Reply #10: My response (for future reference)

[T Roosevelt]

DID YOU KNOW?
That in addition to Moses, Confucius and Solon are also at the center, together representing three great ancient civilizations. The sculptor, Herman A. MacNeil, explained, "Law as an element of civilization was normally and naturally derived or inherited in this country from former civilizations. The 'Eastern Pediment' of the Supreme Court Building suggests therefore the treatment of such fundamental laws and precepts as are derived from the East." Note also that neither Confucius nor Solon are facing Moses, demonstrating their equivalent stature. Also of interest is that the main entrance is the West entrance. Oh, and the Ten Commandments are blank.

DID YOU KNOW?
The two huge oak doors have symbolic representations of something presumed to be the Ten Commandments, since all that is engraved on them are Roman numerals I-V and VI-X. Oops.

DID YOU KNOW?
According to Adolph Weinman, the designer of the frieze above the judges, the tablet visible between the two central male figures, engraved with the Roman numerals I through X, represents not the Ten Commandments but the first ten amendments to the U.S. Constitution, collectively known as the Bill of Rights. Hmmm...

DID YOU KNOW?
The statement attributed to James Madison, known as "The Father of Our Constitution", appears nowhere in his writings or recorded utterances, and is completely contradictory to his character as a strong proponent of the separation of church and state. Ummm...

DID YOU KNOW?
The statement attributed to Patrick Henry appears nowhere in his writings or recorded utterances. Well...

DID YOU KNOW?
James Madison, known as "The Father of Our Constitution", was strongly opposed to this prayer practice at its inception.

DID YOU KNOW?
The Founding Fathers, including George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, and Ethan Allen, along with many other early presidents and patriots, were generally Deists or Unitarians, believing in some form of impersonal Providence but rejecting the divinity of Jesus and the absurdities of the Old and New testaments. Most were nominally members of one of their local traditional churches, since that was the "thing to do." And most were men who could take their religion or leave it alone.

Regardless, the fact that they were or weren't Christians is irrelevant in regards to the government they left us, one in which the separation of church and state was established in the Constitution.

And let us never forget that in 1797 John Adams signed the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, which states in Article XI:

As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

DID YOU KNOW?
That John Jay never publicly proferred his opinion (this quote was taken from a private letter), and therefore his personal belief is irrelevant to the role of Christianity in American democracy.



America was founded in part by people fleeing religious persecution in their own countries. Many of the leaders of the American revolution were in fact deists. A deist believes that God is discovered through reason; their faith is not revealed by a God or artificially created by man.

Underlying these positions is the originiation of our system of laws. The entire social structure and laws of this country are built not on a Christian foundation; in developing the Constitution, our "law of the land," our Founding Fathers turned to the legal system they knew and admired - the Magna Carta and common law which derived from it. In turn English common law was viewed either as rising from natural law or from custom.

These natural laws and customs can in turn be traced not to any religious document, but to the Code of Hammurabi. Hammurabi was the sixth ruler of the First Dynasty of Babylon, and ruled from 1792-1750 B.C. Hammurabi's code is considered by scholars to be the precursor in important respects to Jewish or Hebrew law. Indeed, the Ten Commandments echo some of the rules that appear in Hammurabi's Code.

These positions are in turn established in both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, the two documents that are the framework for our government. The Declaration to "the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God," and that "Men...are endowed by their Creator." The Constitution makes no mention whatsoever of God or Creator or even god. Indeed, the oath of office includes no reference to God or the Bible.

Our country is currently experiencing a cultural and religious division caused in part because a small fraction of people truly believe that which has so strongly been struck down time and time again. The sooner they come to accept that because the Founding Fathers adamantly disapproved of theocracy as a form of government, they created an intentionally secular nation, the sooner this country can begin to heal.