Originally Posted by
mattyj
With regards to God and his place in America it was day one in the Declaration of Independence, and the purpose of leaving Europe by the pilgrims was for reasons of religious freedom among others..God and the creator were mentioned several times. The importance is that rights given by God cannot be taken away by mere men;
“When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”
one of the greatest documents ever written
I agree it was one of the greatest documents but it was nothing more than a justification for a war. The people who were involved in its authorship were (not only Thomas Jefferson) John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson. All of them despised religion and Christianity in particular. One of them stated that this would be a better world if Christianity were not part of it, another declared lighthouses more useful than Churches.
The Australian Constitution (heavily based on the US, as the UK has never had a written and entrenched constitution and is not a federation as the Commonwealth of Australia and the United States ARE) only mentions 'god' in the preamble which is not specifically part of the Constitution but is part of the covering clauses. It is well known amongst those who have studied these things that it is ONLY there as a trade-off to the token religious whacko on the drafting committee, so as to allow the inclusion of s116 which dis-establishes religion.
The Declaration of Independence, whilst a phenomenal document, is irrelevant when it comes to the actual Government of the United States, which is under the Constitution of the United States, which does not mention god, not even once, other than in the First Amendment (by way of using the word 'religion') which declares "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of any religion..." etc.
Our own s116 practically mirrors that language as does much of the Australian Constitution.
It is clear, as the Treaty of Tripoli declared, that the "the Government of the United States is in no way based on the Christian religion..."
Your effort to 'graft' god and Christianity onto Western Society is vacuous. Our democratic principles and our law finds its origins in ancient Rome, Greek Philosophy and other sources. The fact we have a few laws which by coincidence along with the 'ten commandments' (depending on which version of the several on offer you choose from 'God's Big Book of Bad Ideas' - which also insists I subject both my daughters to death by stoning if they are not virgins when they wed) is nothing more than coincidence. The notion that people should not kill each other or steal were both notions evident in every society before Christianity was made up.
It really annoys me that people try to posit this theory that nothing was good before the fictitious Jesus allegedly existed (and I say 'fictitious' because there are numerous 'gods' before him that all supposedly rose on the summer solstice, walked on water, turned water into wine and died and resurrected. I mean do you really think people are that gullible), multiple minuscule details details available of everyone from Roman Prefects to the most minor officials are recorded at that time but the bloke who allegedly walked on water, turned water to wine and cured the sick, nada, zilch.
The US Founding Fathers knew they had to capture the entire population so they included some language to that effect but omitted much which would 'smack of the pulpit' too much.
They started the trend which has resulted in the world being the most peaceful it's been in a hundred years - not through Christianity but through the proliferation of SECULARISM, pioneered by the United States.
So, good effort but no cigar.