From Thinkprogress, the Washington Post’s Charles Babington:
Several conservative groups, meanwhile, plan a major push beginning Monday to portray Alito’s opponents as anti-God. Talking points for the effort, which will involve ads and grass-roots …

Among all of our Presidents, from Washington downward, not one was a professor of religion, at least not of more than Unitarianism.

The Bible? Here is what our Founding Fathers wrote about Bible-based Christianity:

Thomas Jefferson:

I have examined all the known superstitions of the world, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.
SIX HISTORIC AMERICANS,
by John E. Remsburg, letter to William Short
Jefferson again:
Christianity…(has become) the most perverted system that ever shone on man. …Rogueries, absurdities and untruths were perpetrated upon the teachings of Jesus by a large band of dupes and importers led by Paul, the first great corrupter of the teaching of Jesus.
More Jefferson:
The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind and adulterated by artificial constructions into a contrivance to filch wealth and power to themselves…these clergy, in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ.
Jefferson’s word for the Bible?
Dunghill.
John Adams:
Where do we find a precept in the Bible for Creeds, Confessions, Doctrines and Oaths, and whole carloads of other trumpery that we find religion encumbered with in these days?
Also Adams:
The doctrine of the divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.
Adams signed the Treaty of Tripoli. Article 11 states:
The Government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.
Here’s Thomas Paine:
I would not dare to so dishonor my Creator God by attaching His name to that book (the Bible).

Among the most detestable villains in history, you could not find one worse than Moses. Here is an order, attributed to ‘God’ to butcher the boys, to massacre the mothers and to debauch and rape the daughters. I would not dare so dishonor my Creator’s name by (attaching) it to this filthy book (the Bible).

It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God against the evils of the Bible.

Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins…and you will have sins in abundance.

The Christian church has set up a religion of pomp and revenue in pretended imitation of a person (Jesus) who lived a life of poverty.

Finally let’s hear from James Madison:

What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy.

Madison objected to state-supported chaplains in Congress and to the exemption of churches from taxation. He wrote:

Religion and government will both exist in greater purity, the less they are mixed together.

These founding fathers were a reflection of the American population. Having escaped from the state-established religions of Europe, only 7% of the people in the 13 colonies belonged to a church when the Declaration of Independence was signed.

Among those who confuse Christianity with the founding of America, the rise of conservative Baptists is one of the more interesting developments. The Baptists believed God’s authority came from the people, not the priesthood, and they had been persecuted for this belief. It was they—the Baptists—who were instrumental in securing the separation of church and state. They knew you can not have a “one-way wall” that lets religion into government but that does not let it out. They knew no religion is capable of handling political power without becoming corrupted by it. And, perhaps, they knew it was Christ himself who first proposed the separation of church and state: Give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto the Lord that which is the Lord’s.

In the last five years the Baptists have been taken over by a fundamentalist faction that insists authority comes from the Bible and that the individual must accept the interpretation of the Bible from a higher authority. These usurpers of the Baptist faith are those who insist they should meddle in the affairs of the government and it is they who insist the government should meddle in the beliefs of individuals.

The price of Liberty is constant vigilance. Religious fundamentalism and zealous patriotism have always been the forces which require the greatest attention.

Jefferson detested religion to the point that he banned any theology courses from be taught at UVA when he was running the show there. Most of the founder’s religious views and ideoligy would be be labeled heretics or non-believers by the right’s modern day Pharicies like Dobson, Falwell, Robertson and Reed. But they have done something far different, re-write history to say the founders were Christian. The God that Washington and Jefferson are talking about is not the God from the Old Testatment or New Testament, he is simply a creator or creating force that does not intervene in human affairs.

Nothing surprises me anymore with the radical right. Alito is probably one of the most out of touch judges in the right wing bench of judges. He despises the United States and hates the Constitution. He dreams like most Republicans…

Since the beginning the “cults” have divided into “subcults”, eg, Catholism, Mormon, Lutheran, ect…

Some “cults” have decent honest leaders. Most don’t.

Yes, the word ‘Creator’ is in our founding documents.

We have one founding document. That document is the US Constitution. There is no mention of God, or a Creator in that document. We are founded on a secular document–the US Constitution—and thus, are a secular nation.

Comment by David B

More people have died in just the last 100 years thanks to the man who coined the “opiate” phrase than in all the wars religious or otherwise in all of recorded history.

Public schools are a disgrace.

wwallace, you truly amaze me. Yes, the word ‘Creator’ is in our founding documents. That creator could be Mohammed, Vishnu, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Mithras (who was the original Dec25 virgin-birth baby), or Cotton Mathers, and yet you seem to think that they (the Founding Fathers) were specifically talking about YOUR version of God.
Comment by Rev. Metheus

Anyone with so much as a high school education understands who the Founders were speaking about. They make it quite clear. In that day they would have taken someone like you and hung him for fool and detriment to civil order and common morality. Those were the good old days.

– The Interfaith Alliance (“A national grassroots organization of 150,000+ individuals of faith and goodwill drawn from more than 75 different religious traditions.)

– Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (“Representing Episcopal, Presbyterian, United Methodist, United Church of Christ, Unitarian, and Jewish national organizations.”)

– National Council of Jewish Women

– Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

The memo says that these groups, and all of the others in the coalition, oppose Alito because they are “radical secularists.” These kind of dishonest tactics suggests that Alito’s backers are worried. ”

There is nothing religious about the above groups. They are indeed radical secularists of the worst kind. They pretend to be people of faith yet not one group holds to the tenets of the faith they claim to believe.

wwallace, you truly amaze me. Yes, the word ‘Creator’ is in our founding documents. That creator could be Mohammed, Vishnu, Flying Spaghetti Monster, Mithras (who was the original Dec25 virgin-birth baby), or Cotton Mathers, and yet you seem to think that they (the Founding Fathers) were specifically talking about YOUR version of God. They must talk to you the way that God seems to talk to Our President.
Jesus wanted the moneychangers out of the temple… if you make our whole country a temple, can we throw out all the banks and burn down wall street?
AFAICT, you seem to be stuck in a Trumanesque 50’s timewarp where a non-believer of the Christian God is an enemy of all Amercians.
But you are right… we should embrace our religiosity as a country. Christmas has been a federal holiday for about a century, how about we give some other religion’s celebration a century of favoritism. We could take a week off for Ramadan (would go well with Thanksgiving and save our education system for paying for school lunches) Instead of the Christmas, we could close everything down for a week for the Fesival of Lights. Heck, we could have Flying Spaghetti Monster Day in the spring.
Its so much fun to plan what to do with our new Religious America once we arent chained in to the same old silly Christian Holidays (and what happened to All Saints Day or Ash Wednesday, all people want to talk about is Halloween and Fat Tuesday, how Christian is that?)

ok, now that we’ve seen what silliness comes from embracing Religiosity as a country, you can feel free to call me names, I know you wanna.