- "Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth." - Thomas Jefferson
"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors." –Thomas Jefferson
"It is from the Bible that man has learned cruelty, rapine and murder; for the belief of a cruel God makes a cruel man." – 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
"The Bible: a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind." – Thomas Paine
"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon that the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind; and for my own part, I sincerely detest it, as I detest everything that is cruel." – Thomas Paine
"Some books against Deism fell into my hands ... It happened that they wrought an effect on me quite contrary to what was intended by them; for the arguments of the Deists, which were quoted to be refuted, appeared to me much stronger than the refutations; in short, I soon became a thorough Deist." - Benjamin Franklin
"I wish [Christianity] were more productive of good works ... I mean real good works ... not holy-day keeping, sermon-hearing ... or making long prayers, filled with flatteries and compliments despised by wise men, and much less capable of pleasing the Deity." - Benjamin Franklin
"If we look back into history for the character of the present sects in Christianity, we shall find few that have not in their turns been persecutors, and complainers of persecution. The primitive Christians thought persecution extremely wrong in the Pagans, but practiced it on one another. The first Protestants of the Church of England blamed persecution in the Romish Church, but practiced it upon the Puritans. They found it wrong in Bishops, but fell into the practice themselves both here (England) and in New England." - Benjamin Franklin
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise." - James Madison
"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution." - James Madison
"I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has preserved-- the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of grief has produced!" - 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
"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
"Have you considered that system of holy lies and pious frauds that has raged and triumphed for 1,500 years?" - John Adams
"...Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind." - John Adams
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it." - John Adams
Of course, some Founders were Christians, but to say our society is based on the Bible is an utter absurdity. Most of the Founders were deists and utterly rejected the Bible.
- PoliticsUSA.com -
The never-ending saga of Sarah Palin’s infringement upon our national discourse took a turn for the worse (as if that were possible) last night. Palin appeared on “The O’Rielly Factor”, during which she doubled down on her theocratic vision of America by claiming that the Founders intended for our laws to be based on the bible and the ten commandments. So, in this chapter of fact-checking Sarah Palin, we debunk Palin’s Secessionist Theocracy (aka: Real America) theory.
A few weeks ago Sarah Palin wrongly claimed America was a Christian Nation. Ostensibly poking at the President of the United States, she said, “For any leader to declare that America isn’t a Christian nation and poking an ally like Israel in the eye, it’s mind-boggling for — to see some of our nation’s actions recently.”
[...]
Palin doubled down on American as a theocracy last night on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor”.
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