In God We (Should Not) Trust

"In God We Trust." That's the lovely message we get every time we save up quarters for laundry, or pay cash for our groceries. Schoolchildren are made to repeat the sentiment that all of our country is superseded by a divine power when they recite the Pledge of Allegiance every day.

And some members of Congress feel that we don't remember it enough.

As a nation that at least tries to maintain the appearance of opposing government-sponsored religion, the United States seems to be doing a poor job at keeping God out of government when Congressmen are sponsoring bills like this one:

No Reason to Gather?

As an atheist student from a strongly Catholic family, I have been looking for an atheist/agnostic/humanist/Pastafarian/whatever group to join since I began attending school here at Virginia Tech. I recently found out about the Freethinkers at Virginia Tech Group, and plan on attending their meeting on February 8th.

In the long search for a group, however, I was surprised to find how many of my friends (atheist, agnostic, and religious) scoffed at the idea of a skeptical club. More than once, I asked people who I was sure would be interested in such a group if they'd heard of one on campus, only to hear that they thought the idea was ridiculous or unnecessary. People told me that atheists didn't need any groups, that since all that we shared was a lack of belief in something, such meet-ups would be silly. Why would people who didn't believe in something need a group session to talk about it?