Harvey Wasserman is a well known liberal activist. He's an adviser to Greenpeace, founder of the Liberation News Service and the Free Press and many other causes. He also demonstrates perfectly now not to respond to the religious right in this essay filled with invective and falsehoods. When he writes:
It is not the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments that form the bedrock of American values. It is the first Ten Amendments to the Constitution. If anything should be chiseled in stone on our public buildings, it's the Bill of Rights.
I stand up and cheer. I agree 100%. Unfortunately, the essay is also brimming with oversimplifications, empty vitriol and overstated positions - the very things he criticizes Christian Nation advocates for. Yes, he is correct that those who make Ben Franklin out to be a good Christian are dealing in historical fiction. But then he deals in that himself as well when he writes:
Never mind also that the legendary atheism of the wildly popular Tom Paine and Ethan Allen was embraced throughout a new nation that loved rational reason.
No, no, a thousand times no. Thomas Paine was not a Christian, of course, but neither was he an atheist. On the very first page of his opus criticizing Christianity, The Age of Reason, he writes:
As several of my colleagues and others of my fellow-citizens of France have given me the example of making their voluntary and individual profession of faith, I also will make mine; and I do this with all that sincerity and frankness with which the mind of man communicates with itself.I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
Nor is it true that his falsely attributed atheism was "embraced throughout" America. I dare say you'd have a hard time finding an atheist in revolutionary America. Deists, yes; Unitarians, yes; atheists? Good luck in your search. Wasserman is making the same mistake that so many on the religious right make - in looking at history, he sees only himself.
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It is also unwise to cite Thomas Paine when arguing what the Constitution should mean. He was, after all, an Anti-Federalist.
Just think if the entire world was deists or unitarians how the landscape of the planet would be different.
No evolution/creation debate, no holy wars, no ridiculous dogma, and yet people could still have faith in something larger than themselves if they so chose.
The segmenting of the world into religious factions and indeed denominations within religious factions must be one of mans greatest failings.
The segmenting of the world into religious factions and indeed denominations within religious factions must be one of mans greatest failings.
Sad to say, dogma is no less prevalent among battling political factions, even when they have no ties to religion. Unfortunately, healthy debate quickly turns to dogma and propaganda if you aren't very, very careful. Once a person is convinced he has found the Truth, he will often use deceit to share it with others.
"Once a person is convinced he has found the Truth, he will often use deceit to share it with others."
Perfect
Wishing that everyone was a deist or unitarian so we could live peace is like wishing everyone was a Christian or a Hindu or whatever so we could live in peace. If everyone agreed on one doctrine there wouldn't be strife. It wouldn't matter how intolerant the belief. I am well aware that some dogmas are more conducive to chauvinism, fanaticism, and intolerance and there's nothing wrong in wishing that false beliefs would go away but the real issue is accepting diversity not wishing for unanamity.
Deist was as far as a person could go in those days without being burnt on a stake. If Paine lived today, or even 50 years after he did, I have no doubt that he would have considered himself an atheist. He was far more of an extremist than any other founders (for example, openly embracing the full spectrum of the french revolution). Not that this makes calling Paine an atheist correct, it's not, but he probably would have been one, had it been socially acceptable.
'Wishing that everyone was a deist or unitarian so we could live peace is like wishing everyone was a Christian or a Hindu or whatever so we could live in peace. If everyone agreed on one doctrine there wouldn't be strife.'
Good point.I only allowed deism and unitarianism in my commentary as they seem more accepting of the human experience and all it's forms.
With other religions you get doctrines,often ridiculous, that living beings must conform to rather than accepting life as it is.
If Paine lived today, or even 50 years after he did, I have no doubt that he would have considered himself an atheist.
I completely disagree with this statement given the fact that Thomas Paine's motivation for writing The Age of Reason was to prevent people from turning to atheism after their frustrations wtih the church. He believed in God and wanted to explain that the church was not the only outlet for this belief.
Ah C'mon Karsey Paine was at best a lukewarm deist. This is just the honest truth. He was certainly in no way shape or form a 'Christian'.
Of course your correct in some form, To have a belief in God it need not be the Christian God.