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ARCANGEL707

Articles Posted: 0  Links Seeded: 2
Member Since: 10/2008  Last Seen: 1/27/2012

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How Christians Were The Founders

Seeded on Thu Feb 11, 2010 4:22 PM EST
Read ArticleArticle Source: The New York Times
religion
Seeded by arcangel707
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Conservative activists on the Texas Board of Education say that the authors of the Constitution intended the United States to be a Christian nation. And they want America's history textbooks to say so.

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  • Public Discussion (20)
George Marez

They should first read the Treaty of Tripoli.

  • 3 votes
Reply#1 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 4:59 PM EST
Save Me Jebus

You're assuming they know how to read?

  • 2 votes
#1.1 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 5:21 PM EST
gordy327

They should first read the Treaty of Tripoli.

As well as the 1st Amendment. Or Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptists. Or the SCOTUS case Reynolds v. US.

Conservative activists on the Texas Board of Education say that the authors of the Constitution intended the United States to be a Christian nation.

They can say that (I hear it plenty of times from hard core theists on or off NV). But they need to provide the historical documentation to back such a supposition up.

And they want America's history textbooks to say so.

Ah, more christian revisionist history at work.

  • 3 votes
#1.2 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 9:08 PM EST
TheJackel

Wow, talk about trying to install a religious theocracy here. basically, Arangel is apart of the christian group looking to turn the United States into a religious nation like Afghanistan where you have religious extremists running around and forcing you into the ideology.. This nut case was over in another forum advocating the annihilation of Tibetan's and Buddhists..

The last thing the United States needs is the installment of a religious cult into government.. Or installing religion into public schools so they can brainwash children and teach them that science is religious blasphemy.. The sheer stupidity it would take to believe this article above would be amazing to say the least!

Arcangel take your Theocritus religious agenda elsewhere.. I would even call this spreading of false information. Apparently baring false witness is not a problem fro creationists, theists, or Christian's these days.

If anyone wants to live under a religious police state, feel free to believe this obviously false and fabricated nonsense!

The founding fathers were deists!

    #1.3 - Sat Mar 13, 2010 11:37 PM EST
    TheJackel

    This alone tells you the educational level of Christians.. They actually believe that we are this dumb.. This reminds me of the banana man videos where they tell you to circumvent intellect so you don't have to do any critical thinking so you can simply just believe any load of BS they tell you.. In other words, don't think, we will do the thinking for you! Hence, there is no need for you to educate yourself in science because it can be complicated, just stay stupid so we can control you.

    And it amazes me that these people have no concept of how brainwashing works.. The "Master" videos are prime examples of the mechanics of brainwashing. And there target audience isn't me or you, their target audience is those who are ignorant or easily manipulated.. It's basically a giant phishing scam.

    I know this because I've done advertising for churches for 10 years. I strongly recommend people to read a book or two on the mechanics of brainwashing, and then sit back and observe how religious ideologies like Christianity actually operate on a daily basis.

    Key things to look for in order:

    1) seeding tool ( casting shadows of doubt, lying, spewing false information, attacking those that disagree, creating pressure to make one more vulnerable to submission)

    2) The Fear TOOL (Gods wrath? hell? damnation?)

    3) The Carrot: (Salvation?. redemption?. Love?)

    4) Now way out question ( repent now and save your soul! Today is the day of decision) This question comes usually after the above 3 tools because it's purpose is to make you feel like you have to take the carrot and submit your lives to the ideology!

    This is exactly the advertising model of Christianity. Thus I will give you an example of a pamphlet that I had done for a Church in Minnesota, Chicago, and Mississippi.

    EXAMPLE:

    *This pamphlet had a very large capital "D" that was on fire to represent "Damnation" The background on this front page was all black to represent the darkness of Damnation, and to emphasize the D that was on fire! And just under the enormous damning D there were glowing words in white that said "Today is your Day of Decision!"

