Freethinking

Watched a great show on Bill Moyer's Journal the other night. One of his guests, Susan Jacoby, was reviewing her latest book about the dumbing down of America. During the conversation with Bill, they also discussed her earlier book, "The Freethinkers." The book is basically about the manner in which the U.S. as a nation was created a secular government. That means (1) no oaths need be sworn nor faith professed to hold any office and (2) that the government may not establish (or support) nor prohibit the practice of any religion. The battle between those professing religious beliefs (primarily Protestant in the early days, Catholics in the first half of the last century, and evangelical christians in the modern era) and those identifying themselves as "freethinkers" (deists, unitarians, agnostics, athiests or simply "non-believers) has been going on since the country was founded. Most people will readily acknowledge that the majority of citizens in the U.S. identify with some adjunct of the Christian faith. Thus, in truth, we could be said to be a "nation of Christians." But Jacoby holds, and I agree, we are not and never have been a "Christian nation."

Reading Jacoby, I was reminded of the writings of Thomas Paine, one of the authors of the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and Bill of Rights. Paine was also a "freethinker" and wrote a treatise entitled "The Age of Reason," that provides the rationale for his beliefs that, while the universe and all that man has come to know of it argues for an unknowable creator, that all religion is man-made and many of its tenants unsupportable by reason.

I was surprised to learn that such thinking was really quite prevalent in the world at that time, and even more surprised when I learned how this founder of the greatest democratic experiment know to man was vilified, falsely accused of the most heinous crimes and almost lost to history by the hysterical rantings of so-called religious minded people.

This has created in me a new awareness of the intentionally secular nature of our nation and the insidious encroachment upon our freedom to believe OR NOT as fits our conscience by organizations who would damn all who do not conform to their image of a "right thinking" person, which to them means only someone who thinks as they do.