(September 27, 2010 at 5:48 pm)Diamond Wrote: What I would like is a little help creating my own little list of these kind of people who were atheists, irreligious, freethinkers, etc. because I know for a fact that he's exaggerating.
Additionally, if you wish to tell me of any not-so-great, or infamous leaders who did believe in a higher power, I would love to know.
The third one, if you must know, is the Indians(Native Americans), but in addition it says "believed in the great white spirit". However, if you would like to give any further information regarding this, no one's stopping you.
Wait, your Christian grandfather gave the Native Americans as an example of people who believe in God? He might as well have mentioned Hinduism.
Here's some off the top of my head:
Charles Darwin - former orthodox Christian turned agnostic.
Thomas Jefferson - Deist
Abraham Lincoln - Possible Deist, to my knowledge never pronounced faith in Christ.
Ben Franklin - Believed in God, but rejected Christianity, notions of heaven and hell, etc.
Thomas Paine - Deist. Would probably be an atheist if he had read Darwin.
George Washington - Probably a deist who talked a lot about the divine hand or will, but scantily, if ever about Christianity.
JFK - Catholic.
FDR - Episcopalian
Obama - Christian, but not stupidly so.
Bush 1 and 2 - Stupidly so.
In short, most past and present leaders in this country are going to admit a higher power in some form or another because they simply can't get elected if they don't at least pretend to give lip service to a deity. Now, I can name all kinds of modern and past thinkers who were atheists or agnostics but given your grandfathers scant three examples here, I doubt he would have heard of any of them.
Our Daily Train blog at jeremystyron.com
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We have lingered in the chambers of the sea | By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown | Till human voices wake us, and we drown. — T.S. Eliot
"... man always has to decide for himself in the darkness, that he must want beyond what he knows. ..." — Simone de Beauvoir
"As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again." — Albert Camus, "The Stranger"
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We have lingered in the chambers of the sea | By sea-girls wreathed with seaweed red and brown | Till human voices wake us, and we drown. — T.S. Eliot
"... man always has to decide for himself in the darkness, that he must want beyond what he knows. ..." — Simone de Beauvoir
"As if that blind rage had washed me clean, rid me of hope; for the first time, in that night alive with signs and stars, I opened myself to the gentle indifference of the world. Finding it so much like myself—so like a brother, really—I felt that I had been happy and that I was happy again." — Albert Camus, "The Stranger"
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