* Thomas Jefferson, Freethinker, Born on this Day

Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was the third President of the United States (1801–1809), the principal author of the Declaration of Independence (1776).

In his Notes on Virginia (1781), Jefferson wrote: "Millions of innocent men, women and children since the introduction of Christianity have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned. Yet have we not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth. . ." The Deist wrote: "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." (Works, 1829 ed., Vol. IV, p. 365).

Jefferson's conclusions about the Bible are noteworthy. He considered much of the new testament of the Bible to be lies. He described these as "so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture". He described the "roguery of others of His disciples", and called them a "band of dupes and impostors" describing Paul as the "first corrupter of the doctrines of Jesus", and wrote of "palpable interpolations and falsifications". He also described the Book of Revelation to be "merely the ravings of a maniac, no more worthy nor capable of explanation than the incoherences of our own nightly dreams". While living in the White House, Jefferson began to make his own condensed version of the Gospels, omitting Jesus' virgin birth, miracles, divinity, and resurrection, primarily leaving only Jesus' moral philosophy, of which he approved. This compilation was published after his death and became known as the Jefferson Bible.<sup>[46]

Cross-reference METAXY</sup>

Born on this day in 1795 ... "a path-blazer of unparalleled brilliance."

“. . . so far from entrenching human conduct within the gentle barriers of peace and love, religion has ever been, and now is, the deepest source of contentions, wars, persecutions for conscience sake, angry words, angry feelings, backbitings, slanders, suspicions, false judgments, evil interpretations, unwise, unjust, injurious, inconsistent actions. . . .”

~ Frances Wright, freethinker, "Lecture III," 1828 (Life, Letters and Lectures)

*For more about Frances Wright, see Women Without Superstition: No Gods - No Masters

* Samuel Porter Putnam ~ July 23, 1838

The last superstition of the human mind is the superstition that religion in itself is a good thing, though it might be free from dogma. I believe, however, that the religious feeling, as feeling, is wrong, and the civilized man will have nothing to do with it. . . . [When the] shadow of religion disappeared forever . . . I felt that I was free from a disease.

~ Samuel Porter Putnam, 1838-1896, My Religious Experience, 1891

* George Clooney ~ Birthday Today

George Clooney (born on this day, May 6, 1961) is an Academy Award- and two-time Golden Globe winning American actor, director, producer and screenwriter.

I don't believe in heaven and hell. I don't know if I believe in God. All I know is that as an individual, I won't allow this life--the only thing I know to exist--to be wasted.
~ George Clooney profile in Washington Post (September 28, 1997)

"Clooney is a self-described political liberal. Speaking about the Iraq war: "You can't beat your enemy anymore through wars; instead you create an entire generation of people seeking revenge. These days it only matters who's in charge. Right now that's us — for a while at least. Our opponents are going to resort to car bombs and suicide attacks because they have no other way to win.... I believe (Rumsfeld) thinks this is a war that can be won, but there is no such thing anymore. We can't beat anyone anymore."
...
Clooney is active in advocating a resolution of the Darfur conflict. His efforts include an episode of Oprah and speaking at the Save Darfur rally in Washington, D.C. on April 30, 2005."

More on George Clooney

Methinks sometimes I have no more wit than a Christian.
Twelfth Night," Act I, Scene III

William Shakespeare, (baptised April 26, 1564 – died April 23, 1616)

* President James Madison ~ Primary Author of Our Secular U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights

James Madison (March 16, 1751 – June 28, 1836)

The Social Utility of Religion: Risks vs. Rewards

“During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What have 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. . . .

Torrents of blood have been spilt in the old world, by vain attempts of the secular arm, to extinguish Religious discord, by proscribing all difference in Religious opinion.”
~ James Madison, Memorial and Remonstrance, 1785

"On this date in 1751, James Madison was born in Virginia. The Deist, who became primary author of the secular U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights, and fourth President of the United States, originally contemplated the ministry as a career. After graduating from Princeton, Madison was appointed a delegate to the Virginia state convention. There he was responsible for the adoption of a freedom of conscience clause in the state constitution. "Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect," Madison wrote William Bradford (April 1, 1771)."

