The founding fathers wanted to ensure equality for all religions in America, Christian and non-Christian. Religious freedom was important to them, as they had a close understanding of the problems that can result with state-mandated religion and theocracies. They did not shirk from the issue.
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
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This is a comment from Journalizer, copied from the Founding Principles post. It is directly related to the Fourth Principle. hct
ReplyDelete"I have so much to say about this, but I will keep it short.
First of all, the intention of our forefathers was to retain a concept that is the "entire foundation of all religious cultures world-wide" (pg 98). They believed in freedom for each individual to choose his own "sect" of religion but knew that "Without Religion the Government of a Free People Cannot be Maintained" (pg 75).
By "Religion" I believe they meant a concept such as "universe logic", "natural law", "do unto others" and should not be pigeonholed by the contemporary misnomers such as "God" and "Religion" -- because, let's face it, the American government has succeeded in educating its people to hate those words. Perhaps our foundersm knew this is a threat because there are zero references to God in our constitution.
Our forefathers recognized that it is an "essential need to teach religion and morality in the schools" (pg 75) and unfortunately this is not happening in our current culture. I write "unfortunately" not because I am religious or have any affiliation or love for organized religions, but because when a person does not believe there is any reality greater than oneself, then this person's ego will grow exponentially. I believe that government is the collective ego. I believe that the miseducation of America to be offended by God opens the door for tyranny. A Godless society promotes materialism; ie, outward learning. This is why Ghandi's philosophy of Swaraj promoted living inwardly and self governance.
People do not understand that a "reality greater than oneself" can apply to things other than "faith" in an organized religion. There are many, many people with supernatural personal experiences with ghosts, aliens ... even scientists cannot explain "gforce" or "Godforce" defined in Aether Physics as an unknown "God-like source that created the physical Universe." That link even goes on to state, "The discovery of the Gforce is certain to become one of the important arguments for Intelligent Design as it provides solid evidence for God."
So, evidence suggests that it is ignorant to discard "Deism" such as our forefather's subscribed. Not just ignorant, but destructive because denying it only feeds a person's ego and selfishness because it negates any reality greater than one's self.
Another note, is that the forefather's intention to separate church and state is misunderstood. On page 90-91 it is explained that the forefathers were referring to FEDERAL state and church separation. This is a HUGE misunderstanding today. The intention of our founders is "to keep the power base close to the people. The emphasis was on strong local self-government" (pg 23). For example the hierarchy listed on page 24 that should fall under Federal Government; State Government, County Government, Township, Family.
The structure of that hierarchy has long been disintegrating.
The above mentioned topics are not understood by contemporary Americans and I believe it is because our public schools and media are Government controlled and I think our government is seeking to promote itself and grow at the expense of personal freedom. It is sad that people do not inquire into these things because there is brilliance in the foundation of America and our constitution. If more people understood this, then they would comprehend opposition to many of the laws created in the past 50+ years. On the surface, the opposition to such laws as Row vs. Wade and Universal Healthcare is perceived as evil, mean or selfish. However, the true arguments to these laws is that they go against the freedom of self-government and instead create a blanket law forced upon the masses."