Origin of the peace symbol according to soc.religion.christian faqs (
http://geneva.rutgers.edu/src/faq/peace-symbol.txt):
"I had a letter from a guy who was at the meeting where it was designed. He was Laurens Otter, who published a magazine for Christian anarchists in London. According to him, neither explanation is correct. Though it is true
that the central part represents the semaphore sign for ND (nuclear disarmament) the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament had nothing to do with the
design. It was a small group, and they were discussing some kind of symbol they could use. As they were Christians, they wanted a variation on the cross, and someone suggested that it should have dropping arms because it
looked sad.
One of the members of the group, Jerry Horton, did some research, and the next time they met he said that he had found that
the circle could be a sign for an unborn child, and the cross with drooping arms was the sign of a dead
person, which was used by medieval monks.
They adopted that as a logo to symbolize the effects of Strontium 90 on unborn children. It was only a year later that it was taken up in a big way by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.
It would therefore be an entirely appropriate symbol for the anti-abortion lobby in countries like the USA today, where abortion seems to be a greater threat to unborn children than Strontium 90."
So it appears that the peace symbol was influenced by Christianity. Interesting.
Peace.
