It wasn't in the documents on becoming a citizen.

No. America is a secular country that does not impose beliefs on, or require beliefs from, its citizens and residents.

No.

Technically, it is not. After all, the First Amendment to the Constitution specifically forbids any laws restricting the practice of a religion. There may be restrictions on certain aspects of the religious practices that violate other laws (polygamy, pedophilia, animal cruelty, etcetera) but the relgion itself is not restricted. That said, there is a difference between "de facto"and "de jure"; reality and the law. The law in Brattleboro, VT did not prohibit public nudity, yet there was public outcry when people started walking around naked. Many places do not forbid homosexuality or being non-Caucasian yet we all know how THAT goes.

No. America prides itself on freedom of religious beliefs... or lack thereof.

Not at all

People came to America to escape religious persecution and this country was founded on the freedom to worship (or not worship) as each person sees fit. It doesn't seem un-American to me at all. EDIT: To the person that rated this down - I'm interested in how you disagree with my answer. Do you think that people should be discriminated against because they don't believe in god? Do you think that people shouldn't have the same rights and freedoms as those that go to church every Sunday? Is it American to tell someone who to worship? EDIT2: Another downrate, huh? Is there a reason why people don't want to discuss this with me? I'm honestly curious about what people disagree with. I'm not a vindictive person and don't downrate without a very good reason (check my percentage) so there's no need to fear retaliation.

One had nothing to do with the other.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion,

America, land of oppression of everything but religious decisions.

no :)

Noway! The US is a secular country. Many atheists and agnostics have fought and died serving this country also.

If you're not a little-boy raping Catholic, you're a terrorist. Those are the only two types of people, and you should know that by now.

As the rest of the world sees and stereo-types Americans: YES! An American who doesn’t believe in God is by their way of thinking as much a contradiction in terms as an American who hates hamburgers and football. Europeans especially see Americans as the most religious and the most patriotic of peoples. They have a name for Americans who are Atheistic, unpatriotic, soft-Left, soft-Green, are enthusiastic for the Metric System, and watch soccer: they’re called Canadians. And as a matter of fact, America was most definitely NOT founded on the principle of religious freedom. Massachusetts (Puritan), Pennsylvania (Quaker), and Maryland (Catholic) were all founded NOT on the principle of religious freedom, but on the principle that "We're right, all other religions in England are wrong, and the place has gotten so bad and corrupting that we are going to go build a perfect Christian society in the New World to Glorify God, convert the heathen, and show those Godless carnal heretics in Britain what real Christianity is!" Connecticut and Rhode Island (Congregationalist) were founded by religious dissidents from Massachusetts claiming the same thing. The other 8 of the original 13 British colonies were established and settled *primarily* for arguably the most American of motives: PROFIT! -- though all of these were also established to strengthen the Protestant/Anglican cause against the Roman Catholicism of France and Spain. Similarly, the Spanish established Florida and their colonies in the West as much to spread and strengthen Catholicism as to make money for the Crown and the Magnates. The same is true of the French territories of the Mississippi basin (contra his movie image, Louis XIV was a devout and passionately evangelistic Catholic). The only colonies that from their foundation espoused religious TOLERATION (not the same thing as FREEDOM, let alone EQUALITY) were Pennsylvania and Connecticut. In every colony save Pennsylvania, there was only one legal Church: all religious non-conformists could only have “meeting houses”, and all marriages not conducted in the established Church were illegal, and all their offspring illegitimate. This situation softened somewhat through the 18th century. But when the US Constitution was ratified in 1789, there were still 4 States with established Churches, and they maintained them until the mid 1800s. After independence, the newly formed USA immediately introduced a program to Christianize the Territories, and made it a requirement for Statehood that the wanna-be-State have a public school system that had as its first goal "the advance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ". This was implemented by the 1st Congress, the same body that proposed the 1st Amendment. Also, as ALL the supporting documentation shows, the non-Establishment clause of the 1st Amendment refers only to the establishment of a single State Church - financed and privileged by the Government - like the Church of England. It was not a license for Atheism, nor was it intended to make the Federal Government purely "secular" as the term is now used. The Framers and the Ratifiers were definately in favor of the US Government defending and promoting Christianity and the Gospel -they were just opposed to it favoring any single Protestant denomination over others. Also, George Washington refused to appoint any Atheist to any position in his administration, on the grounds that their oath of office (sworn before God) was worthless and essentially an act of perjury. The Courts likewise refused to consider the testimony of a known and confessed Atheist as his oath was likewise worthless: the idea was, that without the Fear of God and damnation, a man had no reliable motive NOT to perjure himself. During the Constitutional convention, John Jay and Patrick Henry urged (with strong support) to officially declare Christianity the official religion of the nation. Madison, however, eventually persuaded the delegates that making Christianity the official religion would only serve to weaken the Faith and encourage the same sort of "cultural Christianity" and spiritual apathy that had become the norm in England and most of the rest of Europe, and thus won the day. Historically, the religion of the mass of Americans has been Theistic Humanism (there is a God and people should be nice to each other) with a Christian veneer and ethics and morals guided by the Sermon on the Mount as much as the 10 Commandments. By the 1900's "Boy Scout Christianity" aka "Army Protestantism" was the evident national religion, and the mainline Christian denominations were just schools for social mobility for Protestants or ethnic ghettos/community centers for Catholics and the Orthodox, though the interior (the Appalachians to the Sierras) have always been very given to waves of revivalism, be it Fundamentalist, legalist, Pentacostal/enthusiastic, Evangelical, Millenarian or outright heretical.

