"This letter will, to you, be as one from the dead. The writer will be in the grave before you can weigh its counsels. Your affectionate and excellent father has requested that I would address to you something which might possibly have a favorable influence on the course of life you have to run; and I too, as a namesake, feel an interest in that course. Few words will be necessary, with good dispositions on your part. Adore God.Reverence and cherish your parents. Love your neighbor as yourself, and your country more than yourself. Be just. Be true. Murmur not at the ways of Providence. So shall the life into which you have entered be the portal to one of eternal and ineffable bliss. And if to the dead it is permitted to care for the things of this world, every action of your life will be under my regard. Farewell."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Thomas Jefferson Smith, 21 February 1825)
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But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
Among the sayings and discourses imputed to him [Jesus] 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.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Short, April 13, 1820
And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.
-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823
Its a quote off. Old Members Only factory. 10 minutes.
"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence."
-- Joseph Story (Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833)
I'm just guessing, but i think the Christian religions would be included..............
"The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship, nor shall any national religion be established, nor shall the full and equal rights of conscience be in any manner, or on any pretext infringed. "
-- James Madison (proposed amendment to the Constitution, given in a speech in the House of Representatives, 1789)
oh, so now you're in favor of removing religion from the public sphere? otherwise, why would you have used that madison quote?
I don't think you read the quote. There's nothing in there that says we should remove religion from the public sphere.
I just read it again, and the word sphere doesn't even appear.
You see we are looking at this from different angles just like the other post says.
I see the civil rights of the Boy Scouts being infringed upon because of their religion, you see a group that shouldn't be allowed to use the public park because they believe homosexuality is a sin.
It's all a matter of perspective.
I see the civil rights of the unborn child being abridged by someone stabbing them in the head during child birth. I don't know what you see but i hope you see it my way.
the boy scouts aren't having any rights violated.
no private organization has the inherent right to use public resources (such as facilities for meetings).
an unborn child is not a "person" in the eyes of the law, so they have no rights, just as the mentally retarded do not have the same rights as "full persons."
The civil rights of none, shall be abridged on account of religious belief or worship...
the only way to violate civil rights relating to religious belief is bring god and religion into the public sphere, as this quote points out (the prohibition on establishing a nat'l religion).
the quote reinforces the idea that only by taking religion out of the public sphere can you respect EVERYONE'S rights.
Like i said, we look at things from different perspectives.
No private organization has the inherent right to use public resources but to stop them from using said resources SOLEY because they believe homosexuality is a sin is a violation of their civil rights relating to religion.
You say the quote reinforces the idea of taking religion out of the public sphere but Hamilton was a smart guy so i believe that if that's how he felt, that's what he would have written.
Or do you think he had trouble articulating his thoughts?
I don't.
Either way, i'm out of here until tuesday so enjoy your weekend.
i think that's madison, but in any case, he doesn't have to say "public sphere"--he gives the freakin' definition of a godless public sphere right in the quote!!!
and you can't have a right infringed upon if you don't have it in the first place!
my points stand.
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