I agree with the additions you suggested. Normally when I talk about converting back to atheism, considering everyone is born an atheist, I do go in deeper about it but this was to highlight what I realised about religion as a whole and my life before and after being an atheist. The long paragraph describing when I was doubting religion before becoming an atheist I was going to stop at not receiving results from god and not believing it anymore but I went and added more. Generally I share my journey through becoming an atheist and that can be just as long as this post on it's own so I decided to leave some out so it wouldn't be too long.

I was born in Britain but half Pakistani and half Kenyan

Agreed. And that will be the day when I pledge my allegiance to an inanimate object!

YES! For the reasons you stated but also having to do it over and over. Worse, they force school children to repeat it daily, even kindergarteners who don’t even know what the words mean yet! I work at a school and I resent having to repeat it every day when around co-workers. No other oath or pledge is like that. Do spouses repeat their wedding vows daily? Do doctors ceremoniously repeat the Hippocratic Oath before starting every shift? Of course not.

We grew up with that indoctrination without thinking about it. My views changed starting with the “under god” phrase and that it was inserted to counter communist ideals. There are other changes that were made to the original version from an essay written in a late 1800s periodical.

I would like to go back to original version and stop the daily repetition and other times it’s repeated. I think it should be made an official part of high school graduation ceremonies, becoming part of the graduation right of passage into adulthood. If it’s supposed to really mean something that’s when the pledge will matter the most.

Sorry, I didn't realize the note above about the Pledge would appear as a response to MoinMughal's post. I had lost my place when I posted.

@Pjsmylz As part of the graduation exercise...: I like that idea. Yes, I think it could be truly meaningful then.

@K9Kohle789 "Create new countries like Poland" ?. Who wrote this stuff ?

@K9Kohle789 Actually my comment was meant to be a rhetorical question. Do you not read what you copy and paste before you do it ?.

@K9Kohle789 I wouldn't know for sure without checking it but it is likely that the land given to Denmark, Poland and France was probably annexed by Germany previously. The borders of most of the European countries altered significantly over the years depending on which empire was in the ascendancy.

@Pjsmylz I like the idea of "one nation, indivisible"; it's a nice effort to unify. But I, like you, question the value of encouraging--or forcing (more on that in a sec) schoolchildren to recite it every day.

And on this: "...'under [G]od' phrase and that it was inserted to counter communist ideals."

You give them more credit than they deserve! Under the guise of "countering communist ideals," adulterating the original Pledge with "under God" was done by opportunistic, Christianist (+) lawmakers. Their act caused an otherwise unifying pledge to be instantly divisive, and at the same time, placed monotheists (mainly and in context, Christians) at the top of the pyramid, second classing everyone else.

And back to "forcing", yes, that is a bad aspect of blind pledge recitation. It turns out that schoolchildren DO NOT HAVE to recite the pledge if they don't want to, but teachers typically don't know the law on this, and have to be "schooled" (isn't that ironic!?) on that score. But even if they do know the law (and respect it), the integrity of conducting the daily recitation is dubious and merits scrutiny (as we're doing). Orgs like FFRF and ACLU step in to help when the issue pops up.

• I use the word "Christianists" to finger the subset of Christians who operate to hijack public resources, like tax revenue, institutions--or as in this case, adulteration of the Pledge--to further their own religion at other citizens' expense. Christianists are a type of religionist; another one is Islamist.

@FreeThotGuy can’t argue with any of this. As for school kids being forced to recite it every day, you’re right as to the legality. But kids probably feel forced because they don’t want to be the known as the “weirdo” not doing it. Again, even though I don’t think reciting the pledge is at all necessary in the first place (hypothetically, if I don’t pledge allegiance to the US on the day I commit a treasonous act, as a US citizen I’m still guilty of the crime of treason), my beef is with the content and schools effectively “requiring” daily repetition.

@Pjsmylz Yes, you're right about the "weirdo" phenomenon. In practice, kids who sit out the pledge--even if the teacher doesn't fuss about it--are immediately showcased and singled out for bullying by their peers, just for exercising their right.The same thing happens whenever (illegal) "voluntary" guided, school-sanctioned prayer happens in public schools, and those children who can't genuinely join in on a prayer held by others (e.g. atheists, agnostics) don't partake. SCOTUS knew (god-)damn well that the non-joiners would be bullied by the religious kids, so ruled it a no-no.

One person I grew up with revealed that in her class, there were teacher pet, Christian "sentinel" kids whose job it was to watch other students when the part "under God" came up in the Pledge. Their job was to report any student not mouthing the words to the teacher, so that the teacher could then harass the "non-mouthers" about it. So to protect herself from such nonsense, she would mouth "under dog" at the appropriate time!

@FreeThotGuy Firstly, that teacher was a gestapo-like jerk.
I work at in a high school front office with two patriotic people in very close proximity and we get along great. The daily announcements play on video in every classroom and office. They always begin with a video of the flag waving while “we” are to stand and say the pledge. It would be really noticeable if I didn’t so I do, but don’t say “under od.” I resent feeling forced but I don’t want to mess with the morale.
I love “under dog” haha and will start doing that. Thanks for the idea.

@Pjsmylz Right on, and absolutely!

I can already visualize you fighting a grin surrounding the moment of your upcoming utterances of "under dog"! It's your new private joke, "K9" approach for the dubious K-8 ritual!

Organized religion is on the decline and there are now as many non believers as there are evangelicals and Catholics