This is probably the calmest rant you will ever read from me. It might not even qualify as a rant ._.

In my sociology class, we had a very short debate involving the foundation of America being based on Christianity, and that because of this foundation it is justified that our currency say "God", and that it is justified to uphold Christian morals in our laws. The reason it was so short was because one boy said "but this country was founded on Christian beliefs, so gay marriage shouldn't be allowed", and one lady said "no, it should be because no matter what this country was founded on, we have separation of church and state", and then the teacher said, "well, it was founded on Christianity, so it makes sense", and then that was it.

I didn't even bother to say anything after that, even though I had planned on it. But that debate pretty much ended with that one sentence. I was kind of annoyed.

I doubt that anyone will deny that without Christianity, America would not be what it is today. But we have to remember why our founding fathers and the original colonies came here in the first place: to escape persecution. Christian persecution, to be specific. Their goal, and wish, was for this country to have complete separation of church and state so that it would not end up like the England of the time.

It is also important to remember that our founding fathers were Deists. Merriam Webster describes Deism as:



Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington all exercised Deist tendencies at some point in recorded history. The most important case being that they were opposed to the Bible. Yes, they do believe in God, but also that He does not concern himself with our daily lives, and does not communicate with us directly, not by supernatural means nor scripture.

The logic seems to be that because a majority of the original colonies and founders were Christian, that must mean that this country was founded directly on their religious beliefs. I would go far enough to call this a fallacy. First of all, this country was founded for the purpose of separating religious institution and beliefs from law entirely, hence the emphasis on separation of church and state, so where exactly would religious beliefs come into play here? Second of all, it makes the assumption that all sense of morality derives from religious beliefs, which isn’t true, since it was the absence of religion in morality which allowed our founding fathers to even think of separation of church and state to begin with. Separation of church and state would not be possible without the ability to have a working moral compass outside of religious influence.

From Encyclopedia Britannica:


So our common law (ex, institution of a jury and the right to speedy trial) derived from Roman law. So since our country also appears to be founded on Roman laws, does that mean it is actually founded on Pagan beliefs? Interesting :o

The declaration of independence, which is what many people use to defend the stance that our country was founded on Christianity, does in fact mention 'God'. But there again is another fallacy. Does the 'God' in the DoI specifically translate to the 'Christian God'? Nope. The Declaration of Independence itself says that it is describing:



The Declaration of Independence was also written before the States had even been founded. In summary, this country was founded on one simple thing: freedom. Need I say more?

And, wow, I just had some major Deja Vu. That was cool.

On a lighter note, the entire debate in a nutshell:




God that cracks me up.

(Please don't be offended if you're Christian xD...for the record, I have absolutely no religious affiliation what-so-ever (and no, I'm not an atheist either), I'm like a...neutral country during wartime. I think it is possible that there isn't a higher power, but it is also possible that there is. Now that I've probably left you all mindfucked, I'll end this blog).