Stop teaching morons that Christianity has a monopoly on virtue

[BidenPresident]

In the "Declaration of Independence," the founding document of what would become the United States, Thomas Jefferson mentions "nature's God." Unfortunately, this phrase is unclear. The religious beliefs of Jefferson were much debated in his time and still are over two centuries later. Through the letters and other writings of Jefferson, it is possible to construct an outline of his beliefs. Although he supported the moral teachings of Jesus, Jefferson believed in a creator similar to the God of deism. In the tradition of deism, Jefferson based his God on reason and rejected revealed religion.

Spinoza is relevant here:

But Spinoza does not only dismantle the orthodox notion of a personal God, which he regards as a source of human misery. He also famously refers to ‘God or Nature’ (Deus sive Natura), which suggests that God is nothing but nature, and that ‘God’ can broadly be construed to refer both to the visible cosmos and to the unseen but fundamental power, laws and principles that govern it. And this, to me at least, looks like true atheism. In Spinoza’s view, all there is is nature. There is no supernatural; there is nothing that does not belong to nature and that is not subject to its causal processes.

https://literaryreview.co.uk/letting-go-of-god

[PostmodernProphet]

Unfortunately, this phrase is unclear.

yet the board's dumbfucks are convinced it means the founding fathers didn't believe in God......

[PostmodernProphet]

Spinoza is relevant here:

But Spinoza does not only dismantle the orthodox notion of a personal God, which he regards as a source of human misery. He also famously refers to ‘God or Nature’ (Deus sive Natura), which suggests that God is nothing but nature, and that ‘God’ can broadly be construed to refer both to the visible cosmos and to the unseen but fundamental power, laws and principles that govern it. And this, to me at least, looks like true atheism. In Spinoza’s view, all there is is nature. There is no supernatural; there is nothing that does not belong to nature and that is not subject to its causal processes.

https://literaryreview.co.uk/letting-go-of-god

why would ignorance be relevant?.....

[BidenPresident]

Religious authoritarians cannot stand the fact that each of us has the right to make our own decisions.

[Cypress]

yet the board's dumbfucks are convinced it means the founding fathers didn't believe in God......

Surely you aren't talking about me I never said anything of the sort.

My main point was that belief can be both reasonable and rational, even in the absence of empirical data and sensory perception.

This is famously demostrated in a belief in a universal higher truth, a natural law, expressed as universal equality and liberty articulated by both the American and French revolutionaries.

And as articulated by Christians, Deists and atheists alike of the Enlightenment era.

For that matter, the Confucian scholars of Medieval China were not strictly theists themselves, but they believed in a concept of Li - a naturally occurring pattern of universal principles and universal moral values. Basically, a type of Eastern analog to the West's tenet of natural law.