A Poll on “In God We Trust” at the Capital Visitor Center July 15, 2009

A Poll on “In God We Trust” at the Capital Visitor Center

By Guest Contributor
July 15, 2009

As I mentioned earlier, FFRF is suing over the “In God We Trust” plaque being engraved in the new Capitol Visitor Center.

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel ran an absurd letter today by Antonio Fins, a man who wants to see the words engraved into the CVC and who doesn’t even understand the irony of his own comments:

Let’s start by pointing out the First Amendment doesn’t grant freedom “from” religion, just freedom “of” religion. It doesn’t ban religion, it provides freedom for all so that one denomination doesn’t dominate or become the official state religion…

…

No one is forced to worship because they saw the motto on a $20 bill. Or because they recited the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s pretty innocuous.

There’s just too much ignorance in those sentences to dissect it all right now. Needless to say, Fin would be saying something completely different if, each day, he had to recite that we’re “One Nation, Under Many Gods”…

Anyway, the newspaper has a poll up asking your thoughts on the issue:

CVC

At the moment, the results are going in the wrong direction:

CVCResponse

Let’s Pharyngulate that.

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What Are Your Thoughts?leave a comment

  • When I voted, the poll had gone drastically the other way:

    105 responses

    33 (31.4%) yes
    72 (68.6%) no

  • Gabemik

    35 (15%) yes
    202 (85%) no
    Better, but let’s get the yes percentage below 10%.

  • Becky

    31 minutes later, and it’s a complete 180. I love you guys. 🙂

  • iVan

  • Should the national motto, “In God We Trust,” be engraved on the Capitol Visitor Center or other government buildings?

    Yes: Our motto reflects America’s religious heritage and should be displayed. (36 responses)

    13.5%

    No: The slogan is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and should not be used for state purposes. (230 responses)

    86.5%

    266 total responses

    (Results not scientific)

  • zoo

    . . .

    72.3% yes. . .

    As for

    No one is forced to worship because they saw the motto on a $20 bill. Or because they recited the Pledge of Allegiance. It’s pretty innocuous.

    no promotion applies equally to all religions, not more equally to Christianity than others (sorry, that wasn’t intended).

  • Kate

    Did my part.

  • AmandaT.

    I just voted in three browsers. Looks like there’s a FriendlyFundie out there. 🙁

    Yes: (1804 responses)
    78.7%

    No: (489 responses)
    21.3%

    2293 total responses

  • ethanol

    call for reinforcements? help us PZ!

  • Yes: (2216 responses)
    75.8%
    No: (707 responses)
    24.2%

  • It’s gone drastically in the wrong direction. I tried to rally the troops on Twitter LOL

    Yes: 72.7%(2216 responses)
    No: 27.3% (831 responses)

    3047 total responses

    Looks like you can vote more than once from the same browser (I found this by accident mind you), so who knows how accurate it’s going to be.

  • georgie

    1 minute after Rooker the poll is now

    72.5 yes

    27.5 no

    3055 total responses

    I’ll vote again

  • Kahomono

    2219 Yes to 1135 No

    Someone’s crashing this the wrong way.

  • mikespeir

    No one is forced to worship because they saw the motto on a $20 bill.

    And no one would be kept from worship if it weren’t there. It just wouldn’t be forced on the rest of us.

  • What do you think?

    Should the national motto, “In God We Trust,” be engraved on the Capitol Visitor Center or other government buildings?

    Yes: Our motto reflects America’s religious heritage and should be displayed. (2219 responses)

    64.0%

    No: The slogan is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and should not be used for state purposes. (1249 responses)

    36.0%

    3468 total responses

    Results not scientific

    AS OF 6:56 am Thursday 7-16-09

  • Gavrilo

    Results set aside, isn’t the poll biaised, by how the answers are set?

    I mean, you can think that it’s right or wrong to engrave the motto for other reasons than the ones specified… The responses should have read only “yes” and “no”.

  • Yes: (2470 responses)

    53.5%

    No: (2149 responses)

    46.5%

    4619 total responses

  • «bønez_brigade»

    Voted.

    It appears the tables have turned since the official Pharyngulation began earlier today.

    Currently:
    Yes – 43% (~2600)
    No – 57% (~3500)

  • Infinite Monkey

    37% for

    62% against

    Seems we’ve come out of the woodwork…

  • Gevaudan

    Just voted.

    Yes
    33.4%

    No
    66.6%

    Woot!

  • benjdm

    Here comes the Squid cavalry. 🙂

  • Yes 18% (3053)
    No 82% (13940)

    Joy!

  • dave

    Yes 17.2% (3083 responses)
    No 82.8% (14883 responses)
    17966 total responses

    Woo hoo!!!

  • Yes: 14.5% 3,231 responses
    No: 85.5% 18,991 responses
    22222 total responses

    That’s a lot of (me)twos.

    > (Results not scientific)
    No kidding. 🙂

  • JSug

    Their math sucks. They locked the poll down, and the final results read:

    Yes: (2502 responses)
    51.0%

    No: (2408 responses)
    49.0%

    A difference of 4 votes in a sample size of 4910 does not equal 2 percent. Someone should explain to them how rounding and significant digits work. I also like how they just discounted a massive chunk of the votes because they didn’t agree with the opinion expressed in the editorial.

    At least they have a disclaimer:
    “(Results not scientific)”
    Scientific? They aren’t even mathematically correct!

  • Umm… the vote difference isn’t 4. It’s 94…

  • JSug

    Okay, so my math sucks 😛 LOL For some reason I read it as 2498 No.

    Still, they just deleted a bunch of votes.

  • I checked this out this morning and the current numbers are:

    Yes 14.1% (3278)
    No 85.9% (19890)

    Total votes: 23168

    w00t!

  • Thilina

    Yes:- 13.3% (3396 responses)
    No: – 86.7% (22127 responses)

    25523 total responses

  • benjdm Says:
    July 16th, 2009 at 11:25 am

    Here comes the Squid cavalry. 🙂

    LOL!

    9:45PM
    Yes 17.4% (4820)
    No 82.6% (22,867)
    Total 27,687

    I’d love to get a look at the server stats for that page right now.

  • Kay

    well I just voted and it seems to have completely switched since you made this post

  • Neon Genesis

    If it costs $100,000 to have this monument thing engraved and they really don’t believe in wasting money like they claim they don’t want the FFRF to do, why don’t they take that $100,000 and use it for something more productive, like I don’t know? Giving to the poor or something Jesus taught? I’m pretty sure Jesus never said “thou shalt pay $100,000 for a government endorsed religious monument instead of giving to the poor” or did I just imagine Jesus saying to render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s?

  • New update. The number of votes has doubled since my last post:

    Yes: Our motto reflects America’s religious heritage and should be displayed. (12000 responses)

    23.4%

    No: The slogan is an unconstitutional endorsement of religion and should not be used for state purposes. (39232 responses)

    76.6%

    51232 total responses

  • Valerie Kelley

    Pharyngulated!