Pandering to the original Kool Aid Drinkers: a Prime Time Exercise in Iron Age Mythology

I didn’t watch the values forum last night despite all the hype.  I had a lot of reasons for this.  One, I really get tired of watching Obama continually invent himself and his life story. Two, I really didn’t want to watch McCain in high pander mode speaking to the craziest part of the Republican base.   Three,  I have to say that I avoid this country’s original koolaid drinker’s–the hyper religious–because I have a low threshold for ignorance and intolerance.  If you have issues with atheists, you better stop reading now, because I’m going into full attack mode on what continues to be used by the powerful to control the weak:  religion.

Why don’t we have big media events surrounding the candidates discussing their commitment to science and reasoned thought?  We could have conversations on constitutional issues or approaches to foreign relations and trade.  Instead, we get conversations on personal screw ups and what role ignorance plays in your life.  Since Sunday morning new shows are part of weekly ritual, I’m currently enduring clips and analysis about Obama’s high school drug use (yawn) and McCain’s first marriage (bigger yawn). Obama was once again his light weight best. (This seemed to me a repeat of an Oprah interview).  McCain just pulled the list of cliches every Republican uses when dealing with the likes of Dr. Dobson and Pat Robertson.  Yes, a fertilized egg = a walking, talking breathing, thinking human being. Yes,  marriage = some sort’ve club that somebody’s imaginary friend only lets one woman and one man into.  Yes, I have an imaginary friend that I speak to even though that kind of behavior is usually associated with mental illness but is considered mandatory when you call the imaginary friend “god”.  They both had to cite their carefully worded confirmation lessons for the benefit of the Pharisees.

I can’t imagine Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, or James Madison doing this sort of thing or going any where near the likes of Warren and his sheeple.  Warren and his ability to make a group of people pay him tons of money so they can feel better about themselves is only equal these days to Obama’s ability to do the same.  These guys are snake oil salesmen, pure and simple.

If you read the letters between Adams and Jefferson, they actually spend a huge amount of ink making fun of the hyperreligious and trying to figure out ways to stop them from ruining the USA.  Thomas Paine was an ardent atheist.  The major framers of the Declaration were deists at best and were probably just quiet atheists.  Jefferson actually rewrote a bible for the Unitarian Universalist church taking out everything he considered to be based on fantasy.   This means his version is a very small pamphlet.  He considered Jesus a fictional character– along the lines of King Arthur–possibly a real person but so steeped in stories by now, the real person has been long lost. Most of the founding fathers found religion to be a base on which to build moral frameworks and something not to be taken literally.   Can you imagine what last night’s group of kool aid drinkers would’ve have done to these three or four men and first presidents that many consider most responsible for the founding of this country?

None of the major founders of the country considered themselves Christian at all because they were all learned men  who were born during the Age of Reason.  They had read exactly what and how the religion was invented in the 3rd century.  The Nicean Council was charged with setting up some thing that would be a tool to manage slaves, children and women, and spread Romanism throughout the conquered lands.  Most Christians aren’t even aware they celebrate their ‘sabbath’ on Sunday because Constantine, the Roman Emperor responsible for inventing Christianity as we know it, was a committed high priest of the Sun God for his entire life.  Each Sunday, Christians gather to celebrate Constantine’s snark.

We’re now in the 21st century, it’s time we stop badgering candidates to adopt Iron Age superstitions to be considered acceptable presidents.  Let’s ask them to be reasoned, intellectually honest, and true to the spirit of this country’s commitment to freedoms instead.  Pastor Rick Warren and his ilk should be left to the realm of the National Enquirer and not the nation’s business.  This is especially true in a country where the fastest growing belief systems are Buddhism and Islam.  Every day, we become more religiously diverse.  There are also a huge number of atheists out there –besides Buddhist who are atheistic by doctrine. The Presidency should be an office for the intellectually gifted, not the reason-impaired.  Religion needs to be kept out of politics as was the original intent of the founders of the nation.

Some examples on the Founding Father’s Belief System

Thomas Jefferson:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between church and State.

-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association, CT., Jan. 1, 1802

http://www.nobeliefs.com/jefferson.htm

John Adams:

Indeed, Mr. Jefferson, what could be invented to debase the ancient Christianism which Greeks, Romans, Hebrews and Christian factions, above all the Catholics, have not fraudulently imposed upon the public? Miracles after miracles have rolled down in torrents.

— John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, December 3, 1813, quoted from James A Haught, ed, 2000 Years of Disbelief

http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/quotes/adams.htm