We are NOT a Christian Nation!!!

Some people will insist that the founding fathers were Christian, therefor the constitution is a Christian document.

This makes no sense to me, as what does one's belief have to do with the documents they write? It would be like an atheist writing a children's book, and even though the book is written for children to enjoy, and nothing else, it is none-the-less an atheist book because it was written by an atheist.

Sorry, but this makes no sense to me.

But as it turns out anyways is that at least several of the founding fathers were not even Christian in the first place.

The key founding fathers are Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton.

Several of the these peoeple considered themselves to be deists or held beliefs very similar to that of deists.

American Founding Fathers who were especially noted for being influenced by deism include Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Cornelius Harnett, Gouverneur Morris, and Hugh Williamson.

Other notable Founding Fathers may have been more directly deist. These include James Madison, John Adams, possibly Alexander Hamilton, Ethan Allen and Thomas Paine (who published The Age of Reason, a treatise that helped to popularize deism throughout America and Europe). Elihu Palmer (1764-1806) wrote the "Bible" of American deism in his Principles of Nature (1801) and attempted to organize deism by forming the "Deistical Society of New York.

Then there's the fact that god is not mentioned in the constitution. Not only that, but it was stressed that the government would not have any influence on the people's religious beliefs, as they wanted freedom of religion. So, if we are suppose to be a Christian nation, with the constitution enforcing such religion, then how can there also be such a significance on freedom of religion?

I suppose someone grasping at straws to validate their Christian view could bring up the fact that the pledge of Allegiance mentions "under god".

However, this is ludicrous as the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a LONG time after the constitution was formed. Not only that, but the original Pledge of Allegiance had no mention of god, and was:
"I Pledge Allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

The "Under God" phrase was not officially incorporated into the Pledge of Allegiance until 1954.

I suppose a desperate person could then state that our currency has "In God We Trust", thus making us a Christian nation.

However, "In God We Trust" first appeared on a United States coin in 1864 during strong Christian sentiment emerging during the Civil War, then became the official U.S. national motto after the passage of an Act of Congress in 1956.

So there you once again have some religious zealots dreaming up the phrase and throwing it onto our currency many, many years after the forming of our nation.

Why is it so important for some Christians to say that we are a Christian nation in the first place? Are they that insecure in their beliefs that they need to know that the entire nation is on their side?

What's far more important than being a Christian nation is being a nation of no particular religion! Isn't this truly in line with what our founding fathers had in mind? Did they not stress the importance of complete freedom, be it freedom of speech, a fair trial, or freedom of religion? To say we are a Christian nation is to totally negate the original concept of what our founding fathers had in mind.

So, enough with this Christian nation crap! We are a nation formed to have the freedom of religion, whatever that religion may be, or to even be an atheist!

Moon conspiracy idiots

Might as well touch upon these lunatics (no pun intended) while I'm on the conspiracy trend here.

There are actually people out there that truly believe that we never went to the moon! No sense hashing through all of their so called "evidence" as this can all be located on the WEB with a Google search. Let me just say though that every bit of their "proof" has been put to the test and shown to be, if anything, proof that we DID go to the moon.

Now, don't get me wrong, as I think it's good that people are willing to question things, and not take everything at face value. But the moon conspiracy people are holding onto their beliefs regardless of all the data that goes against their belief.

It's as if they think that the United States one day awoke and then launched a rocket to the moon with 3 astronauts, and succeeded over night. Well, not quite guys! It took us in the neighborhood of 10 years to develop the technology to get there! Being 52 years old myself, and growing up in the era of the space race, I can attest to this fact.

Since the Russians put the first satellite, Sputnik, into space back in 1957, the space race began. The United States then launched its first satellite in 1958. The first human in space was by the Russians in 1961, soon followed by Alan Shepard of the United States. From that time on, the United States was feverishly making strides to get into space, and get to the moon. Many space craft were launched, and were improved upon from the old Mercury/Gemini days on up to the Saturn V. Finally, nine years after the first American in space, we landed on the moon.

So, this is not something that occurred over night. It took many years of development, and several lives (Many Russian cosmonauts, and 3 Americans that were killed during an Apollo 1 test).

Some will think that we did not have enough technology back in 1969 to accomplish such a feat. However, we are really talking basic telemetry here, and even the archaic computers back then were capable of this.

Some will then say that we never went to the moon back then because we are not going there now. That's ridiculous, and a look back into history will plainly show why we stopped going, and a look into our present mindset will show why we are not going now.

Going to the moon proved to be VERY expensive, but we were determined to beat the Russians to the moon, and fulfill president Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon by the end of the decade (1960's). Once that was achieved, we went back a few more times, but it became apparent that once the drive to get there was gone, and the financial obligation became too much, we ended all trips to the moon. Then the space shuttle was developed to replace the expensive, aging Saturn V rocket, and our focus became one of using space travel for scientific gains.

So, it's not for lack of technology that we don't go to the moon now, as much as it's just not financially feasible.

Certainly is an interesting notion that we perhaps never went to the moon, but I firmly believe that we did, and so far there is NO evidence pointing to the contrary!