Does the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli say that "The Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion?" Yes, but separationists need to be careful in explaining the historical background of this treaty. In 1797, six years after the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the United States government signed a treaty with the Muslim nation of Tripoli that contained the following statement (numbered Article 11 in the treaty): As the Government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the law, religion or tranquility of Musselmen; and as the states never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mohometan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinion shall ever produce an interruption of harmony existing between the two countries. So far as can be found, the inclusion of these words in the treaty had no negative p...

Original Article URL Here This is a question that scares the crud out of most Christians. I, too, would have been angered and chilled by such words. Obviously it is utter nonsense. On the contrary though, if you really look with unbiased eyes (a major key to true enlightenment), and take into account the issue we just discussed, the lack of evidence concerning a 'physical' Christ, you will find amazing parallels with many ancient traditions. While it is entirely possible that a historical Jesus actually lived, it is also possible that a mythology could have arrived totally out of these earlier mythologies. Although we have very little evidence for a historical Jesus, we certainly have many accounts for the mythologies of the Middle East and Egypt during the first century and before that appear similar to the Christ savior story. Remember that just before and during the first century, the Jews were prophesying about an upcoming Messiah based on Jewish scripture. Their beliefs i...

Note: May not be safely viewed at work. Reading from Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 1948, Volume 4, page 140, we find that Easter is the Greatest Festival of the Christian Church, which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ - which festival was named after the ancient Anglo Saxon Goddess of Spring! EASTER. The greatest festival of the Christian church commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a movable feast, that is, it is not always held on the same date. The church council of Nicea (a.d. 325) decided that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox (March 21). Easter can come as early as March 22 or as late as April 25. The name Easter comes from the ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, Eostre or Ostara, in whose honor an annual spring festival was held. Some of our Easter customs have come from this and other pre-Christian spring festivals. Others come from the Passover feast of the Jews, obs...

A delusion is defined as a false personal belief based on incorrect inference about external reality and firmly sustained despite of what everyone else believes and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary (DSM-IV, p. 765). Annotations to Spurzheim's Observations on Insanity: Religion is another fertile cause of insanity. Mr. Haslam, though he declares it sinful to consider religion as a cause of insanity, adds, however, that he would be ungrateful, did he not avow his obligation to Methodism for its supply of numerous cases. Hence the primitive feelings of religion may be misled and produce insanity; that is what I would contend for, and in that sense religion often leads to insanity. Most people's religion is what they want to believe, not what they do believe. And very few of them stop to examine its foundations." Texas mother over the edge because of cult! - Interestingly enough, this is a Christian View. Glen Milstei...

It is a trend in Christianity to always get back to the roots of the movement. Apostasy is something to be feared and reformation something held in esteem. Usually, at least in fundie circles, reformation means returning to the source, i.e. the Bible. Where the Bible is silent, the earliest practitioners of Christianity are consulted, it being thought that since they were nearer the source, then they had a more accurate understanding of Christ and the "apostle's" intentions. What did early leaders of Christianity have to say about sex? Saint Augustine, the leading theologian of the fourth century, embraced the faith on April 25, 387 along with his "illegitimate" son, leaving behind his wife and his second mistress. He had already split up from his first concubine, the mother of his son, after 17 years of living together. He turned his home in Hippo into a monastery, and as Bishop of Hippo, proceeded to make many literary contributions to Christianity. Unfortuna...

I was guilty of this. I admit it. It was a favorite apologetic of mine, while serving my tenure as a fundified believer, to lightly dismiss any embarrassing history of Christianity with a thoughtless wave of the proverbial, "They weren't real Christians." How easily I disallowed centuries of the undeniable evidence of terrible behavior by Christians as their faith was played out in real life. I simply judged them as not having a "real" faith, or not being "really" saved. Of course whenever I condemned and dismissed those "false" saints of the past I was also subtly congratulating myself for my "real" and "authentic" salvation that was plainly witnessed to me by the power of the Holy Spirit in my day to day life. I rested in the assurance that I was blessed with true enlightenment and grace, while those poor so called believers from past generations, especially those who participated in the heinous "Crusades" and ...

a special thanks to Robert Hitchcock for finding this at : http://notthebible.8m.com/b1.htm CHAPTER 1 The origin of Species IN the beginning God created Dates. 2 And the date was Monday, July 4, 4004 B.C. 3 And God said, Let there be light; and there was light. And when there was light, God saw the Date, that it was Monday, and he got down to work; for verily, he had a Big Job to do. 4 And God made pottery shards and Silurian mollusks and pre-Cambrian limestone strata; and flints and Jurassic Mastodon tusks and Picanthropus erectus skulls and Cretaceous placentals made he; and those cave paintings at Lasceaux. And that was that, for the first Work Day. 5 And God saw that he had made many wonderous things, but that he had not wherein to put it all. And God said, Let the heavens be divided from the earth; but not too deep. 6 And God buried all the Things which he had made, and that was that. 7 And the morning and the evening and the overtime were Tuesday. 8 And God said, Let there be wat...