No, you have the Freedom of Religion in America. YOU have that right. American government, however, is run on primarily Christian morals, and ideals however.

To DARKLING: My, you read a lot into a simple -1. (I've tried to a comment on your answer, but it keeps giving me an "error on page" message and won't post it. So ...) I downrated your answer because your premises are false: the earliest settlers (apart from the French Hugenots and the British Catholics) were NOT escaping religious persecution – but were rather separating themselves from a Church they viewed to be too lax, too tolerant, too permissive and too Catholic in form, and the country was NOT founded on the freedom to worship (or not worship) as each person sees fit – not that that would have been a bad thing. Also, you don’t speak to the point: the entire idea of what is “American” and what is “Un-American” is basically a question about the majority of Americans’ stereotype about themselves: their self-conceived national identity. Typically, the vast majority of Americans have regarded Atheism to be as un-American as Marxism, Fascism, Socialism, Hinduism, vegetarianism, men kissing each other to say hello, dog on the menu, opera, ballet, the Metric System, driving on the left side of the road, and lawyers and judges wearing powdered wigs. Now any US Citizen is certainly free to be an Atheist just as they're free to be a Fascist, a transvestite, or a luge fan, but (as my mother and her ilk would [and do] say) "that's just not who WE are."

The answer Jack gave you here http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/2582043 is good up to 1776, but is misleading because it stops short of what happened when we adopted the U.S. Constitution in 1789. The Constitution is the basis for all American laws; even county and state law has to comply with it. At that time, as Jack notes, a couple of men wanted an official national religion. What he doesn't note is how FIRMLY they were slapped down. Most people can quote the First Amendment, written by Thomas Jefferson and based on a Virginia law he had written earlier in his life: "Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." That is part of the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the Constitution. BUT the founders also put this in the body of the original Constitution itself, in Article VI: "The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." NO RELIGIOUS TEST means exactly that: we do not and cannot require someone who is running for public office, or teaching in a public school, or serving in our military, to belong to a religious faith or take religious oaths. If you cannot or don't want to "swear" on a Bible -- to become a juror in a criminal case or to become President of the United States -- you "affirm," which is a non-religious promise to tell the truth, or serve honorably, or whatever. It is un-American to discriminate against atheists or agnostics. Our Constitution protects both of those choices, and says in two places -- Article VI and Amendment I -- that Congress cannot force religion onto our citizens. This was a great step forward from the religious tyranny and religious bigotry that had characterized much of Europe until then. Even Britain at one point banished all Jews, for example, and fought gory civil wars about Catholicism versus Protestantism; and in Spain, torturers who worked for the government tormented and executed people on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church. In the colonial period Jack talks about in his answer, religious hysteria led to the murder of an unknown number of women and men - nineteen in Salem, Massachusetts, plus those who died in prison there - on charges of "witchcraft," most of them in the late 1600's (17th century.) But within fifteen years, the government of Salem was apologizing for its tyrannical executions of those people, and by the time the Constitution was adopted in 1789, our leaders had enough sense to make sure government persecutions, and prosecutions, on religious grounds could not happen again. You may like these links: http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/ http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/constitution/article06/ http://supreme.lp.findlaw.com/constitution/article06/04.html#1

