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The U.S. was not founded as a Christian nation.

Umm... yes, it does. As of the ratio of people who spoke English only at home to people who spoke some other language at home was 5 to 1. It's not as much as 3 to 1, but it's in the same ballpark, IMO.

I will stick to the claim made in the o/p with which I agree supported by the following quote collected from a site.

In spite of right-wing Christian attempts to rewrite history to make Jefferson into a Christian, little about his philosophy resembles that of Christianity. Although Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence wrote of the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God, there exists nothing in the Declaration about Christianity.
Although Jefferson believed in a Creator, his concept of it resembled that of the god of deism (the term "Nature's God" used by deists of the time). With his scientific bent, Jefferson sought to organize his thoughts on religion. He rejected the superstitions and mysticism of Christianity and even went so far as to edit the gospels, removing the miracles and mysticism of Jesus (see The Jefferson Bible) leaving only what he deemed the correct moral philosophy of Jesus.

The USA Declaration of Independance does not resemble God...
Once again the Angel of Light will come from... I don't know...
 

SimonCross

Member
Hello
I thought that this blessed nation was actually built on the Purtians who had enough of what was going on back on the British shores? Christian back then was a little different back in those days. The Christian religion like all else evolved since then the core is still there but the approach is a little different.

With Blessings

Simon Cross:angel2:
 

Popeyesays

Well-Known Member
Hello
I thought that this blessed nation was actually built on the Purtians who had enough of what was going on back on the British shores? Christian back then was a little different back in those days. The Christian religion like all else evolved since then the core is still there but the approach is a little different.

With Blessings

Simon Cross:angel2:
Acdtujally, the Puritans got here and figured the Roman and English Church had it right all along. So the Puritans clamped down on the people in their community and put the screws to them tighter than ever before.

ALl in their own sense of intolerance, of course. . . . . . .

Regards,
Scott
 

SimonCross

Member
Hello

Thank you for your reply

In origin I am from the UK now a US citizen and still I find it interesting some of this American history. Putting the screws tighter Ouch!! That's got to hurt !! I guess some have explaining to do.

I do not think looking at back then there was ever a free and democratic society.

With Blessings

Simon Cross
 

oldcajun

__BE REAL
For those of you who think otherwise, here are the words straight from our founding fathers mouths, in a treaty with Tripoli, drafted in 1796 by George Washington, and signed by John Adams in 1797:

"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 tranquility, of Musselmenl and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan 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."

Let's face it, our founding fathers stood head and shoulders above our current crop of religious fanatics in government, in both wisdom and intelligence. We need more people like this in government.

"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." ...President George Washington
 

Popeyesays

Well-Known Member
"It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." ...President George Washington

That quote is most likely a fake. First, it is unattributed (no source available). Second it was used by a propagandist along with other quotes that the propagandist was forced to admit were most likely hoaxes.
-----------------------------
Mything In Action: David Barton's 'Questionable Quotes'
By Rob Boston
"Christian nation" propagandist David Barton has issued a statement conceding that the following twelve quotations attributed to prominent historical figures are either false or at best questionable. WallBuilders' observations about the quotes are in parenthesis.
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ!
-- Patrick Henry (questionable)
It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.
-- George Washington (questionable)
Our laws and our institutions must necessarily be based upon and embody the teachings of the Redeemer of mankind. It is impossible that it should be otherwise. In this sense and to this extent, our civilizations and our institutions are emphatically Christian.
-- Holy Trinity v. U.S. [Supreme Court] (false)
We have staked the whole future of American civilization, nor upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves ... according to the Ten Commandments of God.
-- James Madison (false)
Whosoever shall introduce into the public affairs the principles of primitive Christianity will change the face of the world.
-- Benjamin Franklin (questionable)
The principles of all genuine liberty, and of wise laws and administrations are to be drawn from the Bible and sustained by its authority. The man therefore who weakens or destroys the divine authority of that book may be assessory to all the public disorders which society is doomed to suffer.
-- Noah Webster (questionable)
There are two powers only which are sufficient to control men, and secure the rights of individuals and a peaceable administration; these are the combined force of religion and law, and the force or fear of the bayonet.
-- Noah Webster (questionable)
The only assurance of our nation's safety is to lay our foundation in morality and religion.
-- Abe Lincoln (questionable)
The philosophy of the school room in one generation will be the philosophy of government in the next.
-- Abe Lincoln (questionable)
A general dissolution of principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy. While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but when once they lose their virtue then will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or eternal invader.
-- Samuel Adams (questionable) [this can be found in Harry Alonzo Cushing, ed., The Writings of Samuel Adams (1908), Vol. 4, p. 124 -- Cliff Walker, May 1, 2002]
I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens.
-- Thomas Jefferson (questionable)
America is great because she is good. and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.
-- Alexis de Toqueville, Democracy in America (definitely not in the book; perhaps in other more obscure writings; questionable)
(Originally printed in the July/August issue of Church & State.)​
fakequotes
--------------------------------------------------------------------

