The US as a Christian Nation?

It’s common these days to hear Christians proposing the idea that the United States was founded on Christian beliefs, and we are in fact a Christian nation. Rather than give my immediate opinion on this idea, I’d like to bring up the most common arguments used, and respond to them with some facts about the founding of the US and see what conclusions can be drawn.

Argument: Our nation’s motto is “In God We Trust”. It's even printed on our currency.
Response: The original motto of the US in 1776 was “E Pluribus Unum,” which is Latin for “One From Many”. It wasn’t until 1814 that Francis Scott Key first mentioned the phrase “In God We Trust” in the last (and rarely sung) stanza of what would become our national anthem. It was used on coins as early as 1864 (almost a full century after the founding of the US) and has gradually made its way onto all of our currency since. In 1956, at the height of the cold war scare and communist witch hunt, the US adopted the phrase as our national motto in order to differentiate ourselves from communism, which usually promoted Atheism. This has also had the unfortunate side effect of linking Atheism with “evil communists”, which is no more true than the Pope being Jesus reincarnate.

 You know what else is on our currency? “The Great Seal”, a very pagan symbol with a pyramid and an eye peeking out of a glowing triangle. The phrase “ANNUIT COEPTIS” appears there, which some argue is a reference to the Christian God, however the phrase is taken from Virgil's book IX of the Aeneid, "JUPPITER OMNIPOTES, AUDACIBUS ANNUE COEPTIS”, which translates as “All-powerful Jupiter favor [my] daring undertakings.” The Roman supreme god Jupiter is at the heart of this phrase, not the God of Abraham.

Argument: We are “One nation under God”, as it’s said in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Response: The original Pledge reads as follows: “I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

In the 1940s, a number of Jehovah’s Witnesses refused to say the Pledge at all, claiming that the pledging one’s allegiance to a flag represented idolatry. The hand-over-your-heart gesture was actually added after WWII, because the original outstretched arm solute used for the Pledge too closely resembled the Nazi salute. It wasn’t until the 1950s that “under God” was proposed, failing several times until it was brought up to the Eisenhower administration. Eisenhower, ironically enough, had just been baptized Presbyterian a year earlier, and thought it a wonderful idea. He introduced the final successful bill that added the phrase to our pledge.

Argument: Isn’t the US founded on Christianity?
Response: The 1st Amendment to the Constitution states very clearly: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” Thomas Jefferson interpreted this with the explicit phrase “separation of church and state”. The word “God” does not appear anywhere in the entire US Constitution. The Declaration of Independence mentions the phrase “the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God”, which in no way specifically indicates the Judeo-Christian God.

The Declaration also has the phrase “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” The phrase “all men are created equal” is very much against literal bible doctrine, as the bible teaches from Genesis a very top-down hierarchy: God-man-woman-animal. And Catholic dogma even inserts priests between God and man. And “their Creator” does not specifically reference the Christian God, and could be interpreted as the earth, nature, one’s parents, or any thousands of other gods. And the fact that the word Creator is capitalized doesn’t indicate a deistic reference, any more than the capitalization of the words Right, Life, Liberty, and Happiness do.

Also many of our Founding Fathers were deists, freethinkers, and some even outright attackers of Christianity. Even their graves, tombs, and monuments have no references to Christianity whatsoever.

Argument: The statue of Moses outside the Supreme Court building shows that the US was founded on the 10 Commandments.
Response: The two tablets Moses holds are actually blank, and he sits next to Confucius and Solon, and this is all on the East side of the building, representing great law givers from the Eastern part of the world. On the rest of the building are 17 other notable law givers, including many notorious pagans, even Mohammed holding the K’oran. And on the actual entrance to the building is a scene of pagan figures that represent Order, Liberty, and Authority.

In fact most government buildings are designed after Roman and Greek styles, with pagan statues and references all over the place. And the statue of Moses is more reference to Judaism than Christianity, since his events took place well before Christ.

Conclusion: based on these very brief responses to common arguments, I conclude that the United States is in no way founded on Christianity. In fact it was founded with the deliberate and very specific absence of any religion for the sole purpose of preventing our government from interfering with our unalienable right to practice or not practice any religion we choose. I feel that all references to God added into our practices and doctrine are very baby steps in ultimately violating this covenant, which history has proven countless times only results in the removal of religious freedom. As counter-intuitive as it seems, keeping a 100% secular government absolutely GUARANTEES that no one at any time will EVER be able to change how you worship.

For a more detailed read on the subject, read this guy's blog on The US Not Founded on Christianity. He also has a great entry called Pagan America, which gives an overwhelming number of direct pagan references in US government. There are so many in fact that it's a wonder people don't think we're Greek, Roman, or Egyptian, or wonder why our motto isn't "In Gods We Trust."