From: "Victor"
Subject: A Protest against the Atheists on the American soil !

I saw your "Curriculum vitae" and I read this "curriculum vitae". You are an atheist and you are an activist for "atheism in USA". Perhaps do you know ??? Your ideology is in contradiction with the foundation of the US: IN GOD WE TRUST !- the souvereignty of this country.

Victor, who isn't even an American by the way, is a very angry man. Why is he angry? Because I am an atheist and an America - two things which he seems to think are completely incompatible. True Americans can't be atheists because "In God We Trust" is supposed to be the foundation of American sovereignty.

Victor's position is unusual and interesting because here we have a person who has completely bought into the mythology of American being founded on Christianity even though he himself is not an American. Indeed, I'm not sure that he has even visited America - everything he knows seems to come from publications of the Christian Right.

I have in the past thought that it is sad that some people may get all of their knowledge of America from certain TV shows, but it is even sadder when someone gets all of their information about America from people like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell. At least those who live in this country have a decent chance of being exposed to alternatives ideas, but when people like that are the only source of knowledge then a person's perspective will become especially warped.

You make a mistake between the American democracy with the European Democracy. It's a great difference between USA and Europa, in ideological conceptions and in social developments. The Liberty in USA can not go over this rock : IN GOD WE TRUST ! If you want to live as a "Gottloser" ( or a A-THEOS ) we have many place on the earth, but no in America. I protest : "NO PLACE IN AMERICA FOR THE ATHEISTS AND NO ATHEISTIC EXPERIENCE ON THE AMERICAN SOIL. NO ATHEISTIC MOVMENT ON THE AMERICA SOIL."

As you can see, Victor is quite vehement in his position. He doesn't simply disagree with atheism and he doesn't simply say that atheism is incompatible with America; no, he argues that there is simply on place for atheism or any atheistic movement in the United States. This, as you can see throughout his email, is defended almost entirely by reference to the phrase "In God We Trust."

Unfortunately, Victor never learned that "In God We Trust" was not the original motto for the nation - it was made that quite a bit later at the insistence of those who didn't think that America was godly enough. In fact, there were those who argued against the ratification of the Constitution precisely because it didn't express any preference for or even recognition of Christianity. According to them, it was a thoroughly secular document.

They thought that was a bad thing - but today, after so much time has passed, their intellectual heirs have changed tactics and simply ignore that fact, even arguing at times that it is somehow a Christian document! If you can't beat 'em, just change the terms of the debate and declare victory.

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