On May 8, 9:27 am, Antares 531 <gordonlrDEL...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> On Thu, 8 May 2008 08:15:59 -0700 (PDT), shape29...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
wrote:
>
> >Read it, Pass this on. The founders of freedom in the United States
> >tried to eliminate the problem but unfortunately the problem is an
> >incurable cancer.
> >Freedom From Religion
>
> The anthropoid apes have complete freedom from religion. Are they
> faring any better than we homo sapiens sapiens? I don't think I would
> want to trade places with them.
Human arrogance, the greatest error in religion.
> If humans fare so much better in a nation without religion, why have
> none of those non-religion based governments been successful?
Non-religion based governments? Might you be talking about communism?
Communism is merely another intolerant religion. Freedom from religion
is an individual endeavor. It can only be achieved one person at a
time. It isn't a movement or a cult or a religion. It is something
that you can achieve immediately, immediate freedom of your thoughts.
The cure for the hell of these times may dwell somewhere in that
muddled sewage of a mind. It is called "thinking for yourself". It is
individuality. Don't be a soldier for hate disguised as truth.
> > "What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments
> > had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect
> > a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on
> > many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of
> > political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians
> > of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert
> > the public liberty may have found an established clergy
> >convenient
> > auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and
> >perpetuate
> > it, needs them not."
>
> > - James Madison
> > "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
>
> > "Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments,
> > instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have
> > had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has
> > the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has
> > been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and
> >indolence
> > in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both,
> > superstition, bigotry and persecution."
>
> > - James Madison
> > "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785
>
> > "As I understand the Christian religion, it was, and is, a
> > revelation. But how has it happened that millions of fables,
> > tales, legends, have been blended with both Jewish and Christian
> > revelation that have made them the most bloody religion that
> > ever existed?"
>
> > - John Adams
> > letter to F.A. Van der Kamp, Dec. 27,
> >1816
>
> > "I almost shudder at the thought of alluding to the most fatal
> > example of the abuses of grief which the history of mankind has
> > preserved--the Cross. Consider what calamities that engine of
> > grief has produced!"
>
> > - John Adams
> > letter to Thomas Jefferson
>
> > "What havoc has been made of books through every century of
> > the Christian era? Where are fifty gospels, condemned as
> >spurious
> > by the bull of Pope Gelasius? Where are the forty wagon-loads of
> > Hebrew manuscripts burned in France, by order of another pope,
> > because suspected of heresy? Remember the 'index expurgatorius',
> > the inquisition, the stake, the axe, the halter and the
> > guillotine."
>
> > - John Adams
> > letter to John Taylor
>
> > "The priesthood have, in all ancient nations, nearly
> >monopolized
> > learning. And ever since the Reformation, when or where has
> >existed
> > a Protestant or dissenting sect who would tolerate A FREE
> >INQUIRY?
> > The blackest billingsgate, the most ungentlemanly insolence,
> > the most yahooish brutality, is patiently endured, countenanced,
> > propagated, and applauded. But touch a solemn truth in collision
> > with a dogma of a sect, though capable of the clearest proof, and
> > you will find you have disturbed a nest, and the hornets will
> >swarm
> > about your eyes and hand, and fly into your face and eyes."
>
> > - John Adams
> > letter to John Taylor
>
> > "In every country and every age, the priest has been hostile
> > to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot ... they
> > have perverted the purest religion ever preached to man into
> > mystery and jargon, unintelligible to all mankind, and therefore
> > the safer engine for their purpose."
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > to Horatio Spafford, March 17, 1814
>
> > "Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women
> > and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been
> > burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an
> > inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion?
> > To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.
> > To support roguery and error all over the earth."
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > from "Notes on Virginia"
>
> > "Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which
> > weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her
> > seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion.
> > Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if
> > there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than
> > that of blindfolded fear.
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > letter to Peter Carr, Aug. 10, 1787
>
> > "It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend
> >they
> > believe in the Platonic mysticisms that three are one, and one
> > is three; and yet that the one is not three, and the three are
> >not
> > one. But this constitutes the craft, the power and the profit of
> > the priests."
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > to John Adams, 1803
>
> > "But a short time elapsed after the death of the great
> >reformer
> > of the Jewish religion, before his principles were departed from
> >by
> > those who professed to be his special servants, and perverted
> >into
> > an engine for enslaving mankind, and aggrandizing their
> >oppressors
> > in Church and State."
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > to S. Kercheval, 1810
>
> > "History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden
> > people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the
> > lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as
> > religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own
> > purpose."
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > to Baron von Humboldt, 1813
>
> > "On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral
> > principles, all mankind, from the beginning of the world to
> > this day, have been quarreling, fighting, burning and torturing
> > one another, for abstractions unintelligible to themselves and
> > to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of the
> > human mind."
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > to Carey, 1816
>
> > "But the greatest of all reformers of the depraved religion
> > of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is
> > really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily
> > distinguished by its lustre from the dross of his biographers,
> > and as separable from that as the diamond from the dunghill,
> > we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality
> > which has ever fallen from the lips of man. The establishment
> > of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent
> > morality, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture,
> > which has resulted fro artificial systems, invented by
> > ultra-Christian sects (The immaculate conception of Jesus,
> > his deification, the creation of the world by him, his
> > miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his
> > corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin,
> > atonement, regeneration, election, orders of the Hierarchy, etc.)
> > is a most desirable object."
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > to W. Short, Oct. 31, 1819
>
> > "It is not to be understood that I am with him (Jesus Christ)
> > in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of
> > Spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentence toward
> > forgiveness of sin; I require a counterpoise of good works to
> > redeem it.
> > Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him by his
> > biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct
> > morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again,
> > of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth,
> > charlatanism and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that
> > such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being.
> > I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore him to
> > the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, the
> > roguery of others of his disciples. Of this band of dupes
> > and imposters, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and the first
> > corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus."
>
> > - Thomas Jefferson
> > to W. Short, 1820
>
> > "The office of reformer of the superstitions of a nation,
> > is ever more dangerous. Jesus had to work on the perilous
> > confines of reason and religion; and a step to the right or
> > left might place him within the grasp of the priests of the
> > superstition, a bloodthirsty race, as cruel and remorseless
> > as the being whom they represented as the family God of Abraham,
> > of Isaac and of Jacob, and the local God of Israel. That Jesus
> > did not mean to impose himself on mankind as the son of God,
> > physically speaking, I have been convinced by the writings of
> > men more learned than myself in that lore."
>
> ...
>
> read more =BB
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