"Including none at all" 16 Jan 2010 Just when I start to get cynical about Obama’s agenda, he proclaims this: Long before our Nation’s independence, weary settlers sought refuge on our shores to escape religious persecution on other continents. Recognizing their strife and toil, it was the genius of America’s forefathers to protect our freedom of religion, including the freedom to practice none at all. And then he proclaims this “a critical foundation for [America’s] liberty”. God bless him. Or is it a cynical move to appeal to the light and dark skinned black community? Politics Race and politics Religion
History One more thing about Davies 26 Nov 2007 This paragraph: This shared failing is no surprise, because the very notion of physical law is a theological one in the first place, a fact that makes many scientists squirm. Isaac Newton first got the idea of absolute, universal, perfect, immutable laws from the Christian doctrine that God created the… Read More
Humor Buffy is my personal saviour 28 Oct 2009 As always, the Onion has the scoop. I really like this new religion of Fictionology. One gets to choose a fictional character as your messiah, deity or general moral teacher. Who better than Buffy? Look good, kick evil doers, and have time for a social life. “Unlike Scientology, which is… Read More
Censorship The Policy policy, and a Bill of Rights 3 Dec 2008 When my kids were in school, I noticed an interesting phenomenon that went something like this: Headmaster: No, your kids can’t be being bullied. We have a policy against bullying. I came to call this the “Policy policy”: so long as there’s a Policy in place for some longstanding problem,… Read More
Long before our Nation’s independence, weary settlers sought refuge on our shores to escape religious persecution on other continents. There may have been some early settlers who fled religious persecution but not many. That’s a great myth. One set of my ancestors were Dutch settlers in the Hudson valley. They were members of the Dutch Reform Church – the same church they belonged to in the Netherlands. Another set were “Puritans” who settled in Connecticut. They belonged to the same Protestant churches that they left in England and the relatives they left behind suffered no obvious persecution – indeed, they took over the government during the civil war! As far as I can tell, my “Puritan” ancestors were more interested in setting up their own system of religious persecution in the new world than in fleeing persecution in England. Settlers in other parts of the 13 colonies included large numbers of Catholics from England and Protestants from Germany and I don’t think it’s fair to claim that they were motivated to emigrate because of religious persecution.
Could you explain your last question? How is it a “cynical move to appeal to the light and dark skinned black community”?