No, it is actually quite American to exercise your constitutional right to freedom of religion, or freedom FROM religion.

“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion” John Adams

Of course it is!! Didn't you know!?!? Its un-American to be anything but a rich white heterosexual Christian republican male!!

RE: Ankhorite >>The answer Jack gave you here http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/2582043 is good up to 1776, but is misleading because it stops short of what happened when we adopted the U.S. Constitution in 1789. << Far from it. The Federalist Papers, the various debates over ratification, the Congressional Record of the First Congress, and the Northwest Ordinances all support my point. Then there’s that Congress – not only throughout the Revolution and the years of the Confederacy, but all the way up through the Civil War, frequently ordered NATIONAL DAYS OF CONFESSION, REPENTANCE, FASTING AND PRAYER beseeching God’s aid in dire times, and also NATIONAL DAYS OF THANKSGIVING praising God for His deliverance of the nation from those dire situations. Also consider: -the inscription on the walls of the House Chamber: IN GOD WE TRUST. -the invocation of the Crier of the Supreme Court pronounced at every session: “God save the United States and this Honorable Court.” -and just 2 of dozens of Supreme Court rulings (before 1940) that support my point: Vidal v. Girard’s Executors (1844): from the majority opinion/decision of the Court: “Christianity is not to be maliciously and openly reviled and blasphemed against, to the annoyance of believers and the injury of the public. It is unnecessary for us to consider the establishment of a school or college for the propagation of Deism or any other form of infidelity…Why may not the Bible, and especially the New Testament, without note or comment, be read and taught as a divine revelation in the school – its general precepts expounded, its evidences explained and its glorious principles of morality inculcated? … Where can the purest principles of morality be learned so clearly or so perfectly as from the New Testament?” Church of the Holy Trinity v. U.S. (1892): from the majority opinion/decision of the Court: “Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise; and in this sense and to this extent our civilization and our institutions are emphatically Christian. No purpose of action against religion can be imputed to any legislation, state or national, because this is a religious people. This is historically true. From the discovery of this continent to the present hour, there is a single voice making this affirmation. [18 paragraphs of support that America is a Christian nation] These, and many other matters which might be noticed, and a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation … we find everywhere a clear recognition of the same truth” Also, you seem to be suffering from a confusion that the US Constitution is the Constitution of the American nation. IT IS NOT! It is the charter FOR THE AGENT of the States and the American people, known as the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT. The US Constitution, apart from the SPECIFIC limitations, prohibitions and requirements it places upon the State governments, has no say regarding how they do anything. It is the people’s law for their hired help, “the Federal government”, not the government’s law for the people. >>The Constitution is the basis for all American laws; even county and state law has to comply with it.<< Actually, English Common Law and the Law of Contracts constitute the basis of all American Law, including the US Constitution -- and the basis of English Common Law and the Law of Contracts is the Bible. The Constitution merely grants specific powers to the Federal government as enumerated in Article I Section 8 and Article IV Section 3 paragraph 2 subject to the limitations defined in Section 9, and denies specific powers to the States as defined in Article I Section 10 plus “the full faith and credit” clause in Article IV Section 1. The only requirements/limits it places on the legislative and judicial authority of the States is that they must have a republican form of government, must yield to the Federal government in the exercise of its specifically enumerated and limited powers, and must grant “full faith and credit” to the Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every State. The fact is that 4 States continued to have established State Churches for decades after ratifying the US Constitution – there was nothing un-Constitutional about them doing so. >>At that time, as Jack notes, a couple of men wanted an official national religion. What he doesn't note is how FIRMLY they were slapped down. << Far more than “a couple” and they certainly weren’t “slapped down”, firmly or otherwise. As I stated, Madison worked long and hard to dissuade the convention from doing so, and he won the day by arguing that declaring Christianity the official religion of the US Government would only weaken/undermine Christianity.

