Separation of Church and State?

The founding fathers' views on religion and government After the recent flap over the 9th circuit court's pledge decision (ruling the added phrase 'under God,' inserted into the pledge in 1954, to be unconstitutional), I've received a lot of requests for the thoughts of the Founding fathers on the issue of Separation of Church and State. At issue is the belief of many mainstream Christians that separation is a later construct of the courts, and never intended by the founders. Another prominent argument is that the founders only opposed the establishment...

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Deism and Christianity by Bill McCracken

I thought it would be interesting to consider what Deism shares with the Christian religion. This topic could be a bit tricky because Deists have no set of codified beliefs. We consider ourselves to be free-thinkers, so we don’t tell each other what to believe. But, in a nutshell, Deists believe in God as revealed in nature, and then use reason to determine for ourselves our other personal beliefs and practices. This makes me reluctant to speak for all Deists everywhere, so I’ll just share the similarities that I know of.  ...

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Spirit and Reason

by Chuck Clendenen There is nothing intrinsically wrong with religion, but organized religion simply does not work for some people. For many of us, beliefs based on unquestioning faith simply will not stand up to critical analysis… It is only reasonable to conclude that spirituality fulfills a basic human need. In the hierarchy of needs that he developed, Abraham Maslow called such needs higher needs. Religion has fulfilled the spiritual needs of billions of people, but sometimes at great cost. Religion is a powerful force,...

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Reason, Intuition and More

Galileo said, "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason and intellect has intended for us to forego their use." I strongly agree, but I must add that this same God endowed us with imagination, intuition and inspiration. I think we should celebrate all these gifts. In my opinion it is the combination of all these attributes that makes us distinctly human. I believe our ability to reason is our most important human characteristic. Reason and intellect distinguish us from mere animals. David Pyle said,...

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Truth by Robert Green Ingersoll

            I.       Through millions of ages, by countless efforts to satisfy his wants, to gratify his passions, his appetites, man slowly developed his brain, changed two of his feet into hands and forced into the darkness of his brain a few gleams and glimmerings of reason. Hews hindered by ignorance, by fear, by mistakes, and he advanced only as he found the truth the absolute facts. Through countless years he has groped and crawled and struggled and climbed and stumbled toward the light....

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