Religious Conviction

@timetravel I think if you take a look at historical political documents and speeches, you will see that our founding fathers did not only believe in God, but our laws are very much based on Biblical principles. I shutter to think what would happen if we had an atheist as President. We are in a big enough mess with the "so called Christians" we have running things now. The problem is the lack of real, true, God-fearing Christians in our government and society too, for that matter.

@timetravel I still disagree with you. There is a difference between belief in God and "religion". There are too many similarities in the Biblical law and man's law to deny the influence of the Bible. I would not like to have anyone without morals making decisions that affect the lives of my loved ones.

Lack of God fearing Christians? I shudder to think of one of them running the country! And yes, I have studied the historical documents and speeches and history of the founding fathers. The government didn't even recognize Christmas as a holiday until 1870 - it was just another workday for Congress until then. Did you know the first settlers here - the Puritans, did NOT celebrate any religious holidays, including Christmas or Easter? It was against the law, forbidden in Massachusetts. In the Puritan mind it was associated with drunken, lewd behavior. Thomas Jefferson himself said it was not the place of the President to involve himself in religion. The clauses in the first amendment meant a wall of separation between church and state. The enlightenment in Europe developed in opposition to reliance on Biblical law, and our history was ignited by the enlightenment. Nowhere in the Constitution does it say we are a Christian Nation. Jesus,Christianity,Bible, God and Creator are not once mentioned in the Constitution. Religion is mentioned only in exclusionary terms. The Declaration of Independence brought us away from Kings who ruled by the power of God. Government is derived from those governed. Deist terms, such as "Nature's God" are used. The Declaration is also not a governing document. In the treaty of Tripoli, article 11 specifically states the U.S. of A. is NOT Founded on the Christian Religion. Many of the founding fathers were deists, who believe in a Creator, or God, if you will - even believed Jesus existed - but did not believe in His divinity. Congress changed Jefferson's words in the Declaration of Independence. Our Founding FAthers, again, were people of the Enlightenment. Even fifty years after the U.S. was established,, clergy were complaining that no President had been a Christian. Of the seven KEY founding fathers, only John Jay could be described as an orthodox Christian, one who also wanted to ban all Catholics from holding office. The reason I stated I would prefer an atheist is to get rid of Christianity entering politics. I am tired of everyone saying God handpicked them to be president.

I figured I get heat on this before I started writing it but thanks. Been here b4 and now back 4 a while, that's why my numbers are so low. Do miss being able to copy and paste though.

When was god taken out of government and the schools? To me god was removed from government with the enactment of the Constitution. As far back as the Presidency of Andrew Jackson we can find examples of the government acting to keep religion out of the political process. President Jackson vetoed a bill calling for a national prayer day on the grounds that it violated the Constitution.

@chiang The ten commandments are not allowed to be displayed on government property and prayer was taken out of schools a long time ago.

Why should the Ten Commandments be displayed on a government building? They are representative of the Jewish religion and are not a part of the governing process. Prayer should never been in the schools to begin with.