An Act for establishing religious Freedom.Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free;that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do, that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavouring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of giving his contributions to the particular pastor, whose morals he would make his pattern, and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the Ministry those temporary rewards, which, proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct are an additional incitement to earnest and unremitting labours for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions any more than our opinions in physics or geometry, that therefore the proscribing any citizen as unworthy the public confidence, by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to offices of trust and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages, to which, in common with his fellow citizens, he has a natural right, that it tends only to corrupt the principles of that very Religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing with a monopoly of worldly honours and emoluments those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed, these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and to restrain the profession or propagation of principles on supposition of their ill tendency is a dangerous fallacy which at once destroys all religious liberty because he being of course judge of that tendency will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its officers to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that Truth is great, and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them: Be it enacted by General Assembly that no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief, but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of Religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish, enlarge or affect their civil capacities. And though we well know that this Assembly elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of Legislation only, have no power to restrain the acts of succeeding Assemblies constituted with powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable would be of no effect in law; yet we are free to declare, and do declare that the rights hereby asserted, are of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.Thomas Jefferson
I have declined offers to pray or attend church from my clients and lost them as a result. I wouldn’t have been able to respect myself if I hadn’t becasue I refuse to comprimise myself for money.
Shit! I can’t spell tonight.
alex,
I’d have told them no too but my hubby is too nice.
I am the evil one
Nice guys finish last.
You need to toughen him up unless he is happy with the way things are in this world with the religious folks forcing their beliefs on those who aren’t interested. Send him to Chapel Hill and I’ll give him some lessons.
Dawnisis
OT ALERT
Please ask your music-producer “hubby” to check out a band called Danger is My Middle Name. They have a myspace presence at
http://tinyurl.com/yuqsq6
with a some great tunes. If he has limited time ask him to listen to the tunes “Revenge on the Radio” and “Sidecar One”.
LATimes got da poop on da pope
ROME — It’s a big deal when the pope agrees to speak at an event that isn’t church-related.
It’s an even bigger deal when public protest forces him to cancel.
Veteran Vatican-watchers said they’d never seen anything quite like it. Pope Benedict XVI on Tuesday abruptly called off plans to speak at Rome’s prestigious La Sapienza university, after students and professors rallied to proclaim him pontiff non grata.
Thank you god for Porrnography. Amen!
QF
What’s with your expressed porn obsession on this blog?
What is not with my obsessions?
You seem to make a lot of porn related posts. A few weeks ago a just started scrolling by your posts because of it.
What,
Right there in Rome too! The United States is on its way to the bottom of the heap because we won’t stand up to the religious. It is becoming apparent to me that they are a minority but the politicians love them because all the religious require is faith, no facts or reality based decisions needed. Simply have faith that the politician will cause the destruction that will bring jeebus.
Rna2dna
Yep. Right there Rome! Suuuuweet.
I’m a passionate man….
My other two main obsessions for now are science and atheism.
To come in better days: Invention, materialism, world travel, then eventually get a nice atheist wife and have kids.
Dave
Topic suggestion: What killed religion in Europe?
[What], read the article on Machines Like Us…. that looks like a good website.
Okay, in case you were wondering, I like porn because Adam Carolla and Jimmy Kimmel, from the Man Show made it seem really cool! I guess that some of us do learn by imitation. By the way, the drinking/farting Man Show was a good influence on me.
QF
Which article on Machines Like Us?
I’m sure Thomas Jefferson would include the non religious in the idea of religious freedom , it’s so sad to see a soon to be ex president chew up and regurgitate Mr Jeffersons words so badly.
This is beyond blasphemy.
“Humans appear hardwired to learn by over-imitation”
An article I suggested to read on this blog. Search for the comment time-stamp:
01/15/08 @ 16:35
Well, then my thanks go to you instead, KnowledgeIsPower. That Machines Like Us Website is really informative, and it integrates the viewpoints of some really brilliant minds too.
This is cross topic and off topic.
After a long hike today I sat down to dinner and the jcc funnies, it was a fun way to end an enjoyable day.
As jcc sometimes appears to be forced to be here, as if (s)he[it] was suffering the punishment of a god idea, I wonder what jcc thinks about the poop not going where he is not wanted. Is the poop allowed to choose because he hasn’t committed jesus sin as often as jcc has?
On the subject of prayer in the workplace, my daughter is employed in a city/county hospital and is subjected to the prayer business before meetings. She knows this violates the law, but it is a practice that comes from the head of the hospital right down to her immediate supervisor. She hasn’t been employed there yet quite six months and doesn’t feel she can make waves without compromising future pay raises. She is also working on her masters and would like to move up in that hospital, but believes if she objects that it will kill her chance at the position she has her eye on.
Sometimes there are no easy answers and a lot of keeping your mouth shut and gritting your teeth is about all you can do. This town isn’t all that large and thus other hospitals are not an option. She cringes if I so much as write a letter to the editor of the paper since we both share the same name. I see her point and try to hold it down because of her problem and that is frustrating for me.