['But by saying God, a religious word, it does include religion. And if you want more proof the God part wasn't an essential part, just look in the constitution. It doesn't mention God. The declaration does, but not the actual constitution.']
The Preamble: We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
Oh my gosh!!!! "Blessings" is a religious word!!!!!
Face it. America was founded on faith. Not a specific faith, but on faith none the less.
16 comments
Not necessarily.
I love the "Not a specific faith, but on faith none the less" line, which I've been hearing alot from god-botherers lately. To any remotely sincere Christian, which specific faith should be a pretty important question.
Ok- the only thing I'll say for him is that at least he seems to know that there are multiple things one can have faith in. But that's it.
Sure, I suppose it was founded on faith, the faith that citizens could govern themselves, that people would use their rights if given the chance, and that if no one entity controls too much, there would be no shaking of the foundings of the country. They were right on 2 counts, but since GWB has entered office, the presidency is becoming more of a king's throne, and most of congress is the aristocracy.
You know, J-Rod, there are books other than the Bible. One kind of other book is called a dictionary.
You might want to read one sometime.
AC brings up a good point. Because this particular bit of fundie word-gaming really, really ticks me off.
I grew up with a copy of the American Heritage Dictionary in the house. If you like words and especially etymology, the AHD is second only to the OED2 for browsing goodness. The AHD is a top-notch etymological resource, as good as you're going to find without looking at trivia books (some of which are quite dubious) or specialist literature (some of which is extremely expensive). As a result, it irks the almotherfuckingmighty crap out of me when people either spread false etymologies (especially when the truth is easily looked up) or try to hyper-parse the meanings of specific words to make them sound more loaded than they really are.
And don't get me started on concordance abuse in Bible study... talk about hyper-parsing -- given that most of these fundies have a working knowledge of neither Greek nor Hebrew (as well as little or no knowledge of the development of the English language, in the case of the KJV wankers), it doesn't take someone who does to figure out that their use of definitions is heavily dependent on trying to shoehorn what the concordance says into their own prejudices.
It makes me wonder if there wasn't just a little bit of "nutty non-Anglican Protestant minister" along with the "slippery sophist politician" in Lewis Carroll's portrayal of Humpty Dumpty...
Actually, J-Rod is correct, if for the wrong reasons, and a jackass besides.
The United States of America was (or were, to be historically accurate) formed by mostly religious, or at the very least spiritual, men with Christian backgrounds. It can literally be said that the USofA is founded upon Christian values.
The problem is, J-Rod stopped there. Christian values happen to be shared amongst many religions, so those values which many Christians selfishly (and very stupidly) claim as exclusively their own are really quite universal in scope.
J-Rod should also have remembered that the USofA, even though it was founded mainly by Christians, was very religiously diverse. That's why there is no specific mention of religion anywhere in the public documents that formed our nation - not to politely but firmly shut God out, but to allow the people freedom of worship and belief. And to keep small-minded jackasses like J-Rod from trying to create a theocracy.
"...blessings *of liberty*..."
Liberty is a goddess in our American pantheon. There's a honking huge statue of her on an island....
Kinda like Athena. I don't think she's a virgin, though.
Well, despite his idiotic point of view that "blessings" is necessarily religious, at least he's willing to accept that the United States was NOT founded on Christianity. That rarely happens on here. I imagine it rarely happens on the Jedi Council either.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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