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"In God We Trust" should be removed from United States' currency. The mention of God, which is a religious belief, misrepresents those United States citizens who do not hold this belief. In Source D, Jon Murray, President of the non-profit organization American Atheists, argues that the motto "In God We Trust" inscribed on the mint violates the Free Speech, Free Exercise, and Establishment clauses of the First Amendment. It violates Free Speech by the inability to erase or eliminate the inscription by making it illegal by criminal law that "[w]hoever fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates, impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the mints of the United States' shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both (18 USC Sec 331)." It is likewise this way with paper notes in 18 USC Sec 332. To function in this society, people must carry around money. People who don't support the inscription are forced to carry around false representation and therefore, according to Murray, this violates the Free Expression Act. The Establishment Clause isn't so clear, mainly that Church and State must be separate and that the government should avoid any entanglements with religion. Recently, instead of "Will there be too much government entanglement with religion?" judges have been defining violation of the Establishment as if the subject ?benefits religion in a way more direct and more substantial than practices that are excepted into our national heritage.? And that?s what the blurry notion of what?s religious and what?s in our heritage is (Source I).
A common argument debating the motto on our coins is that ?God? is not, in fact, a religious belief, merely an important par...
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Leahy, James E. The First Amendment, 1791-1991: Two Hundred Years of Freedom. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers. 1991.
Murray, Jon. ?God On Our Coins?. American Atheists. Sept. 14, 1988. .
Swank, Grant. ?Atheist Attacks ?In God We Trust.?? The Conservative Voice. Aug. 16, 2006. .
United States Department of the Treasury. Coins and Currency. History of ?In God We Trust?. Online Database. August 31, 2007. .
W.W. Hening. Statutes at Large of Virginia, vol. 12. 1823. Jefferson, Thomas. Pages 84-86: ?Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom.? .