The United States Was Not Founded on Christianity

Today I logged onto Facebook to find my feed quite concerned with the nature of our country’s origins. Now, I don’t consider myself an especially patriotic person, but I do love this country and I’m thankful I was born here (though The Netherlands makes a close second). I’d like to start out with a very popular quote when it comes to this matter as well as a passage from the Constitution itself:

“The government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”—John Adams

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

I’m going to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and assume you know that the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights grants freedom of religion. Freedom of religion also encompasses freedom of non-religion, the choice to not belong to an organized belief society and/or to not believe in a god, God, or gods. Pretty much, you have your own say in what you believe and no one else gets to tell you otherwise. Somehow, this is where we lost a loud majority of Christians. 

And before anyone starts screaming, “It isn’t a majority! They make us look bad!” I’m sorry, that argument has failed. Only a majority could get as much power as they have between their politicians and richer-than-the-Queen Mega Churches, and because there are many who won’t speak out and just follow the path laid out for them without questioning, without really asking “Why?” and “What for?” I do want to stop and say I realize not all Christians are like this. I am friend to many lovely people who believe in God, but they are very different from the people I speak against in this post. They do not judge others, they embrace them for their differences, and they are more like “Followers of Christ” than modern day “Christians.” If they lead their brethren, this would not be an issue. 

Our Founding Fathers came from a place where they felt religious persecution for their brand of Christianity. I believe they were mostly thinking of themselves when they wrote it into law that no religion should rise above another in this country, because they did not want to see themselves persecuted again. But they knew who they would be protecting, they were men of vision after all. In fact, there isn’t a single mention of God through the entirety of the Constitution.

In his HuffPost article “Founding Fathers: We are Not a Christian Nation,” Jeff Schweitzer hits the nail on the issue’s head: 

“The facts of our history are easy enough to verify. Anybody who ignorantly insists that our nation is founded on Christian ideals need only look at the four most important documents from our early history -- the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation, the Federalist Papers and the Constitution -- to disprove that ridiculous religious bias. All four documents unambiguously prove our secular origins.”

In fact, the entire article is a great read on this subject and I’ll leave you with it to end this post. Be forewarned that he is a bit combative, but this is something that has gone from a nuisance to downright irritating over the past few years and it needs to stop, so his tone should be at least somewhat forgiven. 

Founding Fathers: We Are Not a Christian Nation

- C.A. Swaim

Creationism Does Not Deserve Equal Time In Science

Not too long ago I thought it would be fair if evolution and creationism were taught side by side, so that "everyone would hear both sides." My high school freshmen biology teacher made this argument as well, but now I believe he only did so because of his audience. He was to be the first person to teach evolution in that school system, at least in awhile. It was also his first year teaching, and he didn't want political backlash from Bible Belt parents to ruin his career right from the start. It was only a few short years later that he dropped this pretense. He established himself as invaluable to the school system (becoming the AP biology teacher and turning out more 5 and 4s on the exam than any in the state) and began to speak his mind. This is when I realized that I only agreed with teaching creationism out of a compromise, because I just wanted people to shut up about it, and I thought evolution was so important to learn that it had to get in the classrooms somehow. I started to look critically at the idea of creationism, and now I realize that it can only be taught in theology (and I don't know many high schools around here that have a theology course). Because you see, creationism is not science. It cannot even be called a theory, it does not have any peer-reviewed, critical evidence backing it up (because that is what a theory is, my friends). Believe it if you want, but it is high time for it to only be taught in church classrooms, not the public one.

the·o·ry

  [thee-uh-ree, theer-ee] 

noun, plural the·o·ries.

1.

a coherent group of tested general propositions, commonly regarded as correct, that can be used asprinciples of explanation and prediction for a class of phenomena: Einstein's theory of relativity.Synonyms: principle, law, doctrine.

2.

a proposed explanation whose status is still conjectural and subject to experimentation, in contrastto well-established propositions that are regarded as reporting matters of actual fact. Synonyms:idea, notion hypothesis, postulate. Antonyms: practice, verification, corroboration, substantiation.

3.

Mathematics . a body of principles, theorems, or the like, belonging to one subject: number theory.

4.

the branch of a science or art that deals with its principles or methods, as distinguished from itspractice: music theory.

5.

a particular conception or view of something to be done or of the method of doing it; a system ofrules or principles: conflicting theories of how children best learn to read.

This article points out many of the flaws not just with the documentary "Evolution's Achilles' Heels" but with the entire idea of creationism as a science. In science, peer review is a must. If work is not critically torn apart, retested, and retested again then it is not considered creditable. Many "scientists" of creationism do not allow any skepticism on the subject, an example being the disabling of comments on the trailer. One of the most common examples I know of, "If you question it you're questioning God, and that's bad." Also, the claim that evolution cannot be seen or tested is unfounded. We have seen evolution in insects, whose populations are much larger and faster growing than our own, therefore their evolution occurs at a faster rate, one we can observe. Also microorganisms, and there are currently fish in the process of growing legs. They seem to forget that creationism is the one that cannot be tested. To deny evolution at this point, when there is an abundance of evidence, is equivalent to denying gravity or denying oxygen.

Thankfully, some places are finally taking that brave step and saying "No!" to creationists.

- C.A. Swaim