    Now when we opened the pamphlet, we could see a nice pleasant background with clouds and rays of light shining though a nice blue sky.. And printed on this background were a bunch of fake "testimonials" that were pre-fabricated! In fact I was told to use and Adobe photos suite to get pictures of happy people to use! Which was a common thing to do because their target audience would probably never question it. The testimonials targeted specific groups of people they know are vulnerable, impressionable, or easily manipulated into the ideology.

    It's so bad that 99% of all religious advertising contains false information.. And 100% of the 6,900 pamphlets, posters, fliers, and booklets that I have made were all fake, disingenuous, and clearly manipulative!.. In fact, I will never forgive myself for ever partaking in brainwashing people into Christianity. It literally makes me sick to my stomach to even think about it..

    So can anyone tell me which elements are used in that example that relate to the mechanics of brainwashing? Can you see the seed, fear, carrot, and now way out question?

    Arcangel is in my shoes 10 years ago. However, I am very glad that I am no longer in those shoes!

      #1.4 - Sun Mar 14, 2010 12:26 AM EST
      Reply
      supergerbil424

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tripoli#Article_11

      • 1 vote
      Reply#2 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 5:07 PM EST
      douglasq

      Conservative activists on the Texas Board of Education say that the authors of the Constitution intended the United States to be a Christian nation.

      Bzzzt. Wrong answer.

      And the team from Texas loses a turn. The correct answer is "The Founding Fathers were largely Deists. The word you are looking for is 'deists'."

      George Washington, Thomas Paine, Ethan Allen, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jeffereson, James Madison -- among others -- were all deists.

      Also, for the free-market conservatives out there, Adam Smith, while not a Founding Father, was also on that list.

      • 4 votes
      Reply#3 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 5:36 PM EST
      George Marez

      Almost. Only about 30% of the original frameworkers were Freemasons. Many in your list were not.

      http://bessel.org/constmas.htm

      Madison was not. Washington was not active. There is no evidence that Jefferson was a mason.

      • 2 votes
      #3.1 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 5:52 PM EST
      douglasq

      I didn't say Freemason.

      • 3 votes
      #3.2 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:07 PM EST
      George Marez

      Then how else can you quantify who was a Deist and who was not? Christians are Deists, but not all Deists are Christian. Was there another organization that documented their theistic beliefs?

      • 2 votes
      #3.3 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:29 PM EST
      douglasq

      From Wikipedia

      Deism (\ˈdi:iz(ə)m\[1] or \ˈdē-ˌi-zəm\)[2] is a religious and philosophical belief that a supreme being created the universe, and that this (and religious truth in general) can be determined using reason and observation of the natural world alone, without a need for either faith or organized religion. Deists tend to, but do not necessarily, reject the notion of divine interventions in human affairs, such as by miracles and revelations. These views contrast with a dependence on revelations, miracles, and faith found in many Jewish, Christian, Islamic and other theistic teachings.

      By that definition, Christians are not Deists. Nor does one need to be a Freemason to be considered a Deist.

      And even if only a third of the Founding Fathers were Deist, there still is no evidence they sought to create a Christian nation.

      • 2 votes
      #3.4 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:38 PM EST
      George Marez

      Okay I got it confused with Theism, but still, how do you know that they were simply Deists and not Freemasons? At least we have documentation of lodge memberships.

      • 2 votes
      #3.5 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:55 PM EST
      douglasq

      I'm going to go out on a limb and say not every Deist feels the need to be part of a secret fraternal order. My dad certainly didn't.

      • 1 vote
      #3.6 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 6:58 PM EST
      George Marez

      But that is not evidence. You seemed firm in your initial assertion. I was wondering if it was more than just a gut feeling.

      • 2 votes
      #3.7 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:21 PM EST
      gordy327

      Thomas Jeffereson...among others -- were all deists.

      Thomas Jefferson may have actually been agnostic, based on some of his writings.

      how do you know that they were simply Deists and not Freemasons?

      The Freemasons were not a religious organization.

      there still is no evidence they sought to create a Christian nation.

      They didn't. They set out to create a secular nation with a religiously neutral government, which allowed all citizens to practice whatever religion they wished.