RE: Ankhorite (continued) >>the First Amendment, written by Thomas Jefferson and based on a Virginia law he had written earlier in his life: "Congress shall make no law regarding an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."<< Madison wrote it, not Jefferson (he was still in France) – though Jefferson did write the Virginia Statute of Religious Liberties. But AS I SAID THE FIRST TIME the Federalist Papers and ALL the supporting documentation make it absolutely and undeniably clear that the non-establishment clause is referring to the establishment of a State Church like the Church of England, and therefore does not support the claim that the Framers intended a purely secular GOVERNMENT. One look at the rest of the data and it’s overwhelmingly clear they certainly did not intend a secular NATION. >>NO RELIGIOUS TEST means exactly that: we do not and cannot require someone who is running for public office, or teaching in a public school, or serving in our military, to belong to a religious faith or take religious oaths.<< No, it was that the Federal Government could not require someone who is running for FEDERAL office or seeking a position in the Federal government or the US Military to espouse any religious view or take a religious oath. But the States and (school districts within a State) were free to make whatever religious requirements they wished for State officials, for militia officers, and for public school teachers, and a few in fact did have – and a few other expressly permitted - religious tests for office-holders in their own constitutions, and these were not canceled by the ratification of the 1st Amendment. What's more, the President is free to refuse to consider a candidates for Cabinet posts, ambassadors, and high military posts for whatever reason he likes, and the Senate is free to refuse to confirm a nominee for any reason it likes -- including the reason that the candidate is an avowed atheist. Be that as it may, the Federal Government’s jurisdiction is limited to the exercise of its specifically enumerated powers, to itself and the Federal territories & enclaves, and the District of Columbia. >>It is un-American to discriminate against atheists or agnostics. Our Constitution protects both of those choices, and says in two places -- Article VI and Amendment I -- that Congress cannot force religion onto our citizens.<< The first point – as a matter of history – is simply bunk. Washington did it. So did Adams, Jackson, T.R., Wilson, John Marshal and John Jay. Even Jefferson and Madison did. Americans have traditionally done it. And even today an avowed Atheist has little to no chance of being elected President. As to the second point, I would call your attention to your own words “CONGRESS cannot force religion onto our citizens” – the 1st Amendment after all states that “CONGRESS shall make no law …”. The States, counties, school districts, and people are not governed by this prohibition. (Please spare me a diatribe on INCORPORATION: that’s a very modern and grossly unpopular twist (perversion?) of the 14th Amendment invented by the Supreme Court, in clear defiance of the intent of the Founders, the intent of the drafters & ratifiers of Amendment XIV, and the will of the People, not just in 1789, or in 1866, but also when the Supreme Court first applied it to the Non-Establishment Clause in 1947. And it’s still grossly unpopular today. >>religious hysteria led to the murder of an unknown number of women and men - nineteen in Salem, Massachusetts, plus those who died in prison there - on charges of "witchcraft," most of them in the late 1700's….by the time the Constitution was adopted in 1789, our leaders had enough sense to make sure government persecutions, and prosecutions, on religious grounds could not happen again.<< Okay, now you’re just being silly – as well as a bad historian. 1) The Witch trials happened in the 1600’s not 1700’s (I’ll assume that was just a typo on your part. 2) The number of people executed in the Colonies for “witchcraft” (actually injuring someone through black magic) is known exactly: 36. 3) Neither the Salem witch trials nor the far less spectacular cases (usually involving just 1 accused witch in each instance – no “witch hunts” and multiple hangings) had anything to do with religious persecution or intolerance and everything to do with enforcing a long standing and then still much accepted English law against practicing black magic (actually and deliberately harming someone through the use of magical spells). The folly and travesty of Salem was that the court admitted “spectral evidence” as proof of guilt. (An hysterical girl testified she was being tormented by the devil appearing in the form of [fill in the name of your victim of choice], and that was accepted as proof positive of the named person’s guilt.) I dare say the Framers were far more mindful of the burning of Quakers in Boston 2 generations earlier than they were of the Salem witch trials. But their chief reason for the Non-Establishment Clause was that there were too many Protestant denominations with too many members each to make any one denomination “The Church of the United States (Government and it’s territories)”.

