God should be removed from the Pledge of Allegiance.

My opponent claims that to be atheistic it would require a statement of ‘No God’ to be added! If that were the case, using such a rational, it is only irreligious and secular if the word ‘Secular’ is added! Making us ‘one secular nation’! As amusing as the flaw in rational is, it is clear that to be devoid of God is the definition of atheism, without God. If “No God” were to be placed within the pledge this would be actively ‘denying God’ and defined as anti-theistic. Complaint 1: Again my opponent’s complaint here is not proven to be valid. We all agree that People are equal. That does not make all ideologies equal. An ideology of pedophilia deserves outright death and is certainly not equal to even the worst definition of marriage. An ideology that sacrifices children on an altar of fire is certainly not equal to an ideology that honors the lives of individuals and children at that. My opponent cannot keep saying that someone is offended. She needs to prove why that the pedophile or the person who sacrifices children on an altar has an ‘equal’ voice. - Again people are equal, ideologies are not. Complaint 2: “Again, I am not denying that atheism may have been the cause of historical conflict—what I am denying is that any monotheistic religion is any more “peaceful” than atheism. ” You have to do more than assert it, you have to prove it. 1: You need to show that Atheism will instill more loyalty than theism, meet a definition of secular, and honor our heritage Then ignore: 2: That “Under God” harkens back to our historical past 3: That “Under God” is religious as opposed to irreligious. As to theism and being on par with Atheism, body count alone denies this. Atheism 100 million bodies in a single century when it gets in charge. All religions combined do not even come close [1] My opponent states: “The acts you are attributing to atheism were not definitively committed in the name of atheism, but by proclaimed atheists who had entirely separate motives in their crimes. ” This quote misses the point of a prime motivator and a complicit ideology. Most of the even ‘proclaimed’ religious occurrences were complicated and had a large number of factors involved. This issue is, if the religious ideology or atheistic ideology was root cause. Let me be clear Again, Let me be clear, even if you find fault with a religious ideology that does not in ANY WAY make theism, or an irreligious belief in God, as the pledge affirms, to be less or equal to atheism. A: Crusades [2][7], this was a defensive action against a religious expansive ideology that had been killing Christians for decades, that had become intertwined with Islam. Most will affirm each of these holy wars degenerated into civil struggles for land, wealth and power. Both ideologies, Muslim and Christian were beset by evil civil interaction. Secular greed was at issue, not religious ideology. B: The Taiping Rebellion [3] – You must be joking on this one. - A civil war against an oppressive, evil feudal government by a man claiming to be Jesus’ brother is NOT a ‘Christian’ motivated slaughter. - Even the body count is dubious and merely due to two census counts. - As well, the body count was on the side of the losing rebels, your “so-called” Christians. The feudal government executed them ruthlessly after their losing. C: Christopher Columbus [4] [8] [9] all of the false history surrounding Christopher Columbus came from the accusations of Francisco de Bobadilla, of which, Christopher Columbus was exonerated. - Columbus did not believe this was the passage to India, but these Islands were the islands God personally told him to go and convert to Christianity. He wrote this in his book of prophecies, only held in spanish until this last decade it was translated. Unknown to historians. - It was his non-Christian Crew that committed the atrocities. - Body count was nowhere near 100 million. - De Bobadilla took Christopher Columbus back in chains, with a litany of false accusations that remain in history books today, but Christopher Columbus was completely exonerated upon audience with King and Queen. - The overwhelming Arawak death count was due to mass suicide compounded by misunderstanding. The non-Christian murderers on the crew did not even kill that many people. D: European Witch-Hunts [1] [5] [6] – Here again another factual tragedy. - Christianity since AD 866 (Pope Nicholas I) had a well established tradition and teaching against such tortures used by the rampant lay people in these brutal executions. - This was a tragic response due to low education that plagued the era. Regino of Prüm (A. D. 906) Archbishop - wrote these ideas are of a wild imagination and untrue. The educated clergy were long teaching against these lay myths. - The body count is mere thousands, even if you attribute this to ‘Christianity’. Concise: All of these examples do nothing to theism, even if religion was completely guilty! Not one of these examples was motivated by a belief in a Divine creator, judge and perfect moral agent. Complaint 3: I do not see where my opponent became clearer. The issue at hand is that the pledge is legal, agreed upon by all branches of government (Executive, legislative and judicial) this is the traditional position of this country. The government is irreligious and makes no law against religion (that is pick one and exclude others) but it does expect religion to be involved in governing. [Ibid] Complaint 4: My opponent here seems to reinforce my contentions. Who cares if 3% of the population who holds to an evil malignant destructive ideology becomes disloyal? Do you care if pedophiles become disloyal and act on their predatory ideology? Do you care if a religion that sacrifices children becomes disloyal to America? Of course not. However, we do have a problem if we as a country fail to elicit a large portion of the countries good ideology of theism. Especially as stated before the fact that Christians clearly will leave a country that does not serve God! Having 3% in open rebellion is not as large an issue as 50%+. Summary: We have seen that Pro, has not met the burden of proof here. - She states that all ideologies are equal, yet fails to show this with examples that do not detract from religion much less theism. - She also cannot affirm that atheism, the denial of divine retribution and moral incumbency, resulting in the slaughter of 100 million people in a single century, should be recognized of equal value. We have seen Pastor, Pope and President all affirm the destructive ideology that is atheism. To counter this baseless assertion: - We see the pledge is secular and irreligious already. - We see that the pledge honors our civil war history. - The pledge does what it intends to do by eliciting the majority of the population to loyalty. There are so few people of multi-god faiths this ideal does not appeal to as to be irrelevant to be necessary to elicit their loyalty. Hindu’s have a God creator, Muslims, Christians, and Jews etc… My opponent has not in anyway given us reasons that meet her burden to prove her resolution. We have seen powerful reasons to negate it. Under God was placed into the Pledge to affirm our historical tradition, affirm our denial of atheism, elicit the maximum loyalty of the population and meets an irreligious definition. [1] . http://www.inplainsite.org... [2] . http://catholiceducation.org... [3] . http://taipingrebellion.com... [4] . http://www.history-timelines.org.uk... [5] . http://www.fordham.edu... [6] . http://www.newadvent.org... [7] . http://www.victorhanson.com... [8] . http://www.eagleforum.org... [9]\. http://chapmanresearch.org...