{"id":67,"date":"2010-11-19T18:22:30","date_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:22:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/?p=67"},"modified":"2010-11-19T18:22:30","modified_gmt":"2010-11-19T23:22:30","slug":"on-us-constiution-and-religion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/2010\/67\/quotes\/on-us-constiution-and-religion\/","title":{"rendered":"On US Constiution and Religion"},"content":{"rendered":"

George Washington, 1st President (1789-1797)<\/strong>
\n“… the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…”
\nThe “Treaty of Tripoli,” negotiated and signed by the First President of the United States, on November 4, 1796.<\/em><\/p>\n

John Adams, 2nd President (1797-1801)<\/strong>
\n“This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religions in it.”
\nA letter to Thomas Jefferson, May 15, 1817<\/em><\/p>\n

“The United States of America have exhibited, perhaps, the first example of governments erected on the simple principles of nature; and if men are now sufficiently enlightened to disabuse themselves of artifice, imposture, hypocrisy, and superstition, they will consider this event as an era in their history. Although the detail of the formation of the American governments is at present little known or regarded either in Europe or in America, it may hereafter become an object of curiosity. It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the influence of Heaven, more than those at work upon ships or houses, or laboring in merchandise or agriculture; it will forever be acknowledged that these governments were contrived merely by the use of reason and the senses.”
\nJohn Adams, “A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America” (1787-88)<\/em><\/p>\n

Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President (1801-1809)<\/strong>
\n “Christianity … (has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. … Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers …”
\nSix Historic Americans, by John E. Remsberg<\/em><\/p>\n

“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot…”
\nThomas Jefferson letter to Horatio G. Spafford, 1814. ME 14:119<\/em><\/p>\n

“Where the preamble declares, that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed by inserting “Jesus Christ,” so that it would read “A departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion;” the insertion was rejected by the great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend, within the mantle of its protection, the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mohammedan, the Hindoo and Infidel of every denomination.”
\nThomas Jefferson, Autobiography, re Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom<\/em><\/p>\n

James Madison, 4th President (1809-1817) “Father of the Constitution”<\/strong>
\n“Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise.”
\nLetter to William Bradford, April 1, 1774<\/em><\/p>\n

Benjamin Franklin<\/strong>
\n “I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life I absented myself from Christian assemblies.”
\n“Toward the Mystery”<\/em><\/p>\n

Thomas Paine (1737-1809)<\/strong>
\n “I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible).”
\nThe Age of Reason, Part 1, Section 5<\/em><\/p>\n

“The study of theology, as it stands in the Christian churches, is the study of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it proceeds by no authority; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing; and it admits of no conclusion.”
\n From The Age of Reason<\/em><\/p>\n

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)<\/strong>
\n “The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.”
\nSalvation for Sale, Gerard Thomas Straub; also quoted by Joseph Lewis<\/em><\/p>\n

Robert E. Lee<\/strong>
\n“…Is it not strange that the descendants of those Pilgrim Fathers who crossed the Atlantic to preserve their own freedom have always proved the most intolerant of the spiritual liberty of others?”
\na Letter to President Pierce<\/em><\/p>\n

Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Bey<\/strong>
\n“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.”
\nArticle 11, Treaty of Peace and Friendship between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of the Bey of Tripoli of Barbary, Authored by American diplomat Joel Barlow in 1796, the following treaty was sent to the floor of the Senate, June 7, 1797, where it was read aloud in its entirety and unanimously approved.<\/em><\/p>\n

And to note: Of the activities that the Bible’s Ten Commandments prohibit, throughout the history of the USA, its secular laws enacted by those founders and all of their successors, prohibit only two as crimes. (VI and VII)<\/p>\n

[Quotes compiled by Dave Farber’s Interesting People]<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

George Washington, 1st President (1789-1797) “… the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion…” The “Treaty of Tripoli,” negotiated and signed by the First President of the United States, on November 4, 1796. John Adams, 2nd President (1797-1801) “This would be the best of all […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotes","category-5-id","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-corners","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67\/revisions\/68"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kuny.ca\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}