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Do you think this country was founded upon Christianity?

Do you think the U.S. was intended to be a Christian Nation?

  • Yes

    Votes: 28 19.4%
  • No

    Votes: 99 68.8%
  • other

    Votes: 17 11.8%

  • Total voters
    144
The puritans had a good method. If someone was accused of being a witch they would throw her in the water. If she drowned she was not a witch but if she floated she was burned at the stake. Give me that old time religion.:roll:
 
I hear all the time that "this is a Christian Nation". Do you think this is so.

I am going to go ahead and say anyone who truly thinks this country was meant to be a Christian nation is a complete moron.

No, but you calling anybody who disagrees "a complete moron" shows a certain lack of the civility to which this board aspires.
 
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One would note that there are 10 commandments which are central to Christian doctrine. Of the 10 commandments, 3 have made it to law. Murder, theft, and bearing false witness. The last one is illegal only in a court of law under oath. And those three also happen to line up with the rights and liberties of individuals. So of the 10 commandments, 3 are law giving you 30%, a failing grade in any class.

You forgot adultry.
 
Yes. However they're things considered wrong by other holy books, other government structures, and other philisophical belief structures as well so claiming them as "proof" of an explicitely Christian foundation is erronious becasue for it to be such proof those things would need to be SINGULAR to Christianity.

How many of the founding fathers were Jewish or Muslim?
 
I love this Jefferson quote.

I'm confused, though. Do you think Jefferson was agnostic?

In this quote he professes a belief in God, so no, he is not agnostic.
 
No, but you calling anybody who disagrees "a complete moron" shows a certain lack of the civility to which this board aspires.

I apologize as in hindsight it was indeed out of hand. It's become a habit for me to call people who I think are ignorant morons, which I need to stop.
 
How many of the founding fathers were Jewish or Muslim?

No clue, and the number is meaningless in relation to attempting to state that our laws prove that the founders were Christians in and of themself.
 
So, because certain Biblical laws weren't enacted legally in the US that means the country wasn't founded upon Christian ideals? The Constitution clearly makes reference to Jesus. The Declaration says we have our rights because God gave them to us. The US was not created to be a Christian theocracy, it was created and influenced by Christianity and Christians. I would venture to say 98% of the colonial population was Christian, that the vast majority of founding fathers were Christians, and that there are clear references to the Christian God within our founding documents. In this country anyone can be free to be an atheist, but it's foolish to ignore and deny the Christian heritage of the US.
 
So, because certain Biblical laws weren't enacted legally in the US that means the country wasn't founded upon Christian ideals? The Constitution clearly makes reference to Jesus. The Declaration says we have our rights because God gave them to us. The US was not created to be a Christian theocracy, it was created and influenced by Christianity and Christians. I would venture to say 98% of the colonial population was Christian, that the vast majority of founding fathers were Christians, and that there are clear references to the Christian God within our founding documents. In this country anyone can be free to be an atheist, but it's foolish to ignore and deny the Christian heritage of the US.

Most of the founders were deists who simply believe in a Creator, not a God. Where is Jesus referenced in the Constitution? The goal in the Constitution is found in the Preamble - to have a "more perfect union" I presume over British rule.
 
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So, because certain Biblical laws weren't enacted legally in the US that means the country wasn't founded upon Christian ideals? The Constitution clearly makes reference to Jesus. The Declaration says we have our rights because God gave them to us. The US was not created to be a Christian theocracy, it was created and influenced by Christianity and Christians. I would venture to say 98% of the colonial population was Christian, that the vast majority of founding fathers were Christians, and that there are clear references to the Christian God within our founding documents. In this country anyone can be free to be an atheist, but it's foolish to ignore and deny the Christian heritage of the US.

Whoa, dude. the constitution does not mention Jesus.
 
So, because certain Biblical laws weren't enacted legally in the US that means the country wasn't founded upon Christian ideals?

Specifically, what Christian ideals do you believe were foundational to creating this nation?

The Constitution clearly makes reference to Jesus.