It is not un-American to be an atheist, or an agnostic! As to the perfect Americans who make comments like this?, ( that atheists are un American)?, it has been MY experience that they are American christians, who believe that THEY are the only ones that HAVE any rights!!!

Until a self professed atheist can be elected to high public office without it being an issues my reply is: in theory no but, sadly, in practice , a resounding YES!

in theory no. but the sad truth is, it's un-american to be whatever the majority of americans are often times.

America -- The land of the free and the home of the brave. It is not un-American to be an atheist or an agnostic. The following song originally sang by Bobby Darin is what it means to me to be an American: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvY99BJzN-M

No. On the contrary, it would be un-American not to accept Atheists and Agnostics as Americans. The citizens of the United States think freedom of religion is just as important as the freedoms of speech or the press. All are part of the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.billofrights.html With love in Christ.

not at all, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were agnostic!

re. 773491's answer: "not at all, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were agnostic!" Niether Jefferson nor Madison was an agnostic. Both were devout theists and providentialists -- who even believed in public prayer, confession, repentance, penance and fasting -- and even that the government should declare national days for such in bad times to reconcile the nation to God, and thus obtain God's help and restored blessings. They also believed that the government should likewise declare national days of thanksgiving when times got good again, to thank God for restoring those blessings. Jefferson was a radical (for the time) Unitarian and Madison a Calvinist Presbyterian who eventually became indifferent to many Christian metaphysical dogmas, preferring natural theology and rationalist religion, but still believed absolutely in an all-loving, all-powerful God who still took an interest (and occassionaly intervened) in human affairs. He also believed Christian ethics and aesthetics, and also the Calvinist doctrine that all men are totally depraved - were the only basis for a functioning and just society and government. The only things they were agnostic about were the specifically Christian metaphysical doctrines (the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Virgin Birth, and the Atonement) and the historicity of the so-called "nature miracles" of Christ.

No. Just anti-religious. - Are you a big fan of the separation of church & state?

nope, quite the contrary based on founding principles.

No, the USA is a secular country. Religion shall not affect citizenship. And since the USA and the entire Americas are based on migration fron all other parts of the Earth there is nothing "un-American" when it comes to culture.

Actually, it's un-american NOT to be secular. Everything else is fine.