Freedom From Religion Foundation

"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise, every expanded prospect."
~ James Madison in his letter to William Bradford (April 1, 1771).

See Amendment I (Religion), James Madison, Detached Memoranda

The government of the United States of America is secular, in principle, but not in fact. George W. Bush, its current president, would have it be a Christian nation which has not fared well for the US, Iraq, or the world because of his warped ideology.

* George Washington ~ "Christianity Endangers the Peace of Society"

George Washington, Deist, February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799

Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiment 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 their religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society.

~ George Washington, letter to Sir Edward Newenham, Oct. 20, 1792.

Freedom From Religion Foundation

In 1796, Gilbert Stuart
painted this famous portrait
of Washington from life, and then
used the unfinished painting to
create numerous others, including
the image used on the U.S.
one-dollar bill.

More on Washington

* Unfaithful Giant Born This Day: Edgar Allan Poe ~ Agnostic ~ January 19, 1809

All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.

From Edgar Allan Poe quotes (American short-story Writer, Editor, Poet and Critic, 1809-1849) ThinkExist

Let us begin, then, at once, with that merest of words, 'Infinity.' This, like 'God,' 'spirit,' and some other expressions of which the equivalents exist in all languages, is by no means the expression of an idea--but of an effort at one. It stands for the possible attempt at an impossible conception.

~ Edgar Allan Poe, from Eureka 1848

The pioneers and missionaries of religion have been the real cause of more trouble and war than all other classes of mankind.

~ Edgar Allan Poe, from Ira D Cardiff, What Great Men Think of Religion, quoted from James A. Haught, ed., 2000 Years of Disbelief

No man who ever lived knows any more about the hereafter ... than you and I; and all religion ... is simply evolved out of chicanery, fear, greed, imagination and poetry.

~ Edgar Allan Poe, from Rufus K Noyes, Views of Religion, quoted from James A. Haught, 2000 Years of Disbelief

Photo ~ Wikipedia

A Dream

In visions of the dark night
I have dreamed of joy departed-
But a waking dream of life and light
Hath left me broken-hearted.

Ah! what is not a dream by day
To him whose eyes are cast
On things around him with a ray
Turned back upon the past?

That holy dream- that holy dream,
While all the world were chiding,
Hath cheered me as a lovely beam
A lonely spirit guiding.

What though that light, thro' storm and night,
So trembled from afar-
What could there be more purely bright
In Truth's day-star?

Among his masterpieces are the short stories The Pit and the Pendulum, The Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Masque of the Red Death, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Gold Bug.

Once upon a midnight dreary ..., The Raven, 1845

Biography NNDB

Complete Works

Lectures and Articles
Edgar Allan Poe Society

* "Faith in Reason" ~ Andy Rooney

On this day in 1919 a writer, columnist, television commentator, and Emmy winner was born. After a series of other books, Andy Rooney wrote, Sincerely, Andy Rooney (1999), in the last chapter of which, “Faith in Reason,” he published a letter to his children and explains that he is an agnostic.

Philosopedia:

"In some respects he comes across as everyone’s uncle or grandfather, and in others he comes across as a logical curmudgeon. To almost everyone he comes across as someone who can make anyone laugh:

* My wife’s from the Midwest. Very nice people there. Very wholesome. They use words like “Cripes.” For Cripes sake! Who would that be—Jesus Cripes? Son of Gosh? Of the church of the Holy Moly? I’m not making fun of it—you think I want to burn in Heck?

* We all ought to understand we're on our own. Believing in Santa Claus doesn't do kids any harm for a few years but it isn't smart for them to continue waiting all their lives for him to come down the chimney with something wonderful. Santa Claus and God are cousins.

