> >"In God We Trust"
> Added to US currency in 1956.
> >"One nation, under God ...."
> >- Pledge
> Actually no, "under God" was added by Eisenhouer in the 50's. Before
> that, there was no mention of God in the pledge.
> >" ...... Statesmen my dear sir, may plan and speculate for liberty,
> >but it is religion and morality alone, which can establish the principles
> >upon which freedom can securely stand ..."
> >John Adams, 1776
> "Twenty times in the course of my late reading, have I been upon the
> point of breaking out, "This would be the best of all possible worlds,
> if there were no religion in it!" -- John Adams
> "the government of the United States of America is not in any sense
> founded on the Christian Religion." - Treaty of Peace and Friendship,
> Article XI, ratified by the Senate and signed by John Adams
> >The Constitution of North Carolina, 1776:
> >The Constitution of Delaware, 1776:
> >The Constitution of New Jersey, 1776:
> I feel a lot better about living in Pennsylvania now, even with our
> archaic liquor laws and shops that close at noon on Sunday. Then
> again this state was founded by those fleeing religious persecution in
> England and was largely settled by Germans fleeing the same.
> Here are some nice quotes for you in return:
> "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the
> Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the
> Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of...Each of those
> churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I
> disbelieve them all." -- Thomas Paine
> "The Christian priesthood, finding the doctrines of Christ levelled to
> every understanding and too plain to need explanation, saw, in the
> mysticisms of Plato, materials with which they might build up an
> artificial system which might, from its indistinctness, admit
> everlasting controversy, give employment for their order, and
> introduce it to profit, power, and pre-eminence. The doctrines which
> flowed from the lips of Jesus himself are within the comprehension of
> a child; but thousands of volumes have not yet explained the
> Platonisms engrafted on them: and for this obvious reason that
> nonsense can never be explained." -- Thomas Jefferson
> "During almost fif*** centuries has the legal establishment of
> Christianity been on trial. What have been its 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." --
> James Madison
> "That Jesus Christ was not God is evidence from his own words." --
> Ethan Allen
> "As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire,
> I think the System of Morals and his Religion...has received various
> corrupting Changes, and I have, with most of the present dissenters in
> England, some doubts as to his Divinity; tho' it is a question I do
> not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and think it needless to
> busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an opportunity of knowing
> the Truth with less trouble." -- Benjamin Franklin
> Most of the founding fathers were atheists, agnostics, and gnostics.
> This is pretty well documented. George Washington (who,
> coincidentally, asked to not have clergy near his deathbed, fought for
> freedom from religious intolerance and persecution, and nominated a
> Universalist to an Army chaplain position) would be appalled by the
> governmental crusades for Judeo-Christianity that have occurred for
> the past 50 years.
> Jason
