U Think on God and Country, the Prez Thinks on Pulsars

During the Civil War the United States started using "In God we Trust" on coinage. According to the Department of the Treasury, the Rev. M. R. Watkinson petitioned the Secretary of the Treasury:

The recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins...would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my hearth I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.

In 1956, just after adding "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance, we adopted it as our official motto, and it started appearing on silver certificates the following year, and our familiar greenbracks in the mid-60s . The history here is more recent than you might think!

Tomorrow night, U Think takes up this question. On Wednesday the 8th at Brown's Towne Lounge, Willamette University Professor Dr. Steven Green will talk about the invention* of our identity as a "Christian Nation."

Law professor, litigator, historian and author Steven K. Green...will present “How America Became a Christian Nation – and Other Myths.”

Green will discuss the widely held, but indeterminate belief that Christian values and traditions underlie the nation's founding principles – that America is "one nation under God." He’ll explore how this idea arose, why it is so compelling and the practical implications of claims that America is a "Christian nation." He will also discuss related myths: that people settled America in pursuit of religious freedom; and that the Founders were deeply religious men who intended for government to reinforce religious values.

Also, you may recall back in May we wished for a Science Pub with President Thorsett.

Hopefully in yesterday evening's Science Cafe for students, part of the inaugural festivities, Dr. Thorsett's talk on Pulsars will be a dry run for a properly wet pub talk!

* See the previous discussion about the invention of Jesus.

$20 bill from wikipedia