Was America Ever a Christian Nation?
A Response to Current Events From Americans United
What an
officially 'Christian Nation' looked like in America
Three hundred and seventy-nine years ago today, the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony passed a lawmaking it a crime to deny that the Bible had divine origins. The penalty was stiff: Anyone found in violation would be executed . . . . In recent years, the most extreme voices of Christian Nationalism have called for stripping LGBTQ+ people of their rights, banning books, infusing public schools with fundamentalist Christianity and rolling back women’s rights, among other things – all because they believe freedom and equality run afoul of biblical strictures . . . . This theocratic agenda springs not from the time of the Founding Fathers. It would have been alien to them. Its origins rest with zealous Puritans; it comes from a time of witch trials, imprisonment for blasphemy and forced attendance at religious services . . . . Make no mistake, when Christian Nationalists talk about how our country ought to be a 'Christian nation,' this is what they’re yearning for – a government that acts as enforcer of their theology, a literal merger of church and state."
For the full article and more articles from Americans United for Separation of Church and State see:
What an officially 'Christian Nation' looked like in America.
Science
Good for the mind, good for the community,
good for the nation, and good for the globe.
Good Ideas For Thinking People
Fantasyland -- Kurt Andersen
Intro: Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire. A razor-sharp thinker offers a groundbreaking and influential new understanding of our post-truth world and explains the American instinct to believe in make-believe, from the Pilgrims to P. T. Barnum to Disneyland to zealots and fantasists of every stripe . . . to Donald Trump. In this sweeping, eloquent history of America, one of our sharpest observers, Kurt Andersen, demonstrates that what’s happening in our country today—this strange, post-truth, “fake news” moment we’re all living through—is not something entirely new, but rather the ultimate expression of our national character and path. America was founded by wishful dreamers, magical thinkers, and true believers, by impresarios and their audiences, by hucksters and their suckers. Believe-whatever-you-want fantasy is deeply embedded in our DNA. If you want to understand the politics and culture of twenty-first-century America, if you want to know how the lines between reality and illusion have become dangerously blurred, you must read this book. Link:
Author site
The History of America's Irrationality
Video by Center for Inquiry. Intro:
How can we make sense of America’s current “post-factual,” “post-truth,” “fake news” moment? By looking to America’s past. All the way back. To the wishful dreams and make-believe fears of the country’s first settlers, the madness of the Salem witch trials, the fantasies of Hollywood, the anything-goes 1960s, the gatekeeper-free internet, the profusion of reality TV….all the way up to and most especially including President Donald Trump. In this fascinating and lively talk, Kurt Andersen brings to life the deep research behind and profound implications of his groundbreaking, critically acclaimed and bestselling latest work. Connecting the dots in a fresh way to define America’s character—from the religious fanatics and New Age charlatans to talk-radio rabble-rousers and online conspiracy theorists—Andersen explains our national susceptibility to fantasy and how our journey has brought us to where we are today. Link: Video
Religions Are All Alike
"Religions are all alike -- founded upon fables and mythologies."
Thomas Jefferson
--------------------------------
"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity."
John Adams
-------------------------------
"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."
Benjamin Franklin
------------------------------
"I always find it very curious that when one is confronted with what one does not like, approve, or understand, one suddenly has 'sincere religious beliefs.'"
Jim Green
----------------------------
"God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance that's getting smaller and smaller and smaller as time moves on."
Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Above Video: Center for Inquiry / How can we make sense of America’s current “post-factual,” “post-truth,” “fake news” moment? By looking to America’s past. All the way back. To the wishful dreams and make-believe fears of the country’s first settlers, the madness of the Salem witch trials, the fantasies of Hollywood, the anything-goes 1960s, the gatekeeper-free internet, the profusion of reality TV….all the way up to and most especially including President Donald Trump. In this fascinating and lively talk, Kurt Andersen brings to life the deep research behind and profound implications of his groundbreaking, critically acclaimed and bestselling latest work.