* Christians talk as though goodness was their idea but good behavior doesn't have any religious origin. Our prisons are filled with the devout.

* I'd be more willing to accept religion, even if I didn't believe it, if I thought it made people nicer to each other but I don't think it does.”

Paul Rifkin’s, The God Letters (1986) tells of posing as a fifth grade student who asked noted individuals if they believed in God. Rooney responded,

* No, of course I don’t [believe in God] and anyone who tells you that there is a god who makes his or her presence known to him or her is hallucinating or not telling the truth.

"Rooney told Sam Donaldson on ABC’s “Prime Time Live” (May 1995) that he was critical of anyone who even claims to know whether or not a god exists.” And in a 1996 interview with Arthur Unger in TV Quarterly, he was asked if people really knew him. “The only thing I hide from people,” Rooney responded, “that I have never said so far as being blunt and honest goes, is that I am not a religious person. I’m not sure the American public would accept from me that fact. I don’t think that would please them or that it would attract a lot of people to me. And I take the position that it is sort of a personal matter, so I do not ever make an issue of it.” With all the problems throughout the world, he finds religion has not really done anything to help."

Some other resources:

Andy Rooney ~ Wikipedia

Celebrity Atheists

* Stephen Hawking, Scientist, Author, Physicist, Awards Winner, Astronomer, Agnostic, World Traveler, Upbeat Outlook on Life, All from His Wheelchair

Stephen William Hawking (65) was born in Oxford, England on January 8, 1942, exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo. A few quotes by Hawking:

As we shall see, the concept of time has no meaning before the beginning of the universe. This was first pointed out by St. Augustine. When asked: What did God do before he created the universe? Augustine didn't reply: He was preparing Hell for people who asked such questions. Instead, he said that time was a property of the universe that God created, and that time did not exist before the beginning of the universe. [Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam, 1988), p. 8]

What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary. [Stephen W. Hawking, Der Spiegel, 1989]

One does not have to appeal to God to set the initial conditions for the creation of the universe, but if one does He would have to act through the laws of physics. [Stephen Hawking, Black Holes & Baby Universes]

Retrieved from Celebrity Atheists

All that my work has shown is that you don't have to say that the way the universe began was the personal whim of God. [Stephen Hawking, Black Holes and Baby Universes and Other Essays (1993)]

FFRF

Looking beyond the stars Hawking has done all of his research and writing from a wheelchair with a voice-controlled computer, and without gloom and doom.

"I have had motor neurone disease, [ALS, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease] for practically all my adult life. Yet it has not prevented me from having a very attractive family, and being successful in my work. This is thanks to the help I have received from Jane, my children, and a large number of other people and organisations. I have been lucky, that my condition has progressed more slowly than is often the case. But it shows that one need not lose hope."

Hawking's Website

See also 'Science Heros'

Hawking Plans Space Flight

* Congratulations & Thanks to Nancy Pelosi for Giving Us This Special Day in History

60th United States Speaker of the House
Incumbent
In office since
January 4, 2007

American women have been waiting for this for over 200 years, and I hope Speaker Pelosi will be welcomed by men, as well.

Nancy Pelosi is hoping to start off big with her "100 Hours Agenda," the first step towards larger changes. The proposals are progressive, including cutting oil subsidies to invest in clean energy, getting cheaper prescription drugs for seniors, and raising the minimum wage. Corporate lobbyists--the big drug companies, oil companies, and business lobbies--are already working hard to defeat the agenda, and we need to show where the American people stand. Please add your name to MoveOn.org's petition calling on Congress to pass the 100 Hours Agenda.
Pass the First 100 Hours Agenda

Here's a brief summary of the 100 Hour Agenda package:

Good Government: Cutting off lobbyist gifts and restoring fairness and transparency in the way laws are passed

