All this "Under God" and "In God We Trust" bullshit started in the 1950's, when the "cold war" was at it's zenith.

With regards to uttering an oath that I do not believe in, I am not going to "just skip it". Although I am "godless", I am anything but a "communist" (see below).

Here is part of an article about the Pledge, from a couple of years ago. I didn't post the entire article - but it's not very long and I gave the link.

The origin of ā??Under Godā? in the Pledge:

In 1953, the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternal organization, lobbied to amend the Pledge in their effort to galvanize Americans against the country's enemies. The group urged Congress to add "under God" in order to make official what they believed to be essential for distinguishing genuine Americans from "godless communists." The next year, the Reverend George Docherty became a catalyst for their cause by preaching "one nation under God" with President Eisenhower in attendance. The Scottish minister had come to Washington's historic New York Avenue Presbyterian Church several years earlier from the homogeneous British culture where he assumed that, "It was everybody's belief that God was part of society."1 Without the phrase 'under God,'" Docherty said, "the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag might have been recited with similar sincerity by Muscovite children." (This assumes that a Soviet dictator would have permitted his subjects to express a longing for democratic liberty and justice. Docherty also unintentionally gave affront to atheistic service personnel who have fought and died for America in every war when he declared that "an atheistic American is a contradiction in terms.")[/I]http://www.secularhumanism.org/index...ge=phipps_24_3

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