Originally Posted by
juroara
look at the history of the US. it would be a lie to say that religious morality did not play a role in the foundation of this country. The forefathers felt people had 'God given rights' that no country, no pope, no church, no state had the right to take away. That is partly why we have the phrase under God - they felt this country was 'authorized' by God
The US was not founded as a Christian or a religious nation but rather on freedom from oppression by religion. Not only was any mention of God left out of our constitution, but any attempt to consider language that included God was summarily voted down.
The following quotes by our founding fathers will hopefully help dispell any myth that they had God-itis.
Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.
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Thomas Paine,
The Age of Reason
The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason. Lighthouses are more helpful than churches.
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Benjamin Franklin
This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.
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John Adams
I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.
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Thomas Jefferson
What has been [Christianity's] fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution.
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James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance Against Religious Assessments, 1785
There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.
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George Washington
In 1796, President John Adams signed into law The Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli and Barbary and read it aloud to the nation. Article 11 of the treaty reads:
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. [emphasis mine]
The senate approved it unanimously.
So please, stop trying to convince us that wording created in the '50s (for the pledge) is evidence of what our nation is founded upon. Our founding fathers were long since dead and rotting (spinning, in this case) in their graves. Next time, try the constitution... our nation's founding document.
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