re jehan60188 >>“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion” - John Adams << John Adams didn't write or say that, but he approved a treaty with Moslem Tripoli that did say that. It was written by Joel Barlow, the US negotiator/envoy. The full sentence is: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." The key phrase is "AS IT HAS in itself no ... enmity against ... Mussulmen" which explains what "not founded upon the Christian religion" means in this context. Also, one must understand that in the 18th century the word "religion" did not mean what it means today. It did not mean "a religious belief system" nor "a religious morality system", but "a system of ritual and shiboleths" - i.e., it was about whether you prayed standing up, sitting down, knealing, or lying on your face, and other *important* things like that -- and being inclined to alienate, persecute, fight, and even kill those with different rituals. It also implied the existance of the desire to establish "a State Church" such as existed in every country in Europe. The Founders (like most Americans past and present) were rather indifferent and often antagonistic to "religion" in this sense. But they were all in favor of "Christianity" in the sense of: 1) Christian ethics - as put forward in the Bible, and especially the Sermon on the Mount 2) Christian anthropology - all men are miserable and wicked sinners in desperate need of the Grace of God, who need to strive to live justly and walk humbly with their God and 3) a basically Biblical doctrine of God - as shared by Jews, Christians, and Sunni Moslems. ... or what is sometimes described as "Army Protestantism" or "Boy Scout Christianity" ... and is perhaps best described as Theistic Humanism with a Christian slant and veneer. If the treaty had said the US was in no sense founded upon "the Christian faith" or "Christianity", or "the teachings of Christ", you might have something. But the words "the Christian relgion" meant something entirely different to Americans circa 1800 than they do today. The fact is, that the States individually, and the Union itself, were indeed founded upon Christian PRINCIPLES and a generic Biblical theology. This is an established fact of history, and anyone who denies it, doesn't have a clue what they're talking about.

re jehan60188 >>“The government of the United States is not in any sense founded upon the Christian religion” - John Adams << John Adams didn't write or say that, but he approved a treaty with Moslem Tripoli that did say that. It was written by Joel Barlow, the US negotiator/envoy. The full sentence is: "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries." The key phrase is "AS IT HAS in itself no ... enmity against ... Mussulmen" which explains what "not founded upon the Christian religion" means in this context. Also, one must understand that in the 18th century the word "religion" did not mean what it means today. It did not mean "a religious belief system" nor "a religious morality system", but "a system of ritual and shiboleths" - i.e., it was about whether you prayed standing up, sitting down, knealing, or lying on your face, and other *important* things like that -- and being inclined to alienate, persecute, fight, and even kill those with different rituals. It also implied the existance of the desire to establish "a State Church" such as existed in every country in Europe. The Founders (like most Americans past and present) were rather indifferent and often antagonistic to "religion" in this sense. But they were all in favor of "Christianity" in the sense of: 1) Christian ethics - as put forward in the Bible, and especially the Sermon on the Mount 2) Christian anthropology - all men are miserable and wicked sinners in desperate need of the Grace of God, who need to strive to live justly and walk humbly with their God and 3) a basically Biblical doctrine of God - as shared by Jews, Christians, and Sunni Moslems. ... or what is sometimes described as "Army Protestantism" or "Boy Scout Christianity" ... and is perhaps best described as Theistic Humanism with a Christian slant and veneer. If the treaty had said the US was in no sense founded upon "the Christian faith" or "Christianity", or "the teachings of Christ", you might have something. But the words "the Christian relgion" meant something entirely different to Americans circa 1800 than they do today. The fact is, that the States individually, and the Union itself, were indeed founded upon Christian PRINCIPLES and a generic Biblical theology. This is an established fact of history, and anyone who denies it, doesn't have a clue what they're talking about.

It's unAmerican not to have the choice! ;-)

it certainly didn't start out that way, but there seems to be a growing movement to label those folks as such. it's crazy, but there's laws on the books in some states requiring people to have a religious affiliation to run for public office! insanity!!! the founding fathers are probably rolling over in their graves with the way things have become...

No! It is the core of the American governmental system. Just as it is in the UK as well.

Well as long as some are harping on a decontextualized quote from a treaty with a Moslem nation which they wrongly attribute to John Adams, I thought I'd point out something that John Adams actually did say: "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

Absolutely not! As a matter of fact, our country was founded on the belief that no one religion can be considered the "right" religion, and every person has the right to worship (or not) as he or she pleases. Being atheist or agnostic and open about it is a good example of tolerance. Being intolerant of other people's beliefs is un-American.

