United States of America

I am a United States citizen and not being born here even though I see the harm in such believes as patriotism, national pride, borders and flags still feel privileged to have this amazing opportunity to live in such country.

It is yet amazing to me when I read about the forefathers of this country, but yet can’t help to see in some directions this great nation is going backwards in progress.

One of the most important accomplishments of United States was the separation of church and state. The phrase “wall of separation between church and state," comes from Thomas Jefferson's letter to the Danbury Baptist Association in 1802. "Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between Church and State."

There are many quotes from the forefathers to support the idea of many of them being nonbelievers and according to that they tried to establish this nations laws to protect everyone’s right to believe or not in a personal god and practice their religion in the boundary of law.

These are some of the quotes from the forefathers.

Thomas Jefferson: “I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology.”

Thomas Jefferson: “We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.”

         

Thomas Jefferson: “The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus…will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”

Thomas Jefferson: “Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined, and imprisoned, yet we have not advanced one inch toward uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half of the world fools and the other half hypocrites.”

Benjamin Franklin: “The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason: The Morning Daylight appears plainer when you put out your Candle.”

Benjamin Franklin: "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."

Benjamin Franklin: "The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason."

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

James Madison: "The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries."

James Madison: "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."

Abraham Lincoln: "The Bible is not my book, nor Christianity my profession."

John Adams: "The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.  Nowhere in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths, Doctrines, and whole cartloads of other foolish trumpery that we find in Christianity."

John Adams: “The question before the human race is, whether the God of Nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?"

John Adams: "Can a free government possibly exist with the Roman Catholic religion?"

John Adams: "God is an essence that we know nothing of.  Until this awful blasphemy is got rid of, there will never be any liberal science in the world."

John Adams: "This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there  were no religion in it."

Thomas Paine: "The New Testament, they tell us, is founded upon the prophecies of the Old; if so, it must follow the fate of its foundation.''

Thomas Paine: "Of all the tyrannies that affect mankind,  tyranny in religion is the worst."

Thomas Paine: "Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half of the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God.  It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind.”

Thomas Paine: "What is it the New Testament teaches us?  To believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married; and the belief of this debauchery is called faith."

Thomas Paine: "Take away from Genesis the belief that Moses was the author, on which only the strange belief that it is the word of God has stood, and there remains nothing of Genesis but an anonymous book of stories, fables, and traditionary or invented absurdities, or of downright lies."

George Washington: "Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause.  Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by the difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be depreciated.  I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."

The direction this nation is going towards deeply concerns me and bellow are few examples of it.

Sixty nine percent of Americans say that liberals have gone too far in keeping religion out of schools and government.

Only sixty two percent in research poll believes that scientists are generally in agreement about evolution, but fewer believe there is strong scientific evidence in support of evolution. A 2004 Gallup poll registered thirty five percent saying Darwin's theory of evolution has been "well-supported by evidence."

Forty one Percent of Americans Believe Jesus will return by 2050

In thirty four states men who father through rape are able to assert the same custody and visitation rights to their children as other fathers can.

In six states nonbelievers are ban from holding public office.

There are about twenty percent nonbelievers in United States and yet we had no nonbeliever president. According to the odds this is very improbable. The other conclusion would be the candidate has to lie about their belief in order to get elected, and it is sad to know one of the criteria of the candidates has to be being a good liar.

The only solution I can find in order to change the future is to get involved with it. Future is the influence of individuals, and we are all participating in it. As an individual I just hope to be able to leave a bright positive mark in it for the benefit of my future fellow human beings.