Scary Three-Letter Word

Great. Here we go again with silly atheists making a big stink for no logical reason.

The Pledge of Allegiance has, in the past, come under attack for containing the words "under God" - and now with Obama's inauguration fast approaching, a group of atheists is trying to get the phrase "so help me God" removed from the Oath of Office. One of them (Dan Barker) is quoted in the article as saying that the phrase:

"...makes those of us good Americans who don't believe in God second-class citizens. It's unfair."

I don't get it. How exactly does it turn non-believers into second-class citizens? Does it impose a religion on anybody? No, it's just a piece of text read out at a traditional ceremony. Does it somehow take religious freedom/freedom to be non-religious away from atheists? Again, it does not. It also does not mean the separation between Church and State has been broken - America still has no national church or religion, it just has a piece of traditional text.

Plus, you wouldn't edit the Iliad or some such piece of literature to bring it in line with, for instance, modern grammar, or PC prudishness, would you? While it may not be a famous epic poem, the Oath of Office (and the Pledge of Allegiance, for that matter) strikes me as the same sort of thing; you wouldn't want to change the way it was written historically, because it would no longer be THE Oath of Office. Especially since, you know, it doesn't actually oppress anybody.