Posted by Gremlin [12.253.230.83 - 12-253-230-83.client.attbi.com] on 20 July 2002 at 04.46.51 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: school problems posted by Andy on 19 July 2002 at 20.45.29 ZuluTime:

In regards to the reference to God in the pledge, it may have been intended as the Christian God, but it is not necessarily so. God could refer to a great number of deities or non-deities. The biggest problem I have with the pledge is, if we are going to have our pledge to our country state that we are under God, shouldn't we be acting like we are under God? Since we are not behaving in this manner, one of two things should happen.
     1. Remove God from the pledge
     2. Start acting like there is a God. (this is my preferred action)

Okay. While I was okay with removing the reference in the Pledge--or, really, removing the Pledge altogether, let's consider your proposal.
     If we start acting as though your deity in particular exists, we have no more use for laws. Well, save for the 613 commandments of the Old Testament, and a few things found in the New.
     I could almost deal with an anarchotheocracy, actually. Those who believed in Yhvh would be obvious enough to the rest of us: they wouldn't cut their hair; they'd never wear mixed fibres; they wouldn't drink milk while eating meat [cheeseburgers are out, for obvious reasons].
     The rest of us could do whatever we liked, because--since we're pretending that this deity exists--our only reprocussions for our actions is an afterlife in hell.
     I would expect christians to leave us fully alone, regardless what we did. Turn the other cheek, and see if anyone hits that one with a baseball bat too.