THE ENLIGHTENMENT (the Age of Reason) was fostered by developments of the 17th century. Isaac Newton, Rene Descartes, Pierre Bayle, Benedict de Spinoza, Francis Bacon and John Locke, and our founding Fathers were of an age influenced by belief in natural law, universal order and a confidence in human reason. A rational and scientific approach to religious, social, political, and economic issues promoted a secular view of the world and a general sense of progress and perfectibility.
Any person knowing U.S. history realizes that anyone saying that this country was established as a Christian Nation, to be exactly the inverse as being true and below are quotes from our founding fathers statements to support that fact.
“Lighthouses are more useful than churches.” Benjamin Franklin
“This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it!” John Adams
“Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man.” “I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.” Thomas Jefferson
“I beg you be persuaded that no one would be more zealous than myself to establish “EFFECTUAL BARRIERS” against the “HORRORS” of “SPIRITUAL TYRANNY,” and every species of religious persecution.” George Washington, to United Baptists Churches of Virginia, May, 1789 from The Washington papers.
Why is the Religious Right propagating this incorrect statement as fact, when it is just a blatant lie? The only reason I can think of is that it furthers their political cause. I guess their thought process is that by constantly repeating this incorrect fact is that if you don’t believe and support their political views, THEN YOU ARE AGAINST GOD!!
Why do these people want to change this country from a “Secular Republic” to a “Theocracy?” Those who would renegotiate the boundaries between church and state must therefore answer a difficult question: why would we trade a system that has served us so well for one that has served others so poorly?
The word "God" does not appear within the text of the Constitution of the United States. After spending three and a half months debating and negotiating about what should go into the document that would govern the land, the framers drafted a constitution that is secular. The U.S. Constitution is often confused with the Declaration of Independence, and it's important to understand the difference.
What the Religious Right doesn't tell people, and what, tragically, many Americans apparently don't know, is that when it comes to determining what the laws of the United States mean, the only document that matters is the Constitution. The Constitution, a completely secular document, contains no references to God, Jesus or Christianity. It says absolutely nothing about the United States being officially Christian. The Religious Right's constant appeals to documents like the Declaration of Independence, which contains a deistic reference to "the Creator," cloud the issue and make some people believe their rights spring from these other documents.
The preamble of the Constitution invokes the people of the United States. It does not invoke any sort of God. The Constitution forbids any religious test to hold office. A godless person is just as eligible as a godly one! (Article 6, Paragraph 3) At the Constitutional Convention of 1787, Benjamin Franklin strongly suggested on June 28 that the convention have prayers said there. Evangelists take this as proof that the convention then went on with prayers. But, in fact, the convention did not accept the suggestion, and the convention went on without prayers.
Of course you realize, Engineer, that there are millions upon millions of Americans who disagree with the facts you presented and, because they know better, you are wrong. Just ask them.
ReplyDeleteThanks for re-educating the masses who seemed to have been asleep during most of their high school classes.
But, we know that religion historically is the most potent form of control. How could primitive man explain life and death.
ReplyDeleteHow could primitive man as his conciousness evolve accept that death was the end of his existence?
Every since man began to believe that he was more than another animal, it became a part of the evolution of the consciousness to believe in the soul and to try to explain the cosmos.
This is our nobility and our achilles heel.
The fear of death and the threat of damnation has been used to manipulate and control the masses for a millenium.
I think that the reformation was an out ward manifestation of our evolving conciousness.
For the first time, the authority of a church which tried to control the masses with the threat of eternal damnation was successfully challenged. Then came the great philosophers of the 18th century and the political evolution which led to the great political philosophers who were the spiritual fathers of the American Revolution.
Without the intellectual ability to challenge organized religion, even to admit to atheism, there would never have been the moral stregnth to challenge the British Empire.
You have inspired me to do a post on Ronald Reagan and the Occult....
ReplyDeleteComing, later today!