[Flipside]

The impression I'm getting here is that the teacher was over-using God with relation to the declaration. I seem to recall that America's founding father were not deeply religious people (in fact, if they were Irish, English and Spanish, we are talking Protestants, Catholics and CofE, it's like putting 3 cats in the same plastic bag, it just results in lots of hissing, claws and fur).

The teacher, however, seemsed to be trying to imply that America had been a 'Holy mission' from the start, to create a country founded on the laws of Christianity, which wasn't the case.

If that is the case, then the teacher is not giving their pupiils an unbiased view, which is not how you teach.

[aldo_14]

It's hard to tell from the news stories, but it does sound as if he's using the Declaration et al as sources to support his views rather than as material to be taught & explained.  Very hard to know exactly what he was saying and what he was teaching from those stories, though.

Need more info, I think.

[Kazan]

there were also very prominant founding fathers who were atheist, agnostic and deist

[vyper]

I find it interesting that America's history is always played out  even in the mainstream as an exercise in escape from religious persecution. For the most part, it was born out of trade and colonists seeking better living conditions/land.

[aldo_14]

It probably doesn't even matter what the religious / non-religious convictions of the founding fathers were - wasn't America colonised and then founded at least partly by pilgrims fleeing persecution anyways+?  And as such wouldn't it have to be an integral part of their thinking that any persecution based upon religion (including non-belief) was wrong*?

*NB: extending to the principle that persecution also would include the, um (how should I put this?) teaching of one belief in a non-equal manner to all opposing beliefs.  

It may be that their thinking or wording was focused towards the various types of Christian belief (i.e. Catholicism, Protestantism, Mormonism, etc) because of the situation at the time, but the principle behind it seems very clear to me.

+Er... I think.  Not big on US history, feel free to correct me.

[Clave]

America was founded when Britain decided to get rid of the grumpy Puritans and have some fun for a change.  They were supposed to be banished to the South Pole, but got lost....

[deep_eyes]

okthis whole thing is like 2 yrs old lol.

[Kazan]

aldo_14 nothing to correct - you're absofraginglutely correct

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by deep_eyes
okthis whole thing is like 2 yrs old lol.

Reuters article is dated yesterday.  How did it end, then?

[vyper]

He's a forumite sent back from the future to protect us from a possible flame thread...

[Flipside]

[Knight Templar]

[Sandwich]

Originally posted by vyper
He's a forumite sent back from the future to protect us from a possible flame thread...

[Blitzerland]

The future, eh? Tell me then, will I conquer Uzbekistan?

[Grey Wolf]

Originally posted by Clave
America was founded when Britain decided to get rid of the grumpy Puritans and have some fun for a change.  They were supposed to be banished to the South Pole, but got lost....

In a rather ironic moment, this post is actually half right. The Pilgrims were kicked out of Britain for being so incredibly crazy that they scared even the most conservative members of the Church of England, after which they were lost on the way to the Virginia colony.

[Bobboau]

and you wonder why were so ****ed up now...

[Kazan]

Australia got the criminals
We got the Puritans


They had the better deal

[Taristin]

Criminals aren't necessarily bad people. They just did bad things...

[Grey Wolf]

If only they had had even worse sense of direction, and landed in Cuba or something.....

[Kazan]

or greenland