Regards,

Scott
 

logician

Well-Known Member
Interesting that Washington was probably more "enlightened" about religion than most of our politicians today:


"We have abundant reason to rejoice that in this Land the light of truth and reason has triumphed over the power of bigotry and superstition ... In this enlightened Age and in this Land of equal liberty it is our boast, that a man's religious tenets will not forfeit the protection of the Laws, nor deprive him of the right of attaining and holding the highest Offices that are known in the United States."
[SIZE=-1]-- George Washington, letter to the members of the New Church in Baltimore, January 27, 1793, in Anson Phelps Stokes, Church and State in the United States, Vol 1. p. 497, quoted from Albert J Menendez and Edd Doerr, The Great Quotations on Religious Freedom[/SIZE]
 

oldcajun

__BE REAL
For those of you who think otherwise, here are the words straight from our founding fathers mouths, in a treaty with Tripoli, drafted in 1796 by George Washington, and signed by John Adams in 1797:

"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 tranquility, of Musselmenl and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan 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."

Let's face it, our founding fathers stood head and shoulders above our current crop of religious fanatics in government, in both wisdom and intelligence. We need more people like this in government.

All 50 states recognize God in their constitutions.
 

oldcajun

__BE REAL
The beginning and end of the Declaration of Independence, it's recognition of GOD and the signers who recognized GOD personally by signing the same. This is not a generic GOD, it is the GOD of the Bible.

BEGINNING
"When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL, that they are endowed by their CREATOR with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness....

ENDING
"We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge (GOD) of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence (GOD), we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
What supports your notion that "it was the God of the Bible" as opposed to, say, the deist God? Where does the DoI reference Christianity specifically?

It should also be noted that the Declaration of Independence was exactly that. It is not law. IIRC, God is wholly absent from the Bill of Rights.

Also, are you familiar with the Treaty of Tripoli, or does that need to be cited yet again?
 

.lava

Veteran Member
i don't mean to ask silly questions but maybe i am about to...why would USA government write 'In God we trust' on their money if they are not religious? :confused:



.
 

The Voice of Reason

Doctor of Thinkology
The beginning and end of the Declaration of Independence, it's recognition of GOD and the signers who recognized GOD personally by signing the same. This is not a generic GOD, it is the GOD of the Bible. ...

Another fine, rambling post, oldcajun.

As usual, it measures up to the high standards you have set for yourself in previous posts.

That is to say, it's long on baseless assumptions, replete with plenty of unrelated information, and twisted to fit your preconceived notion of what you would like the answer to be.
 

oldcajun

__BE REAL
President John Adams, founder, said: "Our Constitution is for a moral and religious people."

President John Quincy Adams said: "The highest glory of the American Revolution was that it connected, in one indissoluble bond, the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity."

President Thomas Jefferson held another job at the time he was president. He was the superintendent of schools in Washington, D.C. He required only two books to be taught in the schools: The Holy Bible and Watts' Hymnal (any Christian principles in those books?).

The first session of Congress in September of 1774 began with three hours of prayer (I wonder to whom they were praying?). The day after the Bill of Rights was passed in 1789, Congress voted to have a "day of thanksgiving and praise unto almighty God."
 

Storm

ThrUU the Looking Glass
None of which bears nearly as much weight as the Treaty of Tripoli, which expresses actual government policy.

I'll ask again, are you familiar with it, or shall I quote it?
 
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