Separation of Church and State

Quote of the day

The decision for complete religious freedom and for separation of church and state in the eyes of the rest of the world was perhaps the most important decision reached in the New World. Everywhere in the western world of the 18th century, church and state were one; and everywhere the state maintained an established church and tried to force conformity to its dogma.

The British had attempted — half-heartedly — to extend the Anglican Establishment to America, but they had, on the whole, permitted a good deal of religious freedom and independence. When the American states became independent they inevitably threw off the Anglican Establishment. A few of them tried to keep an establishment of their own, but given the pluralism of American religion, that attempt was clearly foredoomed.

Virginia led the way by announcing not only complete religious freedom, but the separation of church and state, and thereafter, one after another, all the original states followed this principle. When James Madison introduced the Bill of Rights to the first Congress, the very first of them embraced freedom of religion, and that was adopted by the Congress and by the states, and incorporated as a fundamental article of American constitutionalism.

Thus the new United States took the lead among the nations of the earth in the establishment of religious freedom. That is one reason America has never had any religious wars or any religious persecutions. — Henry Steele Commager

There are some people that really want the churches to be in power in America…watch who runs on the Republican ticket in 2012.  Check their credentials carefully

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The War on Terror Will be Never-ending

Alongside the willing sacrifice of privacy by a naive and lazy public, is the enforced forfeiture of civil liberties under the guise of the ‘War on Terror’. Government legislation has significantly increased surveillance, data collection, and security measures ‘for your own safety‘. And more sophisticated and intrusive methods are coming soon. England is already 90% of the way to an Orwellian society…we aren’t far behind…America is in the top 5 (or in the bottom 5 depending on your viewpoint) for the most surveillance of it’s own citizens.

We need to talk to all those computer and high technology geeks who keep inventing evil and intrusive technology to crush and take away human freedoms. Tell them to stop it. Buzz it up. Put on peer pressure. Let them know there are really evil people out there that misuse technology they invent and  that they themselves, and their children, will be negatively affected.

Americans need to get off their lazy asses and start talking to their Senators and Congressmen and let them know that we are really sick of what they are doing with our various rights. Are we going to have to fight for them again? I’m not sure that many politicians will actually try to fight the crap going on in Washington…we have to at least try. Talk to your friends and neighbors, your co-workers, your in-laws, anyone you can corner for a casual talk and plant a bug in their brain about how wrong it is.

House of Representatives

Senate

The Whitehouse

Ex-Boss of Englands MI5 service (James Bonds employer :-)) says that “Terrorist threat was ‘exploited to curb civil liberties’
Security measures brought in after September 11 attacks ‘undermined the rule of law’
Go here for full story.

This is something really important for all of us in this country…and the world actually.

Intelligent Design…Isn’t

Anti-Science.

To advance their anti-science and anti-secularism agenda, ID creationists at the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture seek to use public schools “to defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies,” “to replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God,” and to “see design theory (Intelligent Design) permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life” (Discovery Institute, 1998).

Do American’s really want this in their public schools? Do we really want to start closing down the blossoming minds of our children and sucking our civilization down to the level of some theistic societies in the Middle East?

Most of the sciences have as their ultimate truth that nature, not God, is the driving force behind the physical world. Can you imagine a science class in lets say archeology. “Well teacher I know that the earth is only 6,000 years old, but the dinosaurs don’t seem to have left any traces along with human remains. We find human bones only in the top levels of earth strata and the dinosaur bones seem to be MANY years lower. At this point we can only surmise that God has separated them for some purpose that is a mystery to us, and that He may reveal to us in his own good time.”

An article in the journal Science, one of the world’s most respected scientific publications says that among 34 countries surveyed, the US ranks second to last in the number of adults who accept the theory of evolution. “The acceptance of evolution is lower in the US than in Japan or Europe, largely because of widespread fundamentalism and the politicization of science in the United States” (2006).

In a 1998 document entitled “The Wedge,” known informally as the “Wedge Document”

(Discovery Institute, 1998; Forrest and Gross, 2004a, 2007a, ch. 2). Using the metaphor of a metal wedge that can split a log, the ID movement aims to use aggressive public relations programs of book publication, lectures, etc., to create an opening for the supernatural (i.e. Magic) in the public’s understanding of science.

The various sciences are today progressing at a record rate, providing the means to enhance human life in many ways. The US cannot afford to allow Intelligent Design, fundamentalist thought, evangelical proponents, or any of the thousand and one religious right groups to hijack our school systems. We need scientifically trained minds as never before in history. Our low level of scientific literacy in the American public is shameful for a nation that has heretofore led the world.

Be Afraid….Be very Afraid

Folks, if you depend on the internet somehow, maybe to earn a little money, or to blow off steam in a blog, maybe just to get the news of the day, your experience is going to change soon.

Check out this website, let your mind wonder back to High School civics class and slowly read the particulars of this proposed law (it is really expected to pass).
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h1955_rfs.xml

Remember the Bill of Rights? Kiss a very important part of them goodbye.

Although this law is actually aimed at Muslims, it very easily can be, and probably will be, used against American born WASP’s who don’t agree with the present and future Presidential Administrations, be them Republican or Democrat.

Your beloved internet will have a very important part silenced. The dissenting voices will all be gone in a short time.
The news (bad as the full reporting is now) will be a mere shadow of it’s former self. Expect Broadcast news and Newspapers to follow this demise.

Our government will be able, and you know they will, hide behind this law by a mere mention of secrecy or some such nonsense. No more transparency in government. Government incompetence will easily be hid

The things that this law abrogates, are the very things our forefathers fought and died in the American Revolution for.

Under this law, I will not be able to write this blog that I’m presently typing. You may notice I said “will not” instead of “would not.”

Remember Communist Russia and how dissension, not matter how small, was treated?
Secret detention/prisons….We now have that.
Torture….We have that.
Arrests and indefinite, no trial, imprisonment….We have that.
Spying on all citizens….We have that, and are MUCH better at it.
Think of internet spyders, warrantless wiretaps, training police, firefighters, and medical personel to report any dissenting voices, conversations, etc.. Think of the NSA’s ability to record, and pinpoint, all the phone conversations in the world.

When I tell people that they need to be afraid of this law, the response is usually. “So what, it’s only for the Muslim terrorists. Do you want to protect their rights?”

It dumfounds me. I end up trying to explain to them the principle of the Rule of law and how we are desecrating the American Constitution, our MAIN law of the land. I tell them to listen very closely to the words of the law and think about the Bill of Rights. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

I’m not very optimistic about the future any more. I deeply regret that I am leaving a very different America to my children and grandchildren.

You may want to write to your senators in Washington. Use the link below to reach them.

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm