Evolution v. Creationism

Excellent new book for your personal enlightenment and that of your still not completely convinced friends: The Science of Evolution and the Myth of Creationism by Ardea Skybreak. Take a look at it here.

The Great Christmas War of the 21st Century

The Right-Wing Religious Wackos (RWRWs) are revving up their War on Christmas rhetoric again this year. Their leader, Bill O'Reilly of the Faux News Channel, the wackiest of them all, reminds me of Don Quixote jousting with windmills. Of course, O'Reilly has an ulterior motive: his ratings have fallen dramatically, so he desperately needs a windmill with which to joust.

Of course, the War on Christmas is as imaginary as the "War on Terror" or the "War on Drugs." There may just as well be a "War on Evil" or a "War on Ugliness." These "wars" sound righteous enough and give the RWRWs a sense that they're doing something, but of course they are pure fiction. Conservative power-grabbers devised these terms to rally their RWRW base in order to keep themselves in power. In George Orwell's prophetic 1984 the government invented an interminable imaginary war for the purpose of keeping a despotic government in power. Funny how life imitates fiction.

Founding Fathers on Separation of Religion and Government

"Thirteen governments [of the original states] thus founded on the natural authority of the people alone, without a pretence of miracle or mystery, and which are destined to spread over the northern part of that whole quarter of the globe, are a great point gained in favor of the rights of mankind."
(John Adams, in his "A Defence of the Constitutions of Government of the United States of America" [1787-1788]; from Adrienne Koch, ed., The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society)

"The question before the human race is, whether the God of nature shall govern the world by his own laws, or whether priests and kings shall rule it by fictitious miracles?"
[John Adams]

"There exists, I believe, throughout the whole Christian world a law which makes it blasphemy to deny or doubt inspiration of all the books of the Old and New testaments, from Genesis to Revelations. In most countries in Europe it is punished by fire at the stake, or the rack, or the wheel. In England itself, it is punished by boring through the tongue with a hot poker. In America it is not better; even in our own Massachusetts, which I believe, upon the whole is as temperate and moderate in religious zeal as most states, a law was made in the latter end of the last century, repealing the cruel punishments of the former laws, but substituting fine and imprisonment upon all blasphemers of any book of the Old Testament or New. Now, what free inquiry, when a writer must surely encounter the risk of fine or imprisonment for adducing any argument for investigating the divine authority of those books."
[John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, January 23, 1825; from Adrienne Koch, ed., The American Enlightenment: The Shaping of the American Experiment and a Free Society, New York: George Braziller, 1965, p. 234.]

"While we are under the tyranny of Priests [...] it will ever be their interest, to invalidate the law of nature and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible therewith."
[Ethan Allen, Reason: The Only Oracle of Man]

"When a religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself so that its professors are obliged to call for the help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one."
[Benjamin Franklin, letter to Richard Price, October 9, 1780]

"Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which mankind so long bled, we have yet gained little if we countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of a bitter and bloody persecutions."
[Thomas Jefferson, First Inaugral Address]

"All men are created equal and independent. From that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable."
[Thomas Jefferson's original wording on the Declaration of Independence]

"Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law."
[Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper February 10, 1814]

"In every country and in every age the priest has been hostile to liberty; he is always in allegiance to the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection of his own."
[Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio Spofford, 1814]

"... I am not afraid of priests. They have tried upon me all their various batteries of pious whining, hypocritical canting, lying and slandering. I have contemplated their order from the Magi of the East to the Saints of the West and I have found no difference of character, but of more or less caution, in proportion to their information or ignorance on whom their interested duperies were to be played off. Their sway in New England is indeed formidable. No mind beyond mediocrity dares there to develop itself."
[Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio Spofford, 1816]

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. 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]

"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 soveriegn 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.
"The Complete Jefferson" by Saul K. Padover, pp 518-519]

"History I believe furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance, of which their political as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purpose."
[Thomas Jefferson, to Baron von Humboldt, 1813]

"All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution."
[Thomas Jefferson, 1776]

"...no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship or ministry or shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but all men shall be free to profess and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion. "
[Thomas Jefferson]

"..our civil rights have no dependance on our religious opinions, any more than our opinions in physics or geometry"
[Thomas Jefferson]

"The clergy ... believe that any portion of power confided to me [as President] will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man. But this is all they have to fear from me: and enough, too, in their opinion."
[Thomas Jefferson, to Benjamin Rush, 1800]

"The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and ingrafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man."
[Thomas Jefferson, to Jeremiah Moor, 1800]

"The law for religious freedom ... [has] put down the aristocracy of the clergy and restored to the citizen the freedom of the mind."
[Thomas Jefferson, to John Adams, 1813.]

