What A Breath Of Fresh Air

We have a christian historian pointing out the foolishness of the
Christian Nation Argument.

The fact that some parts of the Declaration and/or Constitution are not in conflict with verses in the Bible does not mean that the Bible was the source. This is especially important when -- as in the case of the Declaration and the Constitution -- the authors claim other sources, but do not claim the Bible as a source!
In a May 8, 1825 letter to Henry Lee, Jefferson identifies his sources for the Declaration's principles. He names as sources: Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, and (Algernon) Sidney -- he does not mention the Bible. Then again, the terminology in the Declaration is not specifically Christian -- or even biblical, with the exception of "Creator." The term "providence" is never used of God in the Bible, nor are "nature's God" or "Supreme Judge of the world" ever used in the Bible.

In the hundreds of pages comprising Madison's notes on the constitutional convention (and those of the others who kept notes), there is no mention of biblical passages/verses in the debates/discussions on the various parts and principles of the Constitution. They mention Rome, Sparta, German confederacies, Montesquieu, and a number of other sources -- but no Scripture verses.

In The Federalist Papers, there is no mention of biblical sources for any of the Constitution's principles, either -- one would think they could squeeze them in among the 85 essays if they were, indeed, the sources; especially since the audience was common men who were familiar with, and had respect for, the Bible. The word "God" is used twice -- and one of those is a reference to the pagan gods of ancient Greece. "Almighty" is used twice and "providence" three times -- but neither is ever used in connection with any constitutional principle or influence. The Bible is not mentioned.

These are not little details and are facts that anyone who wants to argue the history and intent of the founding of our must understand. Yet we still see an army of liars for Christ trying to invent a false history that fits their world view and justifies their political objectives.


Tags
Christians, History

It's Friday

and your links to interesting reading are below.


This is not a single post, but a collection of post. At Barbecue & Politics a review of how much money one man will spend in an effort to buy control of the South Carolina House.


An ode to a nation that is gone Can be found at BadTux the Snarky Penguin


Could the Vets for Freedom, a Republican AstroTurf group be lying?. Seeing the Forest point to a good reason to think they may be.


Rob's Blog looks at the Oil, Banking and the effects of deregulation.


Tags
History, Politics, Republicans

Everything Old Is New Again

If you go back in time, a little over 40 years, Columbia celebrated the arrival of commercial jet service. One of the planes that flew into Columbia was the DC-9. It was a small plane, sat low to the ground (some carried their own stairs for passenger operations) and carried about 100 passengers.

Time went on and the planes got bigger. Columbia had regular service with 727s, M80s, even L-1011s. Then we started to see smaller planes. Twin Otters, and Saabs, moving up to the CRJs that are seen everywhere, who have all but pushed the larger jets out of the local airport.

And now we have about gone full circle. We are about the see the introduction of the modern version of the DC-9/10. An Embraer E-Jet, seating just under 100 passengers, another small low to the ground jet will soon start to service our city.

Just this time it will not be big news and it is not a national trunk airline flying this aircraft. Heck, most people may never be aware that this is happening, They will not know that Shuttle America is operating this flight, they will not know this 'baby jet' is actually about the size of the early commercial jets that were a signal of the jet age coming to town.

They will just see it as a Delta Commuter flight with undersized equipment, not aware that we are just back at where we were in 1965.

Tags
Airlines, History

Science (History) Saturday

Something very cool was found at the bottom of Lake Ontario

A 22-gun British warship that sank during the American Revolution and has long been regarded as one of the "Holy Grail" shipwrecks in the Great Lakes has been discovered at the bottom of Lake Ontario, astonishingly well-preserved in the cold, deep water, explorers announced Friday.

Tags
History, Science

For Memorial Day

A story from NPR.

Eight years ago, a French couple founded an organization that adopts graves of American servicemen who died during the Normandy invasion of World War II. The volunteer group encourages French families to lay flowers on the graves when the Americans' own families can't do it.

Tags
History

Friday's Links

Check them out.

Dispatches from the culture wars gives us a much needed history lesson on how some of the leading founding fathers viewed the Divinity of Jesus Christ



Some more information about the strength and scale of Al Qaeda in Iraq, from the Agonist



From the Big Brass Blog, a look at ABCs performance in the Democratic Debate.



And AmericaBlog checks out the state of the Iraqi Army.



Tags
History, Iraq, media

Fridays Fantastic Links

Sacraments Wholesale looks at the proposed cigarette tax.


We have a list of historically flawed movies that can be found in Millard Fillmore's Bathtub


No More Mister Nice Blog knows just how disgusting some Republicans are.





Tags
History, Republicans, Tax

Rush Linbaugh Lies

This should surprise no one (except an anonymous commenter in the last post), but it is funny just how often how blatantly and how badly he does this. How his followers can avoid noticing this constantly amazes me.

Ed Brayton at Dispatches From the Culture Wars exposes Rush's stupidity and takes apart a recent Rush lie about Thomas Jefferson and religious liberty.