Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Secular USA

I've heard it so many times, I'm beginning to be able to finish peoples' sentences for them once they begin.  Somehow, these sneaky preachers, in an attempt to justify their own personal beliefs have managed to start a modern-day lie, right in the face of provable historical fact.  The lie says, "The United States is a Christian country" or "the forefathers established the United States to be a Christian country" or something similar.  Again - these statements regarding the USA being Christian are a lie.




Christian arguments are usually from one of the following topics:

  • "In God We Trust" is on our money.
  • The Pledge of Allegiance says "under God".
  • Courthouses have the Ten Commandments displayed in public.
  • The First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion.
  • The forefathers were Christian.
The phrase "In God We Trust" first started appearing on money in 1864, which was 88 years after the birth of the United States.  I believe that if the forefathers were truly Christian, and wanted to establish a theocracy, they would have started printing money and minting coins with that phrase, or a similar one from the very beginning.  Why would they wait 88 years?  They wouldn't.  When establishing a theocracy, there is no time to waste.

As to American courthouses displaying the ten commandments, this will likely be a thing of the past very soon - within our lifetime.  Many lawsuits are being waged against municipalities who decide to display the Ten Commandments in public, taking up public space and declaring them valid in our secular government.

It is true that the First Amendment guarantees freedom of religion.  The First Amendment also says this:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.
To establish a religion is to promote it, encourage it or otherwise give it preference above any other religion, religious ideas or religious ways.  The second clause also says:
... or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
The First Amendment guarantees that so long as we don't throw the amendment right out the window, the United States will never have an official State Religion.

Prior to the 1890's, the Bill of Rights was exercised only for the federal government and was not applied to the states.  However, under something called the incorporation doctrine and the 14th Amendment, the Bill of Rights now also applies to the State and local governments - including townships and political subdivisions.

If your town/city prays before meetings, they are breaking the law.  It is true that the punishment for such a crime is hard to define, but lawsuits against such towns can damage them financially.

Lastly, many of our forefathers were not Christian at all.  Our government was not founded on Christianity.  Here is some evidence:

This is Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli signed by President John Adams:
 Art. 11. 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.
Imagine if President Obama were to make such a statement today!  Obama would be the subject of impeachment hearings, ethics committees investigations and vicious press reports.  It could easily be expected that a million angry Christians would march on the White House, demanding Obama's immediate resignation.  Our minds have been so warped and twisted by zealous, unethical preachers that we are almost completely lost to their lies.

"Oh," you might say, "but that is just one document."  Yes, it was just one document, but it was unanimously voted on and signed into law by a founding father.  Here are some quotes the founding fathers said that may cut through that last fog in your mind and show you the truth.

John Adams
"The hocus-pocus phantasm of a God like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs." -- Letter to James Smith, December 8, 1822
"It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one is three; and yet the one is not three, and the three are not one: to divide mankind by a single letter into ["consubstantialists and like-substantialists"]. But this constitutes the craft, the power and the profit of the priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of factitious religion, and they would catch no more flies. We should all then, like the quakers, live without an order of priests, moralise for ourselves, follow the oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand, nor therefore believe; for I suppose belief to be the assent of the mind to an intelligible proposition." -- Jefferson's Letter to John Adams, August 22, 1813
"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But we may hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with all this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this the most venerated reformer of human errors." -- Jefferson's letter to John Adams, April 11 1823
Benjamin Franklin

"I think vital religion has always suffered when orthodoxy is more regarded than virtue.  The scriptures assure me that at the last day we shall not be examined on what we thought but what we did."
       - letter to his father, 1738

". . . Some books against Deism fell into my hands. . . It happened that they wrought an effect on my quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist."

"I cannot conceive otherwise than that He, the Infinite Father, expects or requires no worship or praise from us, but that He is even infinitely above it."
            - "Articles of Belief and Acts of Religion",  1728 
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." -in Poor Richard's Almanac 
"The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." -in Poor Richard's Almanac  
Thomas Paine
"The New Testament, they tell us, is founded upon the prophecies of the Old; if so, it must follow the fate of its foundation.'' 
 "Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind,  tyranny in religion is the worst." 
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half of the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call 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.  
"What is it the New Testament teaches us?  To believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith." 
Thomas Jefferson
"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity.  What has been the effect of coercion?  To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.  To support roguery and error all over the earth."       - "Notes on Virginia" 
 "Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched.  Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion.  Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.     - letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787 
"On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the human mind."         - to Carey, 1816
You might be tempted, as a Christian, to dismiss all of this and say, "Ya, okay, but now we're going to make the United States in God's image.  We are going to save this country!"  But, that is missing the point.  The point is, and you must confront it eventually, that you have been lied to by people whom you trusted.  The preachers, who claim to be called by God Himself have told you absolute lies.  They lied about the intent of the founding fathers and they lie about the nature of God.  They lie about Christianity and they lie about what they heard from their imaginary friend named "God".  They lie about Hell and they lie about tithing.

Preachers, pastors, reverends, priests and all other clergy lie to you every time you speak to them about their religion.

1 comment:

  1. One Correction: The 1864 two-cent coin did contain the words "In God We Trust"... but it was the only coin for a long time and I don't know the story behind it.

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