(February 2, 2016 at 6:20 pm)Drich Wrote: just because their wasn't a test of religion, did not forbad the practice of it in government buildings or held by governmental officials. (or even presidents) for that matter. (watch the video 8 mins long)That's not the point. The point is, if the founding fathers had wanted the country to be governed in some religious manner, they would have explicitly included a religious test for office, or at least they would have not mentioned it at all. Instead, they explicitly said that there will not be a religious test...that's important!
(I've watched the video, I will respond to it lower down).
Quote:Which simply means we will never have "the church of the united states as their was/is a church of england.Agreed, but again, if the founding fathers wanted the country to be governed in some religious manner, why would they not make that religion the official religion of the USA? Why would they instead go the complete opposite route and declare that Congress could never do that?
Quote:This little bit here.. Also keeps people from telling government officials they can not exercise their religion even in an official capacity.No argument here. Elected officials are free to practice their religion, even base their decisions off of their religious faith, but they cannot force religion onto people, nor can they create laws which favor one religion over another.
Quote:If that were even remotly true then why is their so much history that shows religion specifically a generic form of Christianity being up held through out our nations history right up to the last 30 or 40 years?That's an easy question to answer: because for that time, Christianity was the major religion and the vast majority of the population were Christians. What happened in the last 30 / 40 years is that people became less religious, or converted to other religions, and then started to point out that some aspects of government were in violation of the Constitution (for instance, mandatory school prayer).
Again watch the video.
You see to have the cause and effect backwards. The founding fathers didn't set up a Christian government which then later became less Christian. The founding fathers set up a secular government, in an overwhelmingly Christian country, and which remained overwhelmingly Christian until a few decades ago.
Now, onto the video. I watched it, then I did some searching.
1) The claim that in 1782 the Congress printed the 1st English Bible is factually inaccurate at best.
In fact, Robert Aitken printed the 1st English Bible. He did this before even approaching Congress. In fact, Congress were looking to import Bibles from Holland at the time (due to a shortage of Bibles in the US). Aitken then approached Congress and asked them to review his version of the Bible and approve it's production. They did so, but here's the important part: they never paid for it, nor did they actually print it. Aitken did all the work, and just got Congress to approve the locally produced Bible as an alternative to importing them from overseas.
Moreover, the Bible was never intended by Congress to be used in schools. That was Aitken's idea, which he told to Congress in one of his letters, however there is no statement from Congress that affirms this was their intention.
Sources: http://www.patheos.com/blogs/warrenthroc...f-schools/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Aitken_(publisher)
2) The 1830 paintings cannot be said to be the founding fathers' idea, given that by 1830 most of the founding fathers were dead. According to Wikipedia, the last founding father to die was Madison in 1836.
3) The use of the Capitol building as a church is *mostly* true, however it's use is exaggerated in the video. The Capitol building did not literally "become a church" on Sundays. It was still the US Capitol building, still used for government work, etc. The Capitol building was never a church in any official respect.
Besides, the religious services were acceptable to Jefferson "because they were nondiscriminatory and voluntary", not because he wanted the US to have an official religion.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Sta...igious_use
