The Declaration of Independence says that “governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” essentially saying the government’s powers are from the people who govern it, not God. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution says that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” The function and intent of this amendment have been translated as “separation between church and state” by Thomas Jefferson. The Founding Fathers were skeptical of the Christian religion, seeing as Europe had grappled with religious freedom for so long. They wished to mold a new government that allowed a separation from the possibility of such turmoil. The earliest colonists were Puritans who were running away from a government that constricted their religious values.
They were and they weren't, but their religious faith wasn't as clear cut or straight forward as people think. They took elements of Christianity and elements of natural religion, then, using rationalism, they kept what they thought was reasonable, was rational, and rejected what they considered to be irrational. It was a very different kind of Christianity than we know today. For example, John Adams and John Quincy Adams were Unitarians (did not believe in the Trinity) and were thought of as heretics by Trinitarians. Thomas Jefferson was denounced as an atheist after he and James Madison outlined the Virginia Statue of Religious Freedom. They were skeptical of the Christian religion, seeing as Europe had grappled with religious freedom for so long. They wished to mold a new government that allowed a separation from the possibility of such turmoil. Remember -- the Puritans ran away from religious persecution in Europe and Puritans remained within the Church of England, they wanted to reform it according to their own views. ... However, some Puritans equated the Church of England with the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore considered it no Christian church at all.
Do you actually have any of these quotes from the founding fathers. Because, lucky for me, no one can even suspect what a confederate in a crazy hat is thinking if I didn't sit down and read the stack of books to the ceiling, so that's one benefit. Thomas Jefferson actually believed against trinitarianism? And you like to keep saying the Reformed Calvinist movement of the Church of England that fled for a separate church in America? The Puritan Pilgrims? Every time its a failed movement they get nicknamed this way. The French Huguenot, the English Puritan, ummm...
No, they actually were, almost to a man. More to the point, it wasn't nearly as adulterated with secularism as atheists would have us believe. That's why Jefferson's idea of liberalizing Virginia's sodomy law was to make it punishable by castration rather than hanging.
The sort of neuroses this profoundly inhuman and consequently EVIL ideology causes in people is why we have the hypocrisy amounting to true cognitive dissonance being manifested in Evangelists supporting the libertine Trump and the human rights abuses of ISIS today. Most religion has done a yeoman's job of pulling itself into the 21st century but now we must go beyond that and try to make our faiths celebrate our most human proclivities instead of prohibiting them. The Skoptsi are returning, and this time it's not just themselves they mean to hurt.
The Skoptsy (Russian: скопцы; singular скопец "castrate"; also transliterated as Skoptzy, Skoptzi, Skoptsi, Skopzi, Scoptsy, etc.) were a heretical sect, within the larger Spiritual Christianity movement in the Russian Empire, best known for practicing castration of men and the mastectomy of women in accordance with their teachings against sexual lust. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skoptsy Good Lord! You are right! Except nowadays we call them transgenders.
Rights and Laws are entirely different things. Laws exist to protect rights. If you are finding one Supreme over the other then you are misunderstanding their nature.
The State/Federal Government should not promote a certain Religion or fund Churches. But our Founders made Religion part of our Country. And, they did not mean the Government would have to stop Students from reciting the Pledge in Schools or stop Students from saying a prayer if the want. They supported Religion and believed it was important to our Government and Society. I doubt most k-12 students can even recite the Pledge of have been taught to cover their heart when reciting it. This is wrong and has contributed to the railing of morality in our Country. The decline of Religion, Young people don't respect authority or laws. Many lazy and expect their Parents to help support them. They are so different from my generation(their Parents). My Generation worked before Colkege, during College and after College: often working two jobs. Then when children came along we have them financial help because we didn't want them to work as we did while going to School. Good intentions but had idea. Many of this Generation lack responsibility, think they should be given things instead of working hard for them, have no concept of the amount of money it takes to sustain the life they are used to. The best thing I ever "made" them do was attend Church. Sunday School and Bible School. It gave them a place they could feel comfortable asking for help in later life when things might go bad. Today's Schools are not as good as Schools my Grandmother, Mother of I attended. I was the first in my family to get a College Degree, but my Grandmother and mother were taught enough for them to compete for jobs in their time as was I. They earned a good living. That's not true since the FederAl Governments creation of the Dept. of education.
You only have one right, to be and act responsible. Everything else is a pile of crap. Those who don't believe me, they should go and live on a deserted island and keep a journal on how they're getting on with all their rights to health care, guns and all that crap.
I suppose so, but upright walking allowed us to mature our thinking processes. As we will mature away from religion.
I would be scared of a law, such as one proposed by Beto, that religious groups that didn't meet the government ideology would be taxed.
If Asians weren't trying to impose power over our saint-like wives, for hitting on, then, how'd I make a report just now on them, I'm telling on them, and why, are Asians enrolled at their Christian Universities? What do you do, teach your grandma that way? About teenagem arketing with the hoochie koochie, trying to galivant with students? Kick out ones that aren't fun. Tell them to facebook with somebody?