In God We Trust, and One Nation Under God

I want to clear a few things up for people with misconceptions about US History and the 'tradition' argument.

First, the Pledge of Allegiance's phrase "Under God" is NOT an official tradition of the US:

It wasn't until 1954 that an amendment was made to add the words "under God".

While "In God We Trust" was used on coins since the 1860s (and not by mandate of Congress), it did not become the National Motto until 1956. Previous to that legislation, our national motto was "E Pluribus Unum" (From Many, One). Also in 1957, In God We Trust was first added to paper currency.

The Red Scare, and the popularly-believed linking of atheism with communism arose during the 1950s. Indeed, some communist governments did officially prohibited or inhibited religion while supporting atheism. It is more than likely that the Red Scare of this period had a lot to do with the legislation. Quotes from Congress and Presidential speeches concerning the legislation support this position.

However, it is largely irrelevent. Being atheist or having any non-christian belief system does not mean a citizen is communist or otherwise somewhow un-American. Furthermore, it is in violation of the 1st Amendment, as these are quite obviously acts of congress "respecting an establishment of religion".

Another common argument is that "God" includes any belief system. This is false.

The term "God" is singular, thus does not include polytheistic belief systems citizens may freely have.

"God" can be considered to preclude feminine deities or a Goddess.

"God" excludes non-deistic spirituality, agnostics and atheists.