"The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy]."
[Thomas Jefferson, to Levi Lincoln, 1802.]

"[When] the [Virginia] bill for establishing religious freedom ... was finally passed, ... a singular proposition proved that its protection of opinion was meant to be universal. Where the preamble declares that coercion is a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, an amendment was proposed, by inserting the word "Jesus Christ," so that it should read "a departure from the plan of Jesus Christ, the holy author of our religion." The insertion was rejected by a great majority, in proof that they meant to comprehend within the mantle of its protection the Jew and the Gentile, the Christian and Mahometan, the Hindoo and infidel of every denomination."
[Thomas Jefferson, Autobiography, 1821]

"It is ... proposed that I should recommend, not prescribe, a day of fasting and prayer. That is, that I should indirectly assume to the United States an authority over religious exercises which the Constitution has directly precluded them from. It must be meant, too, that this recommendation is to carry some authority and to be sanctioned by some penalty on those who disregard it; not indeed of fine and imprisonment, but of some degree of proscription perhaps in public opinion. And does the change in the nature of the penalty make the recommendation less a law of conduct for those to whom it is directed? ... Civil powers alone have been given to the President of the United States, and no authority to direct the religious exercises of his constituents."
[Thomas Jefferson, to Samuel Miller, 1808.]

"To suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the Weld of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own."
[Thomas Jefferson, Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779.]

"From the dissensions among Sects themselves arise necessarily a right of choosing and necessity of deliberating to which we will conform. But if we choose for ourselves, we must allow others to choose also, and so reciprocally, this establishes religious liberty."
[Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Religion, 1776.]

"To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."
[Thomas Jefferson, Statute for Religious Freedom, 1779.]

"It is error alone that needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself."
[Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782]

"I consider the government of the United States as interdicted by the Constitution from intermeddling with religious institutions, their doctrines, discipline, or exercises. This results not only from the provision that no law shall be made respecting the establishment or free exercise of religion, but from that also which reserves to the States the powers not delegated to the United States. Certainly, no power to prescribe any religious exercise, or to asssume authority in religious discipline, has been delegated to the General Government."
[Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Samuel Miller, The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Albert Bergh, ed. (Washington, DC: The Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association, 1904), Vol. XI, p.428, letter on January 23, 1808.]

"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
[Thomas Jefferson to Archibald Stuart, 1791. ME 8:276]


"I have no doubt that every new example will succeed, as every past one has done, in shewing that religion and Government will both exist in greater purity the less they are mixed together."
[James Madison Letter to Edward Livingston, July 10, 1822 (Madison, 1865, III, page 265)]

"Ye States of America, which retain in your constitutions or codes, any aberration from the sacred principle of religious liberty, by giving to Caesar what belongs to God, or joining together what God has put asunder, hasten to revise and purify your systems, and make the example of your country as pure and compleat, in what relates to the freedom of the mind and its allegiance to its maker, as in what belongs to the legitimate objects of political and civil institutions.
"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history." (See the cases in which negatives [vetoes] were put by J.M. [James Madison] on two bills passed by Congress and his signature withheld from another. See also attempt in Kentucky; for example, where it was proposed to exempt Houses of Worship from taxes.)
"The most notable attempt was that in Virginia to establish a general assessment for the support of all Xn [Christian] sects."
[The above is quoted from James Madison's undated (perhaps 1817 or later) essay "Monopolies, Perpetuities, Corporations, Ecclesiastical Endowments," published in "Madison's 'Detached Memoranda,'" William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 3, series 3 (October 1946), page 555.]

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries."
[James Madison, 1803 letter objecting to the use of government land for churches]

"[I]t may not be easy, in every possible case, to trace the line of separation between the rights of religion and the Civil authority with such distinctness as to avoid collisions and doubts on unessential points. The tendency to unsurpastion on one side or the other, or to a corrupting coalition or alliance between them, will be best guarded agst. by an entire abstinence of the Gov't from interfence in any way whatsoever, beyond the necessity of preserving public order, and protecting each sect agst. trespasses on its legal rights by others."
[James Madison, "James Madison on Religious Liberty", edited by Robert S. Alley, ISBN 0-8975-298-X. pp. 237-238]

"What influence, in fact, have ecclesiastical establishments had on society? In some instances they have been seen to erect a spiritual tyranny on the ruins of the civil authority; on many instances they have been seen upholding the thrones of political tyranny; in no instance have they been the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wish to subvert the public liberty may have found an established clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate it, needs them not."
[James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785]

"Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments, instead of maintaining the purity and efficacy of religion, have had a contrary operation. During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry and persecution."
[James Madison, "A Memorial and Remonstrance", 1785]


"To the Baptist Churches on Neal's Creek on Black Creek, North Carolina
I have received, fellow-citizens, your address, approving my objection to the Bill containing a grant of public land to the Baptist Church at Salem Meeting House, Mississippi Territory. Having always regarded the practical distinction between Religion and Civil Government as essential to the purity of both, and as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States, I could not have otherwise discharged my duty on the occasion which presented itself."
[James Madison, Letter to Baptist Churches in North Carolina, June 3, 1811]

"It was the Universal opinion of the Century preceding the last, that Civil Government could not stand without the prop of a religious establishment; and that the Christian religion itself, would perish if not supported by the legal provision for its clergy. The experience of Virginia conspiciously corroboates the disproof of both opinions. The Civil Government, tho' bereft of everything like an associatd hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability and performs its functions with complete success; whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the state."
[James Madison, as quoted in Robert L. Maddox: Separation of Church and State; Guarantor of Religious Freeedom]

"Who does not see that the same authority which can establish Christianity in exclusion of all other religions may establish, with the same ease, any particular sect of Christians in exclusion to all other sects?"
[James Madison, A Memorial and Remonstrance addressed to the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1785]

"In the Papal System, Government and religion are in a manner consolidated, and that is found to be the worst of Government."
[James Madison To Adams, 1832 ]

"An alliance or coalition between Government and religion cannot be too carefully guarded against.... Every new and successful example therefore of a perfect separation between ecclesiastical and civil matters is of importance...religion and government will exist in greater purity, without (rather) than with the aid of government.
[James Madison in a letter to Livingston, 1822, from Leonard W. Levy- The Establishment Clause, Religion and the First Amendment, pg 124]

"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion."
[Treaty of Tripoli, 1797]

"The establishment of Civil and Religious Liberty was the Motive which induced me to the Field; the object is attained, and it now remains to be my earnest wish and prayer, that the Citizens of the United States would make a wise and virtuous use of the blessings, placed before them."
[George Washington (1732 - 1799), Fitzpatrick, John C. ed. The Writings of George Washington. Washington, DC: U. U. Government Printing Office, (1783, 27:249)]

"I am a good deal in want of a House Joiner and Bricklayer.... If they are good workmen, they may be of Asia, Africa, or Europe They may be Mahometans, Jews or Christians of an Sect, or they may be Athiests."
[George Washington (1732 - 1799), Fitzpatrick, John C. ed. The Writings of George Washington. Washington, DC: U. U. Government Printing Office, (1784, 27:367)]

"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought to be deprecated."
[George Washington (1732 - 1799), Fitzpatrick, John C. ed. The Writings of George Washington. Washington, DC: U. U. Government Printing Office, (1792, 332:190)]

"Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause. Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by the difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."
[George Washington - letter to Edward Newenham, 1792]

"I am persuaded you will permit me to observe that the path of true piety is so plain as to require but little political direction. To this consideration we ought to ascribe the absence of any regulation respecting religion from the Magna charta [Constitution] of our country."
[George Washington (1732 - 1799), Programs and Papers of George Washington (Washington, DC; Bicentennial Commission, 1932) , 54.]

Current Champions of Atheism

Of course I'm speaking of the three best-selling authors, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Richard Dawkins. Dennett's Breaking the Spell: Religion as a Natural Phenomenon, Dawkins' The God Delusion, and Harris' double shot, The End of Faith and Letter to a Christian Nation are part of a devastating salvo of logic and reason aimed at the destruction of that demon of irrationalism, religion. Everyone should be required to read them, but of course the ones who really should won't.

Hate Taxes?

As the saying goes, "Nothing is certain but death and taxes." And no one wants to pay taxes. The federal government taxes your income, the state taxes your income, they tax your food, your medications, your gas, your electricity, they tax you for owning property, they even tax your tax refunds. Then after you start drawing your Social Security they even tax that if you make too much money when you retire. What is it with all these taxes?

But have you ever thought about living in a country that didn't raise money through taxes? Let's take a look at some scenarios.

1. A city with no revenue through taxes would not be able to maintain the streets (although they don't do that great a job anyway), but somebody has to do it. Imagine the shape of our roads and bridges if they were totally neglected. Within a few years they would be virtually impassable. The solution would be that you, maybe along with a group of your neighbors, would have to pay a street contractor to fill your potholes every few months so you could get to and from work or school or shopping store. You'd probably need a second job to help pay for the work, especially after a storm or, say, a street light went out, or a tree fell across your street.

2. Who are you going to hire to provide security for your home, your car, and your family to protect them from roving gangs of thieves? Your own private guard service? You'll need to keep one around your house 24/7, and one to escort your kids to school, and one or two at school to protect them there unless the schools were locked behind razor-wire fences. And of course those guards (and you) would have to be heavily armed to help battle the bad guys. Good luck.

3. What if your house catches fire? A private fire-fighting group may be available in your vicinity, if you have the money to pay them. Otherwise you would have to construct your house out of fireproof materials, which could be costly. The fire-fighters would probably have to be paid in advance, say by a subscription service or an insurance policy. Add that to your bills for the security service and the street contractors.

4. How are you going to make sure your water is safe to drink? There are chemists for hire if you can afford one. And will the clean water make it to your house when you turn the tap? And sewer breakage? Who's going to tackle that mess? Your favorite plumber? How much per hour are you able to pay?

5. And then there are those aggravating federal taxes. Hmm. Where do I start? How much does an Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, an FBI, a CIA, and a Coast Guard cost if you have to pay your share directly out of your pocket? Well, you already do of course through those taxes. But who's going to pay them if we eliminate taxes? Or if we cut taxes so deeply that we have to lay off most of them?

6. People we elect to represent us in Congress or in the White House maybe don't deserve as much as they make, but still we do have to pay them something, even if it galls us to do so. It would help if we elected people who would be more careful with the money we send them. We could probably get by with less taxes if we elect those who promise not to throw it away on trivials, like the $223 million bridge in Alaska that connects an island of 50 people to a town of 8,000. And you wonder where your tax money goes.

7. The excellent network of interstate highways in this country are of course also supported by taxes. Can you imagine having to pay tolls everywhere you go?

8. If it weren't for the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Center for Disease Control, FEMA, among other tax supported governmental health and emergency management agencies, we would quickly be ravaged by tainted food, poorly tested and potentially lethal medicines (more than we are now), epidemics, flood and storm disasters, etc. OK, assuming those organizations actually were under competent management anyway.

9. Big controversy but still has to be funded somehow--Medicare and Medicaid. Maybe some would like to see them funded some other way than through taxes, but without some form of public assistance, sick people without resources would end up getting treated anyway, but healthcare institutions would have to charge more to people who do have insurance or go broke and not be able to provide care to anyone.

10. Oh, another biggy: public education and loans to college students. Do I really have to go into what would happen to this country if the government ceased to fund these and we all had to home school or pay for private schools? Come to think of it, that's happening now.

11. Of course, we could still fund all those sometimes necessary government agencies, even though they do waste a lot of money due to poor management. How? Just borrow the money, as we're doing now. Of course that increases the money the country owes to our creditors (the national debt), but unfortunately that doesn't help much in the long run, because we still have to pay our creditors interest on what we borrow. One of the creditors we owe the most money to now is China. Yeah, that's a good idea.

12. Then there is the possibility that private enterprise could supply all these needed services. Yeah, right. Investors in those private enterprises expect to see a profit. CEO's expect their multi-million dollar compensation and retirement packages (even if they don't manage well enough to make the companies profitable). The millions of everyday people who work at the bottom levels of those enterprises (corporations) would end up getting the short end of the stick and probably lose their retirement packages or benefits ("too expensive" or "reduces corporate profits").

So do you still think you're paying too much in taxes? Do you like the idea that extremely wealthy people get tax breaks that are supposed to trickle down to you, but don't? Do you like paying a quarter of your income (or more) to the government, while outrageously profitable corporations have loopholes that allow them to avoid taxes, like setting up operations in countries without income taxes? The really wealthy, although recipients of the biggest tax cuts, have more to protect and therefore more to gain by paying their fair share. You can always use your vote to help change that injustice.

So don't complain about paying taxes. Just vote to be sure your tax money is spent wisely and that everyone pays their fair share. Living in this wonderful country of ours is a privilege, and taxes are the membership fee.