History fail. The constitution makes no mention of god or Jesus.
The Declaration says we have our rights because God gave them to us.

No. The Declaration never mentions your god (YHWH). The Declaration makes mention of a creator, but is non-specific.

that there are clear references to the Christian God within our founding documents.

Quotes plz?

In this country anyone can be free to be an atheist, but it's foolish to ignore and deny the Christian heritage of the US.

Insert eyeroll.
 
In this quote he professes a belief in God, so no, he is not agnostic.

In private communications with his son, Jefferson comes off well more atheist than anything else.
 
Religions raise and contribute billions of dollars to the problems of poverty and illness on this planet. They educate children. They practically single handedly take care of AIDS patients in most cities, providing medicine and shelter for them. They throw great parties like Mardi Gras and Christmas.

Why would anybody hate religion?
I don't hate religion but many awful things have been done in the name of religion.
 
Weren't we discussing federal level? The law will also be thrown out as it's absurd.

I agree that it's absurd, I'm just pointing out that adultery is still prosecuted in many places today.

There are no federal laws on this kind of thing because they always left it to the states to criminalize or legalize as they chose.
 
I agree that it's absurd, I'm just pointing out that adultery is still prosecuted in many places today.

There are no federal laws on this kind of thing because they always left it to the states to criminalize or legalize as they chose.



I was just reading a wiki article that brought up Lawernce vs Texas in relation to privacy. So maybe they have done this in private?
 
I agree that it's absurd, I'm just pointing out that adultery is still prosecuted in many places today.

There are no federal laws on this kind of thing because they always left it to the states to criminalize or legalize as they chose.

Well I wouldn't say "in many places". I would say "in a few places". And it's a seldomly used law, and it's about to get thrown out. So I think the adultry point still stands.
 
That's ridiculous. It will be dismissed soon, and if it goes further, the law will be found unconstitutional. It's just one of those old laws on the books they haven't removed yet, and an obviously dumb cop and/or DA.

Well I wouldn't say "in many places". I would say "in a few places". And it's a seldomly used law, and it's about to get thrown out. So I think the adultry point still stands.


Last month, John R. Bushey Jr. was finally brought to justice in a small courthouse in Luray, Va. Bushey, the former town attorney, stood before the court as an accused criminal with reporters from all over the state in attendance. The charge was adultery. Like 23 other states, Virginia still might prosecute if a husband or wife has consensual sex outside the marriage.

Of Lust and the Law (washingtonpost.com)

Likewise, when the Illinois legislature last year made a comprehensive set of changes to update the state’s laws, it notably kept the criminal provisions for adultery and fornication. In addition to roughly half of the states, adultery remains a criminal offense in the military, where prosecutions occur regularly.

In these state and federal systems, adults who cheat on their spouses are still deemed presumptive criminals and face the potential of a criminal charge. Just a year after the Lawrence decision, John R. Bushey Jr., then 66, the town attorney for Luray, Va., was prosecuted for adultery and agreed to a plea bargain of community service. A year later, Lucius James Penn, then 29, was charged with adultery in Fargo, N.D. In 2007, a Michigan appellate court ruled that adultery can still support a life sentence in that state.

Criminal Adultery: States Ponder The Continuation of Puritanical Laws « JONATHAN TURLEY

Again, I'm not saying it's a good thing or that it would withstand a challenge. I'm just noting that it is and has been prosecuted throughout our history.
 
So less than half the States have this as a law, and it doesn't seem like it's widely used at all. A case or two every few years at most. Again, it really appears to be a seldom used law and only when cops and the DA are trying to be dicks. If this were something that all states had and was actively enforced; ok I'd buy it. But it's not. If the US were founded on Christian values, this and the other 6 non-law Commandments would be law everywhere.
 
I don't know if it was intended to be or not, but of course 99 percent believed in God. There were a few rebels like Ingersol and Pain, and even they hadn't resolved all the questions and mysteries that still plague would-be atheists today.

Myself, as a materialistic naturalist, I don't have to answer all those questions,

ricksfolly
 
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