The Bible accounts for 34% of the direct quotes in the political writings of the Founding Era.
- - The fact that the Founders quoted the Bible more frequently than any other source in indisputably a significant commentary on its importance in the foundation of our government. In fact, some have conceded that "historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more that the Constitution, is our Founding document."
Source- "Original Intent" The Courts, the Constitution, & Religion by David Barton.
26 comments
historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more that the Constitution, is our Founding document
Yeah, one "historian": David Barton. Barton, an evangelical, has been called a "pseudo-historian" by Arlen Specter, who quotes him as saying that the First Amendment means "Congress shall make no law establishing one Christian denomination as the national denomination". You'd think the Founding Fathers would have said that if that's what they meant. He must think they were as stupid as he is.
" In fact, some have conceded that "historians are discovering that the Bible, perhaps even more that the Constitution, is our Founding document."
Alex, I'll take bullshit religious revisionism for $1,000.
Anyway, it's a good thing they went ahead and wrote the Constitution.
A quick google search of David Barton revealed this little gem:
"He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in religious education from Oral Roberts University in 1976, but has no academic qualifications in history."
Further searching has shown the guy's been accused of making numorous false quotes and figures by accredited historians.
A) That's most likely not true, because, you know, DAVID BARTON.
B) Even so, that means that fully 66% of their writings were from OTHER SOURCES.
Okay, so why doesn't it say "Article 1: the United States is a Christian Republic"? What, like legal documents aren't usually very specific, assuming we all know what the authors had been reading lately?
David Barton is pretty much from the Rush Limbaugh (or Andy Schafly, for that matter)school of quotations: "Well, no , he really didn't say thatm but we all know that he meant to!" He's a complete crock, and anything with his name attached is immediately suspect.
You can manufacture "facts" from now until the cows come home, but the USA is not a Christian nation. Your own Constitution says so.
A $20 no-name-brand watch does not become a Rolex, no matter how often you tell yourself that it is a Rolex. You people really do need a deep whiff of reality sometimes.
This is from 2009, just six months or so ago Barton decided to push the bullshit further.
Are you ready for this? Barton said the Constitution is Verbatim from Biblical text. The examples he gives to this claim are not even related let alone word for word.
None of this means anything to his followers, they don't even want the facts or care for evidence, they want a fictional Christian American history to merge with their fictional myth. Bartons books have been debunked for about a decade now (by Christian Historians yet) but his career looms larger than ever.
Whats worse is the multitude of venues he's afforded, right-wing media and religious leaders hold him up as the ONLY historian that's valid despite evidence of straight-out lies in his works.
"the Bible, perhaps even more that the Constitution, is our Founding document"
Therefore, the question must be asked: if 'the Founders quoted the Bible more frequently than any other source', then why is there not [i]one[/i] mention of the words 'God', 'Jesus' or at least 'Creator' in the US Constitution?
And care to name one historian who makes such a claim, not including David Barton, who isn't exactly a Professor of History, least of all Constitutional law, dumboyharry?
Quote mining does your argument no good whatsoever, when you have nothing left to pull out of your arse, m'boy.
@Justanotheratheist
(emphasis added):
"You can manufacture "facts" from now until the cows come home, but the USA is not a Christian nation. Your own Constitution says so."
'The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion'
-George Washington
Planet Reality. A realm as yet unexplored by fundies. We know more about Mars than you lot do of this world; and what is learned about the Red Planet to date is purely via astronomers, and orbital/lander/mobile probes.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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