No matter what you may or may not believe personally, you cannot tell me this is a Christian nation. I'm getting tired of people telling me this is one, like Mr Bush Senior, whom I quoted the other day. This is NOT a Christian nation, nor has it ever been, nor did the "Founding Fathers" ever intend it to be. I will support this with historical fact, and the words of those men themselves.
The pledge of allegiance is often cited as evidence by those who know nothing of it's history. The fact is it wasn't written until 1892, and in actuality it originally went like this:
"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. America"
Note that absence of any God mention. In 1923 they changed "my Flag" to "the Flag of The United States of America." It wasn't until 1954, after much political maneuvering and struggling, that the phrase "under God" was added. Considering they were all long since dead and buried, the founding fathers could not have had anything to do with it, and in it's short fifty years of life, the new pledge has been a great source of uproar. It is still a source of controversy today. Lawsuits have been filed over this issue as recently as 2002, 2004, and again in 2006.
"In God We Trust" didn't appear on coins until the Civil War, in 1864. After that it still didn't appear on paper money until 1957, when anti-communist propaganda had the whole nation convinced that atheism and communism were one and the same thing. If you didn't want to be black-listed, you made damn sure that you supported God, especially if you were a senator faced with a vote on a new motto for printed money.
Beyond that, here are some interesting quotes from the pens of those great men, those Founding Fathers. Historians in general believe that most of them were Deists, which means they believed that God brought about existence, and then sat back to watch, but had no active participation or intervention of any kind. Some of these quotes seem to go further into agnosticism and even outright atheism. If these don't convince you that they had no intention of founding a Christian country, then I don't know what will.
"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 Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan 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."
-- The Treaty of Tripoli, drafted by George Washington in 1796, and signed by John Adams in 1797
"To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, God are immaterial is to say they are nothings, or that there is no God, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and phantasms. I am satisfied and sufficiently occupied with the things which are without tormenting or troubling myself with those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"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, in a letter to his nephew Peter Carr, 1787
"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been it's fruits? More or less, in all places; pride and indolence in the clergy, ignorance and servility in the laity, and in both; superstition, bigotry and persecution."
-- James Madison
"Lighthouses are more useful than churches."
-- Benjamin Franklin
"This would be the best of all possible worlds if there were no religion in it."
-- John Adams
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