h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

At Barack obama's 'swearing-in ceremony' at Capitol Hill today 20th Jan 2009, his last words were:

"So help me God".

Bet he had his fingers crossed

"At Barack obama's 'swearing-in ceremony' at Capitol Hill today 20th Jan 2009, his last words were:

"So help me God"."

And what is your point? Do you even have one?

"Bet he had his fingers crossed"

Doubtful, he gives every impression of believing in the black evangelical nonsense.

Stealth

My point is that God 'crops up' all over the world in most major nations,
in the form of 'legal constitutions' etc.

Obama swore that oath of the Bible of a man who was very probably an atheist and certainly no more than a deist.

The American constitution allows citizens to bear arms in order to protect themselves from an English king - they have lots of outdated ideas over there.

Also, never forget that, constitutionally speaking, the executive (i.e. the presidency) is the weakest of the three branches of the US government. If you wanted to be pedantic, you could say Obama isn't the most powerful person in the US, that it's actually Nancy Pelosi.

Oh, look, a new argument for the existence of god. The argument from Barack Obama's inauguration.

>>My point is that God 'crops up' all over the world in most major nations, in the form of 'legal constitutions' etc<<

Your point is incorrect. God isn't mentioned once in the US Constitution. The word is barred from American language by the 1st Amendment. Seriously warner, do your research.

"My point is that God 'crops up' all over the world in most major nations,
in the form of 'legal constitutions' etc."

Obama is the new president of the US not Norway. Norway refrences God in it's constitution. The US constitution doesn't. The founding father voted down every attempt to get It put in.
The swearing in is not actually a state sponsored event if we're it would be violation of the US constitution for Obama to do the whole 'So help me God." with members of favoured churches at his side.

In fact, let's go through the major nations shall we and see if they have the word God in their constitutions?

US - no.
Canada - I don't think so, but I'm not certain.
The UK - we don't have a formal constitution, so no.
France - definitely not.
Germany - yes.
Russia - no.
Italy - yes, for now.
China - definitely not
Japan - no, not since WW2.
India - no.
Brazil - probably, but I'm not sure.

So of the G8s and the BRICS only 2 mention God in their constitutions. 3 out of 13 is hardly most.

Dammit, we need an edit button!

>>So of the G8s and the BRICS only 2 mention God in their constitutions. 3 out of 13 is hardly most.<<

Should be "So of the G8s and the BRICS only 3 mention God in their constitutions. 3 out of 13 is hardly most."

Actually, Canada's does. And so, obviously, God exists.

Actually, warner, you haven't really said what your point in bringing this up is. You said Obama said 'so help me god', you were asked what your point was and you responded with some sort of assertion that god is mentioned all over the place. You've not explained your point, you've just made another assertion.

so, what's your point of saying that Obama and all sorts of documents mention god? Is your point, as I've suggested, that somehow these assertions constitute an argument for the existence of god?


Oh, screw it. There is no point.

>>Actually, Canada's does.<<

Really? You learn something new every day. Cheers anhaga

But Canada is the smallest of that gang - in fact, the combined population of the 4 that do is less than 1/7th of the 9 that don't.

So the claim that "most" of the world's major nations have god in their constitution is nonsense.

anhaga

With respect, there is a point. I suppose you could assume that my OP was implying
that my opinion was "if God doesn't exist, we won't be able to achieve peace".

But digging deeper, perhaps another aspect is to establish whether 'peace envoys'
who are atheists would have such good a chance at achieving success.
There are also other aspects ..

Aspects there are of others.

I recall that the last President also said the words at his swearing in. In fact he made a big deal of asking divine help at every public occasion.

Did he get any?

Only if you think that god has a sick sense of humour.

~*~If the majority of people on h2g2 think world war III is a joke, then I'm lost for words.~*~


Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, World War III /has/ been a joke. I think that anyone familiar with the causes of WWI and WWII would be willing to agree that the modern political climate and modern communication technology would render any possibility of a third World War ridiculously unlikely.



~*~At Barack Obama's 'swearing-in ceremony' at Capitol Hill today 20th Jan 2009, his last words were: "So help me God".~*~

So the hell what? Every single President in America's history has said those exact same words, all the way back to George Washington. And, despite traditional meaning, there's really no reason it has to refer to the Christian God any more than the Muslim God, or the Jewish God, or the B'Hai God, or any of the Greek Gods, or even the Bhudda.



~*~But digging deeper, perhaps another aspect is to establish whether 'peace envoys' who are atheists would have such good a chance at achieving success.~*~

Well, obviously in an unofficial and purely personal aspect, I tend to think of myself as a sort of peace envoy sometimes. We've been seeing a fair amount of eachother lately, although admittedly only in religious debates, so tell me, do you think I've been remotely successful?

Maybe I'm asking the wrong person.....

Hey! Um.... I don't know, 2legs, do YOU think I've been remotely successful?

Oh, oh, I know. Effers has seen me argue with people a lot. Effers, what do you think?

Maybe he meant his ? "The Lord knows I am not a cruel man."

An interesting quote, that I came across:

Hillel the Elder is a prominent figure in Jewish history. He is perhaps one of the most quoted Rabbis.
One day, a man approached him with a challenge. "Teach me all the Torah while I stand on one leg,"
the man demanded. The Rabbi wisely responded "What is hateful to you, don't do unto others - that's the whole Torah.
The rest is commentary. Go and learn."