Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites"
–Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose. "
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Baron von Humboldt, 1813
What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy."
- James Madison, objecting to state-supported chaplains in Congress,
and to the exemption of churches from taxation.
Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together."
- James Madison, letter to Edward Livingston,1822
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 Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors."
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to John Adams,1823
12 comments:
Problem is Marc Cooper writes for the Nation, a far-left publication. So he's for an atheist on the Supreme Court who will stand up for "reason and freedom"—and socialism. What the world needs now is not more atheists on the left
Having said that, many conservatives are weaker than weak on property rights, for example, and are itching to increase state control over our personal choices.
A secularist -- at least one we're likely to see anytime soon -- will probably stink with property rights, but stave off further erosion of separation of church and state.
its generally the best-case scenario
"Having said that, many conservatives are weaker than weak on property rights, for example, and are itching to increase state control over our personal choices."
Name three.
Apart from the issue of abortion, a thorny problem even libertarian circles, I can't think of single conservative whose views might be known to the public who fits that description (and I regularly read a dozen conservative blogs daily).
How sad that you listen to the musings of mere, imperfect men, rather than reading the best guide book ever written, and with such passion. Foolish, but up to you.
Fisherman.
Name three.
Apart from the issue of abortion, a thorny problem even libertarian circles, I can't think of single conservative whose views might be known to the public who fits that description (and I regularly read a dozen conservative blogs daily).
You just answered your own question, Jeff.
There is nothing "thorny" about abortion when one approaches the question with a proper understanding of what a human life actually is.
Mo
And the last thing the world needs now is religious morons.
Read Jefferson nitwit.
LGM
"To the corruptions of Christianity I am, indeed, opposed; but not to the genuine precepts of Jesus himself. I am a Christian, in the only sense in which he wished any one to be; sincerely attached to his doctrines, in preference to all others; ascribing to himself every human excellence; and believing he never claimed any other."
- Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Rush
Mo,
Even if I conceded your point - which I don't, but I don't want to get into an extended debate about abortion - it's not normally viewed as an issue of property rights. And, somehow, I doubt that's the issue you had in mind when you said conservatives (which I am not) are "weaker than weak" on the subject.
P.S. I believe a woman has a right to abort her unborn fetus, and her wishes in the matter are final. In fact, though I'm on the fence here, I'm even inclined to look sympathetically on infanticide in certain extreme cases.
Once again, though, I'm not looking to debate that issue now.
Add to this excellent collection of quotes:
Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802
If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Law, June 13, 1814
Priests...dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversions of the duperies on which they live.
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Correa de Serra, April 11, 1820
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.
-Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, in reference to the Virginia Act for Religious Freedom
Glenn -
"The priests have so disfigured the simple religion of Jesus that no one who reads the sophistications they have engrafted on it, from the jargon of Plato, of Aristotle & other mystics, would conceive these could have been fathered on the sublime preacher of the sermon on the mount."
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Waterhouse (13 October 1815)
Outstanding!
LGM
Not PC is the new SOLO.
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