Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
~Matthew 5:9

You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
~Matthew 5:38-9

We are called to be peacemakers.

The world sorely needs us.

“I just have to say in all candor that since this nation was founded primarily on Christian principles, personally, I prefer someone who has a grounding in my faith,” the GOP presidential hopeful told the Web site in an interview published Saturday.

McCain also said he agreed with a recent poll that 55 percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution establishes a Christian nation. “I would probably have to say yes, that the Constitution established the United States of America as a Christian nation.”

Now, I’ve got nothing against the man for stating his opinion and wanting a president with similar interests as his own. Who doesn’t? My issue is that someone who thinks they should be President… should know a bit more about our nation’s founding.

Yes, quite a few of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were Christian… but an awful lot weren’t. In fact, it could easily argued that four of the first five Presidents were Deists. And saying that the nation was founded on Christian principles… well you could also argue that the nation was founded on Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or any number of religious ideals.

There is nothing specifically Christian in any of the nation’s early documents. If you look in the Declaration of Independence, nowhere in that entire document does religion play a major role, Christian or otherwise. You would think that if America was started as a Christian nation, then we’d have some semblance of it in one of our most important founding documents.

The Founding Fathers were actually for the most part wary of religion; this due in large part to the chaos of the governments of Europe that was based in religious context. They wanted no part of that in the new nation they were founding and was a major motivating factor in the inclusion of freedom of religion in the first amendment. Thomas Jefferson went on to elaborate about the ‘wall of separation’ between Church and State created by the first amendment and was one of it’s largest proponents.

And finally, from the mouth of a large equine, specifically the Treaty of Peace and Friendship with Tripoli of 1797,

As the government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion – as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Musselmen, – and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

It doesn’t make me angry that people have differing views or that they want to promote themselves as religious folks to gain the vote… but it’s an inaccurate view of our nation’s history. And somebody who wants to be in charge of our country should know better.

Thomas Jefferson to Thomas Leiper, Washington, January 21, 1809.

Booga booga booga boo!  I’m an Athiest!

Atheists believe that life is meaningless.
On the contrary, religious people often worry that life is meaningless and imagine that it can only be redeemed by the promise of eternal happiness beyond the grave. Atheists tend to be quite sure that life is precious. Life is imbued with meaning by being really and fully lived. Our relationships with those we love are meaningful now; they need not last forever to be made so. Atheists tend to find this fear of meaninglessness … well … meaningless.

Atheism is responsible for the greatest crimes in human history.
People of faith often claim that the crimes of Hitler, Stalin, Mao and Pol Pot were the inevitable product of unbelief. The problem with fascism and communism, however, is not that they are too critical of religion; the problem is that they are too much like religions. Such regimes are dogmatic to the core and generally give rise to personality cults that are indistinguishable from cults of religious hero worship. Auschwitz, the gulag and the killing fields were not examples of what happens when human beings reject religious dogma; they are examples of political, racial and nationalistic dogma run amok. There is no society in human history that ever suffered because its people became too reasonable.

Via