God, Gar the Texan & the Founding Fathers

It has perplexed and baffled me for quite some time why I have so many people happening upon my blog and so few seem to have discovered the extremely well-considered Random Ramblings of Gar the Texan.

Even more perplexing to me is how many Americans are so totally ignorant of their nation's actual history. The "Don't Believe in God" billboard has brought a lot of the ignorant crud out of the mud.

I'm afraid if some of the ignorant people were to learn what our Founding Fathers actually believed they would be so horrified they'd feel like they had to leave the country, because it was not the country they thought they were living in.

Gar the Texan, today, has done his usual excellent job of elaborating on a subject, this time he is elaborating on the actual beliefs of our Founding Fathers, people like Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, George Washington and, even, though he was not a Founding Father, Abraham Lincoln.

Now, this research by Gar the Texan is particularly impressive due to the fact that it is only recently he discovered that some interesting things went on before he was born. He now seems to have evolved into some sort of history buff.

Don't Believe in God? Part 2

A couple days ago I blogged about the "Don't Believe in God?" billboards that have been sprouting up all over America, including the part of America I am in right now, that being the Dallas/Fort Worth zone of Texas.

In that blogging I copied an embarrassingly erroneous letter that was in that morning's Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Now. I think it is wrong that that paper prints such letters from people who so clearly are, well, a bit dim.

And then I got a comment to the blog regarding that letter, saying it was an excellent letter. That comment was so convoluted I didn't feel the need to shoot the fish in that particular barrel.

Gar the Texan then commented on that comment, wondering why I didn't shoot the fish.

Well, in this morning's Star-Telegram three new letters to the editor shot the fish in the barrel for me. Below are those letters....

First Amendment freedom

Thomas T. Risher asks, “What is the world coming to when you see billboards that ask, ‘Don’t believe in God? You are not alone’ ”?

I can tell him exactly where the world is coming to; it’s coming to freedom.

Apparently those of us who recognize that the founders created a government not founded on religion will always have to remind those who want to rewrite history that “one nation under God” and “In God we trust” were not written by our Founding Fathers and are not part of our founding documents.

In 1797, many years before either of these phrases were written, a treaty was approved unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams that contained the following words “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”

Risher accuses me of mocking our Founding Fathers. Nothing could be further from the truth.

I have a profound respect and an enduring admiration for our Founding Fathers, in part because they created a government that gives me the freedom of speech to put up billboards and freedom of religion so I don’t have to sit in church on Sunday next to a religious bigot.

— Terry McDonald, Dallas-Fort Worth Coalition of Reason, Grapevine

What is truly disturbing is how confused the letter writer is about history. America was not and has never been “founded on God.” The original Founding Fathers recognized the folly of using religion to create government. The one reference to religion in the Constitution is Article 6: “[N]o religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

The other great founding document is the Bill of Rights, whose First Amendment says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech ... .”

How about a deal? If the writer will remove every religious reference from public view (which I have always found somewhat offensive), I’ll talk to McDonald about removing the billboards.

— Charlie Rodriguez, Arlington

I read a lot of nonsense in the letters to the editor, but I can’t not respond to Risher’s letter. He asks how we can allow billboards with an atheistic message.

Easy — it is the law. Not only is it not an affront to the Founding Fathers, it is the fruition of their work.

I’m sure Risher considers himself a patriot, but I consider his attitude of constitutional freedoms only being for citizens who share his beliefs to be the worst form of betrayal of our Constitution and its authors.

I am a Christian and a veteran. I served to defend the Constitution that the writer obviously does not comprehend — and his right to spew nonsense publicly, just as the atheists have the right to spew publicly.

— Eugene Chandler, Arlington

Don't Believe in God? You Are Not Alone According to Billboard

The billboard you see in the picture has been appearing all over America, including Dallas, which is where the one you see in the picture is located. Another appears in Fort Worth.

Somehow this would seem to be a tad provocative here in the Buckle of the Bible Belt.

The billboards are brought to America courtesy of something called FreeThoughtAction, which is part of something called the American Humanist Association.

According to the executive director of the American Humanist Association, Roy Speckhardt, "The point of the billboard is to let nontheistic people, such as atheists and agnostics, know they’re not alone."

The founder of FreeThoughtAction, Jan Meshon further explained, "For all the attention given to religion lately, the number of secular Americans is booming. The tide is definitely turning."

To which Speckhardt adds, "So why have nontheistic Americans been made to feel marginalized and deviant? This billboard demonstrates our will to push back and refuse to be passive in the culture wars. And after so many religious billboards, it’s only fair that we should have one that gives voice to nontheists."

It really is no great surprise that the news of these billboards would generate at least one embarrassingly wrong-headed letter to the editor of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. I'll copy it below. See how many erroneous beliefs you can spot in the letter....

Disturbing message

What is the world coming to when you see billboards that ask, “Don’t believe in God? You are not alone”?

Metroplex Atheists Chairman Terry McDonald is exercising his freedom of speech but, at the same time, he is confusing church and state. With America as “one nation under God,” how could we let this happen?

“In God we trust” is printed on our money. Our country was founded on God, and for this billboard to stand anywhere in this country is a mockery of our founding fathers.

— Thomas T. Risher, Fort Worth