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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/13/2010 : 16:21:48
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For much the same reasons that we love the drunken, stoned, womanizing heroes of the Revolution and the authors of our Constitution. They were anything but Christian fundamentalists.
This endless, ever-angry escalating assault on our Constitution by crusading theocrats could be obliterated with the effective incantation of two names: Benjamin Franklin, and Deganawidah.
But first, let's do some history:
1) Actual Founder-Presidents #2 through #6 -- John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams -- were all freethinking Deists and Unitarians; what Christian precepts they embraced were moderate, tolerant and open-minded.
2) Actual Founder-President #1, George Washington, became an Anglican as required for original military service under the British, and occasionally quoted scripture. But he vehemently opposed any church-state union. In a 1790 letter to the Jews of Truro, he wrote: The "Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistances, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens." A 1796 treaty he signed says "the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Washington rarely went to church and by some accounts refused last religious rites.
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But history outside some religious text or other is not a theocrat's long suit. Actual history requires thoughtful reading and this they seem unable to do.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Edited by - filthy on 02/13/2010 16:43:11
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 02/13/2010 : 17:59:33 [Permalink]
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Thanks filthy, excellent. Oh! how theists love to believe in lies and spread lies.
Like their perfect God created such imperfect people, myself included. I found this. from a citizen who took the time to research in the library of congress, whether this is true and what was behind the insertion of the comment into a treaty with Tripoli.
It reads in part,,,
A committee considered the treaty and recommended ratification. Twenty-three Senators voted to ratify:(all named),,, We should ask ourselves whether we should not consider these 23 (and President Adams) great freethought heroes. In a very public way, they voted to say that "As the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian Religion, . . ." the Muslims of Tripoli therefore need not fear a religious war from the U.S. The vote was recorded only because at least a fifth of the Senators present voted to require a recorded vote. This was the 339th time (I went through the Journal for the first five Congressional sessions and counted them myself) that a recorded vote was required. It was only the third time that a vote was recorded when the vote was unanimous! (The next time was to honor George Washington.)There is no record of any debate or dissension on the treaty". SS |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
| Edited by - sailingsoul on 02/13/2010 18:59:52 |
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 02/13/2010 : 18:56:20 [Permalink]
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Three more gems, to ADD to the words of George Washington, Founding U.S. President ( our 1st)
“This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it”. John Adams, Founding U.S. President (our 2ed)
“We discover in the Gospels a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, superstition, fanaticism, and fabrication”. Thomas Jefferson, Founding U.S. President (our 3rd)
“A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy”. James Madison, Founding U.S. President (our 4th)
SS |
There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
 Posted - 02/13/2010 : 19:37:36 [Permalink]
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No person who has actually read any of the writings of those men would ever confuse them for christians in any sense. They were mostly unitarians, and their beliefs would make them atheists by the standards of any fundamentalist today.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 02/13/2010 : 20:33:50 [Permalink]
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"Sir, Washington was a Deist."
-- The Reverend Doctor James Abercrombie, rector of the church Washington had attended with his wife, to The Reverend Bird Wilson, an Episcopal minister in Albany, New York, upon Wilson's having inquired of Abercrombie regarding Washington's religious beliefs, quoted from John E Remsberg, Six Historic Americans
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Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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podcat
Skeptic Friend
435 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2010 : 05:25:12 [Permalink]
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2010 : 06:33:34 [Permalink]
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It makes rather a good reference to throw in the face of the next Bible-walloper who, with choked voice, bulging eyes and apoplectic physiognomy, hurls forth the semi-coherent claim that this country was founded upon Christian principals by devout members of that particular cult.
Judging by today's leading Christians, we can be damned glad that it wasn't.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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The Rat
SFN Regular
Canada
1370 Posts |
Posted - 02/14/2010 : 06:38:06 [Permalink]
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The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?
-- John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, June 20, 1815 |
Bailey's second law; There is no relationship between the three virtues of intelligence, education, and wisdom.
You fiend! Never have I encountered such corrupt and foul-minded perversity! Have you ever considered a career in the Church? - The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Blackadder II
Baculum's page: http://www.bebo.com/Profile.jsp?MemberId=3947338590 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 02/14/2010 : 07:34:41 [Permalink]
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"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian, or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit." ~~ Thomas Paine
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Fundies would have HATED the Founding Fathers!
