The Values We All Stand For

To my (likely confused) subscribers: this video is my submission to The Reason Project Video Contest:
http://www.reasonproject.org/contests/video_contest/

A special thanks to snap2objects for providing some of the Creative Commons 3.0 licensed vectors for the figures in this video. All other borrowed images used in this video are copyright-free through Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons and so I would like to thank those organizations as well.

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NOTE 1: "In God We Trust" first started to appear on a few US coins during the Civil War. However, the motives for these inclusions were entirely different in nature. At that time, there were, to my knowledge, no active atheists in American culture. The inclusion of "In God We Trust" on US coins was gradual and met with resistance by prominent American theists, such as Theodore Roosevelt, as being sacrilegious.

By comparison, the 1957 changes were drastic, sweeping, and specifically invoked to combat the atheism of the Soviet Union. Before, some coins were allowed to not have the phrase and no paper bills had it; after, ALL American money, both coin and paper were REQUIRED to contain the slogan. Further, the changes in the pledge and the motto happened almost simultaneously with this change.

These changes were overtly anti-atheist in nature: "In these days when imperialistic and materialistic Communism seeks to attack and destroy freedom, it is proper" to "remind all of us of this self-evident truth" that "as long as this country trusts in God, it will prevail."

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NOTE 2: "annuit cœptis" ["He (God) has favored our undertakings"] first appeared on the US seal in 1782. Again, there were, to my knowledge, no active atheists in American culture at that time. The inclusion appears to be largely impersonal and deistic in nature. Given its historical meaning and lack of anti-atheist sentiment, I personally would not necessarily be opposed to its continued inclusion. It does however, appear to be arrogant and supportive of the American imperialism that fueled such atrocities as the Indian Massacres.

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NOTE 3: The origins of references to God in the federal government are largely irrelevant to the points made in the video starting at 1:23. No matter where these references came from, they exclude the identities of a large population of contributing Americans from the national identity. A government that we all create together should not include language that explicitly excludes any of us.

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Source Articles:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pledge_of_Allegiance
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_one-dollar_bill
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_God_We_Trust
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annuit_cœptis

Music:
Self-Authored using GarageBand '09

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Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• Under
• God
• In
• We
• Trust
• Red
• Scare
• Soviet
• Union
• Unity
• Liberty
• America

[FrostdPoptart]

@randyvild It's a fact that many of the Founding Fathers were deists and did not believe specifically in an Abrahamic God. I don't know who taught you that lie, but it would help the future if you stopped propagating it.

[wildsmiley]

Great vid. You would think that putting "In God we trust" on money and "under God" in the pledge of allegiance would be stepping too close to violating the 1st Amendment for the government, but apparently that's completely different to prayer in schools and 10 commandments in courthouses. Now, I must say when I was a kid, saying the pledge, I wasn't offended by the "under god" thing, even though I was nonreligious at the time (and still am). But we need to make sure we don't become a theocracy.

[DeimosSaturn]

"the government that we all create together..."?

All I see is a bunch of slaves keeping the plantation running.

[TheUntrueFantasy]

@BDiegoTube Sorry but you have to make a stronger argument than this if you want me to believe pledging allegiance to some one country is good for the earth.

[TheUntrueFantasy]

@BDiegoTube

'' It's entirely an individual choice whether you would pledge allegiance to your country'' really? I don't see many European,Asian or African people pledge allegiance to the U.S. coincidentally they mostly live in America. It's obviously has to do with where you are born just like religion. ''Allegiance is a legal obligation to a country'' what about if the law doesn't fit with reality and harms us? Isn't that just doing what your told without questioning it?

[TheUntrueFantasy]

@BDiegoTube The world does ask for your obedience, not in the same way your country does. If you eat more fish than fish reproduce then that fish will die if you kill trees faster than they grow than those trees will die, if your country uses toxic energy all this will make other countries suffer your mistakes. In that sense the planet makes the rules. Our rules should be made to fit the rules of nature but not what fits your country best. And i would much rather pledge allegiance to that.

[BDiegoTube]

@TheUntrueFantasy That's not an argument. It's entirely an individual choice whether you would pledge allegiance to your country. Pledging allegiance to the world - that's absurd. Allegiance is a legal obligation to a country, entity, or actual organization - it's meaningless to pledge allegiance to "the world". "The world" doesn't ask you for obedience. The UN might (which is *not* "the world" by any stretch), but you need to research what allegiance actually means. It's not loyalty.

[ralphhearsey]

The problem with that is the values 'we' all stand for are FUBAR!!!

[TheUntrueFantasy]

why would you pledge allegiance to one country why not the whole world, we probably wont survive as a species unless we work together. I agree with everything Evid3nc3 says in this video but i'm surprised he didn't criticise the first part but only the religious part in the end. But good video like always, keep up the good work.

[VetinariClone]

"One white nation" lol

[ghgg99]

THE NEW PENNY HAS THAT ON IT