Fiscal Responsibility: Stop recklessly driving up the national debt

National Security: Implement all of the 9/11 Commission security recommendations

Fighting Poverty: Increase minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, helping 15 million working families

Health Research: Increased funding and availability for stem cell research

Affordable Health Care: Negotiate for lower prices on prescription drugs, passing savings on to seniors

Education Access: Cut interest on federal student loans in half

Clean Energy: Cut oil company subsidies and invest in safe alternatives
Pass the First 100 Hours Agenda

Hey, it looks like somebody cares about us! How refreshing. But where is Iraq in the plan? MoveOn.org states, "Later this month, we'll organize local meetings with our representatives, urging them to take on the really big issues that Americans care most about, like health care for all, clean energy and Iraq. Stay tuned for more details."

To read a more detailed summary of the 100 Hours Agenda legislation,
Click Here.

METAXY, Earlier Postings on Nancy Pelosi

Photo from Wikipedia

* Thomas Jefferson Erects A Wall of Separation Between Church & State

President Thomas Jefferson
Letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut
January 1, 1802

On this day in 1802, President Thomas Jefferson "coined the famous phrase describing the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment as erecting "a wall of separation between church and state." He used the phrase in his famous letter to the Baptists of Danbury, Connecticut, who had asked him to explain the meaning of the First Amendment's phrase, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion."

“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 prohibit the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.”

"On matters of religion, Jefferson in 1800 was accused by his political opponents of being an atheist and enemy of religion. But Jefferson wrote at length on religion and many scholars agree with the claim that Jefferson was a deist, a common position held by intellectuals in the late 18th century."

Biographer Merrill Peterson summarizes Jefferson's theology,

First, that the Christianity of the churches was unreasonable, therefore unbelievable, but that stripped of priestly mystery, ritual, and dogma, reinterpreted in the light of historical evidence and human experience, and substituting the Newtonian cosmology for the discredited Biblical one, Christianity could be conformed to reason. Second, morality required no divine sanction or inspiration, no appeal beyond reason and nature, perhaps not even the hope of heaven or the fear of hell; and so the whole edifice of Christian revelation came tumbling to the ground.

"For Jefferson, separation of church and state was not an abstract right but a necessary reform of the religious "tyranny" of one Christian sect over many other Christians. Jefferson tried re-instating a new religion for all to use, but this idea quickly failed and Jefferson was almost removed from office."

Much more at Wikipedia ...

See also Thomas Paine, METAXY

* Happy Birthday, Woody Allen!

To you, I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition ~ Woody Allen
"On this date in 1935, director Woody Allen (ne Allen Stewart Konigsberg), was born in Brooklyn, New York. His Jewish parents sent him to eight years of Hebrew school. "I am a Jew only in the sense that I was born into a Jewish family. I have no interest in the organized religions beyond a certain cerebral historical curiosity. They are all nonsense to me in their basic premises. . . . I'm agnostic, but I have one foot in atheism."

Not only is there no God, but try getting a plumber on weekends.

~ Woody Allen, "My Philosophy," The New Yorker, Dec. 27, 1969

Freedom From Religion Foundation
Allen at Wikipedia

* Atheism and Unbelief ~ Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller

“Which religion do I profess to follow? None! And why? Because of religion.”

~ Friedrich von Schiller. Source: Encyclopedia of Unbelief edited by Gordon Stein.

"On this date in 1759, German poet Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller was born in Marbach, Wurttemberg, to Lutheran parents. Although he began writing poetry at an early age, he was educated in military schools against his will. In 1780, Schiller was dismissed from the academy for writing his controversial essay about religion, 'On Relation Between Man's Animal and Spiritual Nature.'"
Schiller's Ode to Joy
* * *Atheism and Unbelief

"Many of the innovations in science and philosophy have come from unbelievers, some of whom died for their 'unbeliefs.' Without unbelief, we might well be living in the Dark Ages or at least in the intellectual equivalent of that time." ~ Gordon Stein