Good question. If polititians feel it necessary to confess to a pastor in California whilst they are running for the Presidency, Christianity is on the rise and becoming more and more woven into society. Personally, I find it frightening that such a trend is taking place and that these Christian groups have so much influence. However, America has a secular constitution, it is still a democracy with freedom of belief. So I would say that, to be what you want to be, and to believe in what you want to believe is being truly American and those who try to force religious beliefs on others are being un-American.

Do you mind explaning what one thing has to do with the other?

That is a good question - now that i think of it i would say yes

No it is not. People have the right to believe in whatever they want as well as believe in nothing at all.

The day it becomes un-American to be atheist or agnostic, will move to Timbuktu!

Absolutely NOT!!! America is supposed to be a Nation that celibrates Freedom of religion and that includes the freedom from religion.

And back to the main question: "God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the Gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever." ~ Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia, Query 18 -- also engraved on the walls of the Jefferson Memorial While Jefferson was a radical Unitarian (he believed in a personal and providential God, Christian morals, the supremacy of the ethical teachings of Christ over all other teachings, and the value of intercessory prayer and public religion - a description that also fits John Adams and Ben Franklin), most of the Founders and Framers were orthodox Christians and went even further. "Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty, as well as the privilege and interest of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers." (October 12, 1816) ~ John Jay, one of the chief architects of the Constitution, 1st Chief Justice of the United States, and president of the Westchester Bible Society in 1818, and president of the American Bible Society in 1821. ... and ... "You have, by the favor of Providence and the attention of friends, received a public education, the purpose wereof hath been to qualify you the better to serve your Creator and your country.... "Your first great duties, you are sensible, are those you owe to Heaven, to your Creator and Redeemer. ... "Imprint deep upon your minds the principles of piety towards God, and a reverence and fear of His holy name. The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and its consummation is everlasting felicity.... "... Remember that it is in God you live and move and have your being.... "Remember, too, that you are redeemed of the Lord, that you are bought with a price, even the inestimable price of the precious blood of the Son of God. Adore Jehovah, therefore, as your God and your Judge. Love, fear, and serve Him as your Creator, Redeemer, and Sacntifier. Acquaint yourseves with Him in His word ans holy ordinances. "... And with respect to particular duties to Him, it is your happiness that you are well assured that he best serves is Maker, who does most good to his country and to mankind." - William Samuel Johnson, one of the Framers of the Constitution, and President of Columbia University, in an address to the graduating class of 1785. ... and then there was de Tocqueville's observations of democracy in America (1835): "Religion in America...must be regarded as the foremost of the political institutions of that country; for if it does not impart a taste for freedom, it facilitates the use of it. Indeed, it is in the same point of view that the inhabitants of the United States themselves look upon religious belief. "I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion--for who can search the human heart?--But I am certain that they hold it to be indispensible to the manitenance of republican institutions. This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or a party, but it belongs to the whole nation and to every rank of society." ".... all sects preach the same moral law in the name of God.... Moreover, all sects of the United States are comprised within the great unity of Christianity, and Christian morality is everywhere the same." "In the United States the sovereign authority is religious, ... there is no country in the world where the Christian religion retains a greater influence over the souls of men than in America, and there can be no greater proof of its utility and of its conformity to human nature than that its influence is powerfully felt over the most enlightened and free nation on earth. ...." "In the United States the influence of religion is not confined to the manners, but it extends to the intelligence of the people.... Christianity, therefore reigns without obstacle, by universal consent; the consequence is, as I have before observed, that every principle of the moral world is fixed and determinate...." "The Americans combine the notions of Christianity and liberty so intimately in their minds, that it is impossible to make them conceive the one without the other." ... and something a little more contemporary ... "We observe today not a victory of party, but a celebration of freedom -- symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning -- signifying renewal, as well as change. For I have sworn before you and Almighty God the same solemn oath our forebears prescribed nearly a century and three-quarters ago. .... And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world, ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man. .... let us go forth to lead the land we love, asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our own." I trust I don't need to cite the reference.

