Some Thoughts About Religious Liberty

This post was orginally put on Tea Party Patriots in response to this statement,which I agree with. I have added to it a bit.

"Someone wrote in an earlier blog, "I was always taught that we were a Christian Nation that tolerated other religions, not a non-Christian Nation that does not tolerate Christians."

The truth is that we are neither. We are actually a non-Christian nation that does tolerate Christians because we have freedom of religion. "

I actually agree with your statement here. I will try to elaborate and clarify later.

Robin, I strongly agree with this "Islam is where christianity was 5oo years ago" Actually it's closer to where christianity was --700, 800 or 1000 yars ago, during the era widely known as the dark ages. What, happened in between? The rebirth and reintroduction of reason into western thought. America was the first and only nation built on the values of the enlightenment.

A few quotes from the founding period might help. All references to "self-evident truths", "nature", "laws of nature", and "nature's god" were based on the idea of a rational world, with absolute laws which could be understood by everyone. Count how many times the word reason was used by our founders.

Writings from the Lock, Franklin, Madison, Adams and Jefferson are filled with references to Aristotle, Cicero, Greek and Roman history as well as science and economic history. If the nation were exclusively based on christianity, the primary references would have been to the bible.

"Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call to her tribunal every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."

Thomas Jefferson

As our enemies have found we can reason like men, so now let us show them we can fight like men also.

Thomas Jefferson

Bodily decay is gloomy in prospect, but of all human contemplations the most abhorrent is body without mind.

Thomas Jefferson

"Enlighten the people generally, and tyranny and oppressions of body and mind will vanish like evil spirits at the dawn of day."

Thomas Jefferson

"Errors of opinion may be tolerated where reason is left free to combat it."

Thomas Jefferson

I am an Epicurean. I consider the genuine (not the imputed) doctrines of Epicurus as containing everything rational in moral philosophy which Greek and Roman leave to us.

Thomas Jefferson

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. "

Thomas Jefferson

"I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way."

Thomas Jefferson

"In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty."

Thomas Jefferson

"Information is the currency of democracy."

Thomas Jefferson

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God."

Thomas Jefferson

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."

Thomas Jefferson

"Resort is had to ridicule only when reason is against us."

Thomas Jefferson

"The world is indebted for all triumphs which have been gained by reason and humanity over error and oppression."

Thomas Jefferson

"There is not a sprig of grass that shoots uninteresting to me."

Thomas Jefferson

"Distrust and caution are the parents of security." (as opposed to faith)

Benjamin Franklin

"Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn at no other.
Benjamin Franklin"

"He that lives upon hope will die fasting."

Benjamin Franklin

"Hear reason, or she'll make you feel her."

Benjamin Franklin

"If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins. "

Benjamin Franklin

"We are more thoroughly an enlightened people, with respect to our political interests, than perhaps any other under heaven. Every man among us reads, and is so easy in his circumstances as to have leisure for conversations of improvement and for acquiring information. "

Benjamin Franklin

"In the affairs of this world, men are saved not by faith, but by the want of it.
Benjamin Franklin"

Benjamin Franklin

While it is very true that many of our founders and the people who influenced them were Christians or at least believed in the probable existence of a "creator", this was not the defining characteristic they held in common. This element, above all others was a firm belief in a rational, knowable world and supreme commitment to reason.

It's hardly an accident that our country was born in the last decades of the period known as "The Enlightenment" which came after "The Renaissance". What was reborn during the these periods was not religion but a growing respect for the natural world, facts and the human ability to think and base decisions on rational judgement.

"Renaissance thinkers sought out learning from ancient texts, typically written in Latin or ancient Greek. Scholars scoured Europe's monastic searching for works of classical antiquity which had fallen into obscurity. In such texts they found a desire to improve and perfect their worldly knowledge; an entirely different sentiment to the transcendental spirituality stressed by medieval Christianity.They did not reject Christianity; quite the contrary, many of the Renaissance's greatest works were devoted to it, and the Church patronized many works of Renaissance art. However, a subtle shift took place in the way that intellectuals approached religion that was reflected in many other areas of cultural life."

The Enlightenment took this revolution further,and aimed at applying reason to all areas of life and politics. I think for example that a large part of the Reformation had to do with the idea that people could read and find truth in the bible on their own rather than listen to what the Pope said it meant.The rapid economic, scientific, medical and political benefits that came from thought became more and more obvious and cherished by society. This confidence in the minds ability to learn from nature and history gave true hope to our founders. Not a blind hope or "faith" that god would provide, but a faith in people's ability to learn and improve the world. This is why they believed in freedom.

Jefferson, for example was probably a Deist.

"Deism is a philosophical belief in the existence of a God on the basis of reason, and observation of the natural world alone. Deists generally reject the notion of supernatural revelation as a basis of truth and religious dogma. These views contrast with the dependence on divine revelation found in many Christian,[1] Islamic and Judaic teachings.

Deists typically reject most supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and tend to assert that God (or "The Supreme Architect") has a plan for the universe which that Architect does not alter either by intervening in the affairs of human life or suspending the natural laws of the universe. What organized religions see as divine revelation and holy books, most deists see as interpretations made by other humans, rather than as authoritative sources.

Deism became prominent in the 17th and 18th centuries during the Age of Enlightenment, especially in the United Kingdom, France and the United States, mostly among those raised as Christians who found they could not believe in either a triune God, the divinity of Jesus, miracles, or the inerrancy of scriptures, but who did believe in one god. Initially it did not form any congregations, but in time deism strongly influenced other religious groups, such as Unitarianism and Universalism, which developed from it. It continues to this day in the form of classical deism and modern deism."