"In God We Trust"

Post Reply New Topic

Going back before debit and credit cards, it was something your may have seen by the cash register

Good that there's no such lame divine statement on the Lebanese currency.

What do the letters/runes/heiroglyphs say/spell?

Runes? That's just Arabic writing

About the sentence on the US bank notes: The slogan needs to be removed from money but also it should not be an official state motto. How does the USA want to realise the constitutional divide between religion and law and profile itself as secular, when even the state motto and passports and currency carry references to a deity?

I see no issues with Muslims or Jews, after all Allah is just the Arabic word for God, God applies to all monotheitic religions so "in God we trust" just refers to whatever god you obey. The problem is that it forces the idea of a deity existing on irreligious people, which is contradictory to the secular set-up of the USA. If even the official national motto violates the constitutional separation of law and church, then there is something quite wrong.

But hey, secularism in America is a joke. Some states still have laws saying that atheists cannot serve in the state government or as governor. Some states forbid political functions to people denying the existance of a god.
And here in Europe, some countries are not much better. For example in Denmark and Sweden, the law dictates that the head of state must be a member of the church. Several countries pay their churches and priests in tax money, including tax money from the growing number of atheists.

Secularism is a joke really in many countries, and the ironic thing is that those countries are the first ones to point the finger to Middle Eastern countries. Well, USA and several EU countries should look in the mirror and see their own secularism isn't well executed neither. Actually, I really have to say kudos to the Turkish application of secularism, may the EU take an example from that (that is, if the current government doesn't drastically change the laws, which is unlikely though)

Even those separate ones in the circles? Wow. Some of them looked so like the runes in "The Lord of the Rings" that I hesitated to refer to them as arab writing/letters in case I offended someone. Sorry.

Do you know what they say?

Unfortunately not. I would love to learn Arab and Hebrew though as I hope to relocate back to the Middle East in the future (near future if it depends on me) so learning the language is something I wish to do at some point. I can help out with Turkish bank notes though but that's just translating the words without any different alphabet as extra difficulty.

It looks to be the Phoenician, Greek, and Latin alphabets.


To add:

مصرف لبنان

Masraf Lubnan

Bank of Lebanon...

Last edited by oscuria on 04 Jun 2008, 3:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.

don't forget polytheists and pantheists...i don't think they agree with the singular judeo-christian personification of "god" either.

In all honesty, as an agnostic I have no problem with it. It seems more symbolic than anything.

There may have been specific people of those faiths who may have preferred the use of their own deity, which would have made it impossible to use the term; hence the term god should have been removed. Dyslexics would have had fun.... In Dog we trust (or even bounty hunters?)

In Australia no such reference to anything like that is on any of our bills, and our coins just acknowledge the current monarch.

Eh, if nothing else, it is a historical reminder for revisionists.

yeah, symbolic that as an agnostic, you're not an equal.

where it's more than just symbolism is in the manifest of how restrictive laws that are only done in the name of religion like stem cell research or gay marriage.

yeah, that in the 1800's, some baptist minister started a lobby to get god printed on money and won.


the revisionism is from the christian side that says the country is a christian nation.

Yeah, a reminder that the US prefers to push its beliefs onto everone, whatever THEIR beliefs are. So revise away, fellas.

That is what happens when you become powerful.

Ask the British.

Then ask the Spaniards.

Then ask the Arabs.

Then ask the Romans.

Then ask the Greeks.

Then ask....then ask...then ask...

It would have to be a religious nation to rule in favor of "In God We Trust" being printed on its currency.