I'm intrigued by the fact that almost all the answers immediately devolved into "what the Constitution permits and forbids" and what the founders/framers really meant and believed. What bearing does any of that have on what is Un-American? If the Constitution guarantees the freedom to be an Atheist, it also guarantees the freedom to be a Nazi. I doubt anyone would disagree with the claim that Nazi's are un-American. My point is that punting to the Bill of Rights and the prohibition of religious tests is a bogus argument, and doesn't address the question. Niether do quotes exhibiting the absence of a partiality for Christianity--or an outright antipathy to its then unfashionable doctrines--and a rabbid anticlericalism imply an indifference to or acceptance of Atheism. Anticlericalism is, after all, absolutely foundational to Protestantism itself, and a leap to the conclusion that such expressed views indicate sympathy for modern Atheism and secularism ignores a vast excluded middle in between total secularism and evangelical theocracy. For what it's worth, just as a matter of history, the founders/framers believed Theistic Humanism (be it Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Deistic, &c.) was necessary for a free people to remain free. Not that that should have any bearing on us today. But the founders were definately NOT on the side of modern secularists, and ALL in favor of public schools encouraging kids to believe in "God", to pray, and to practice Christian morals. They certainly voted for it every time they had the chance. They also voted lots of tax dollars to Christian missionary groups to convert the Indians and civilize the wild frontiersmen. (And anyone who thinks TJ, BF, or GW would have been okay with Gay marriages is deluding himself. But so what? They also owned slaves (Franklin owned just 1) and believed the vote should be restricted to landed gentlemen. They're also dead.) Their convictions on the matter of religion & society were based on an inability to concieve how an Atheistic *people*--who believed neither in a personal, just and loving God nor eternal life and final judgment--could possibly exercize the necessary self-government to maintain peace and order, given the limitations placed on civil government. In short, the Constitution gave so little power to the government and left so much power to the people that they had to be a people of conscience, and the founders/framers couldn't see where an Atheistic people would get their conscience from. So they encouraged "morals and religion" at every turn. And while they might admit that this or that *gentlemen* might be an Atheist and still an honorable and virtuous man, they had no faith that the common people or the merchant and financial class could on the whole exercize proper self-government and civic virtue without "the Fear of [some] God" and Biblical mores. The challenge for modern Atheists and secularists--assuming they don't want to live under despotism--is to prove that the founders/framers were wrong. Now that that's out of the way... WHAT THE HECK DOES IT MEAN TO BE "UN-AMERICAN" ANYWAY?

ok some people have some good answers on here and some not so good. As far as the founding fathers thinking we all should worship god or that they couldn't conceive of a land full of atheists keeping things morally right I think that's all a matter of opinion. Many of the founding fathers didn't like the idea of religion and were Deists and some were even agnostics. Many of them were not Christians but Masons. They believed in freedom for all. Remember the Constitution IS America, it is the foundation of America and it says "One nation under God" it never said which god so deists and agnostics can fit into that category. But what about Atheists? Well If a man who beleieves in a god that differs from the christian god can live under the constitution why can't a man who doesn't believe in god? Let's not forget that for as many great men in American history that were believers in a christian god, there were also many great men that contributed to America that were agnostic, atheist or deist. So what makes on American or UnAmerican? Well in simplest of terms if you are born in America of American parents you are automatically an American. But I am sure you mean American in a patriotic sense and lets not forget men (and women) of all colors, races, cultures, ages, religions, beliefs and creeds have fought and died, contributed to and sacrificed for America and called themselves Americans. The reason America was founded under a christian majority is because the people that founded America came from a country that was a christian majority. If one day the dominant religion in america shifted to Buddhist or the majority became atheist would America cease to be America? NO.

The only possible way to be un-American is to not be an American citizen. Not that that's a bad thing.

Why would you think it might be?

I don't thinks so, especially since there is separation of church and state.

No it is not. I don't know what else to say other than that. I can't imagine the argument that suggests that Atheists/Agnostics ARE un-American.

My vision of the "American" family would say yes, but there's no real way to be un-American unless you hate us.