      • 1 vote
      #3.8 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 10:30 PM EST
      George Marez

      I didn't say they were a religious organization. But to my knowledge, Freemasonry is the only way to quantify their Deistic beliefs. Without that, how else do we know what their beliefs were?

      • 1 vote
      #3.9 - Fri Feb 12, 2010 10:13 AM EST
      klaahsen

      hey guys freemason's ARE a religious org. they require you to believe in a god to join....

        #3.10 - Thu Nov 18, 2010 1:38 PM EST
        Reply
        Allegory

        My state's public education system really embarrasses me.

        Recently a girl-friend of mine was reading one of her school's Texas History text-books (She's an attorney for the district or something), and found that that the textbook incorrectly identified the State's first gov. She called the publisher who told her they've been publishing that version for years, and no one has ever noticed the mistake until now.

        Ugh

        • 1 vote
        Reply#4 - Thu Feb 11, 2010 8:42 PM EST
        thelyamhound

        Most of our founders were white, and a good many owned slaves. I'm not sure that translates to our founders intending for the U.S. to be a white nation, and if it did, I'd feel no compunction about deviating from the will of the founders.

        Some direct responses to the article itself:

        “But Christianity has had a deep impact on our system. The men who wrote the Constitution were Christians who knew the Bible."

        Indeed. The Enlightenment also had a deep impact on our system, up to and including the introduction of deistic tendencies into Christianity and of secular humanism (which we should note is neither synonymous with nor exclusive to atheism).

        "Our idea of individual rights comes from the Bible. The Western development of the free-market system owes a lot to biblical principles.”

        That even our secular values are derived from Christian social constructs is, I think, not in dispute; even my pantheistic Buddhism is influenced by the (Jewish) pantheism of Spinoza, the (Catholic) panpsychism of Giordano Bruno, and the solipsistic atheism (derived from Protestant Christianity) of David Hume. But suggesting that our system was created by Christians--or nominally Christian deists--and suggesting that the intent of those Christians was that Americans should worship an anthropomorphized [G/g]od and put trust in the resurrected son of a Jewish carpenter are two very, very different assertions.

        The First Amendment--yes, the very first--to the Constitution of the U.S. guaranteed a number of rights to the citizenry ostensibly considered the most important to defend. Among these were freedoms of speech and assembly, a free press, and free exercise of religion, accompanied by a prohibition on the state establishing an official religion. I agree that this has been too widely interpreted to mean that no legislator, executive, or judge may use religious reasonings in determining conscience, that no individual may "make" time to pray, or that wearing crosses or posting the ten commandments is somehow untoward. Nevertheless, Jefferson's own writings on the matter indicate that the freedom to exercise religion was never to be limited to the freedom to exercise the form of Christianity one chooses--the rights of the "Hindoo," the "Mohametan," and the "infidel" were also held in high regard. Free exercise of religion includes the exercise of any religion, and of irreligion, as well, and, in my opinion, the proscription against establishment means that we can all practice the precepts of those without the moral anxieties of other religions--including the dominant one (Christianity, of course)--being codified into law (except where they actually coincide with demonstrable civic utilities, as in proscriptions against murder, theft, slander, etc.).

        • 3 votes
        Reply#5 - Fri Feb 12, 2010 2:51 PM EST
        TheJackel

        But that isn't what Arcangel wants ;).. He's clearly showing the signs that I have been seeing all across this nations.. Christianity in the United States is actually seeking to establish a Theocracy or religious police state.. Their main goals are to stamp out other competing religions while forcing theirs upon everyone through religious legislation.. The blurring of the lines between church and state!..

        Hence, they are trying to make a power play to legislate religious morality according to the Bible! And we better all hope that never comes to pass! America would quickly turn into a war torn 3rd world country.. Example like Afghanistan, Pakistan, iraq, and Iran ought to be prime examples not to follow!

          #5.1 - Sun Mar 14, 2010 1:19 AM EST
          Reply
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