscious attitude that, wonderful ideals of freedom of religion aside, we're really all Judeo-Christian in the end. Or, alternately, almost an attitude that believing in a Judeo-Christian sort of God or universe is the norm, and other religions are measured relative to that. It just really gets on my nerves, personally. I do refuse to sing songs or recite things with religious meanings and references, on a matter of principle, and it really is mildly awkward standing silent in a room full of people belting "God Bless America" to be standing silently, not because I dislike America, but because I don't believe in a god, an object to participating in something that implies, even in the most indirect fashion, that I do.