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A review by kevin_shepherd
Godless Citizens in a Godly Republic: Atheists in American Public Life by R. Laurence Moore, Isaac Kramnick
4.0
“The Government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion." -The United States Treaty of Tripoli, 1796
“I don’t know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic.” -George H. W. Bush, 1987
Did you know that there are only two full-size statues of Thomas Paine in the U.S.? Do you know why? It is because every time a monument to Paine is proposed there inevitably comes an objection from the theocratic right. Do you know why? It is because he penned The Age of Reason (1793), a “scathing critique” of organized religion.
Thomas Paine is but one example of a multitude of individuals in American history who are routinely disrespected due to their criticisms of fundamentalist ideology. Paine was no atheist, but he might as well have been. His exclusion from many high school textbooks puts him in close company with the likes of Robert Ingersoll and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Are a person’s religious convictions, or lack there of, predictive of their ability to lead? To handle state and national affairs? To act morally and ethically in service of the common good? Apparently many Americans think so. Hell, even Walt Whitman called himself a pantheist rather than an atheist or an agnostic to soften the blow and avoid the wretched glare of pious watchdogs.
Much of the antisecular bias that has permeated sociopolitical USA has been set atop three pillars of misconception: 1) a nonbeliever can not be a good person, 2) a nonbeliever can not be a good citizen, and 3) nonbelievers, like all intellectuals, are cultural elitists.
Authors Moore and Kramnick have written an eye opening history of secular Americans existing in this allegedly Christian State. They detail numerous incidents and litigations where American nonbelievers have been blatantly disadvantaged and discriminated against, and where the wall between church and state has been eroded or downright eradicated.
Contrary to what some reviewers are saying, Moore & Kramnick are not advocating for the suppression of religious freedom. No one wants that (not even me!). What is wanted is the disentanglement of theology from government, the disestablishment of this confessional state, and a return to the ideals and values put forth in our Godless Constitution.
“Hypocrisy is what empties the public square of moral purpose, and nothing encourages hypocrisy more than a God of convenience who finds sin not in what we do but in what our political opponents do.” -R. Laurence Moore & Isaac Kramnick
“I don’t know that atheists should be regarded as citizens, nor should they be regarded as patriotic.” -George H. W. Bush, 1987
Did you know that there are only two full-size statues of Thomas Paine in the U.S.? Do you know why? It is because every time a monument to Paine is proposed there inevitably comes an objection from the theocratic right. Do you know why? It is because he penned The Age of Reason (1793), a “scathing critique” of organized religion.
Thomas Paine is but one example of a multitude of individuals in American history who are routinely disrespected due to their criticisms of fundamentalist ideology. Paine was no atheist, but he might as well have been. His exclusion from many high school textbooks puts him in close company with the likes of Robert Ingersoll and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
Are a person’s religious convictions, or lack there of, predictive of their ability to lead? To handle state and national affairs? To act morally and ethically in service of the common good? Apparently many Americans think so. Hell, even Walt Whitman called himself a pantheist rather than an atheist or an agnostic to soften the blow and avoid the wretched glare of pious watchdogs.
Much of the antisecular bias that has permeated sociopolitical USA has been set atop three pillars of misconception: 1) a nonbeliever can not be a good person, 2) a nonbeliever can not be a good citizen, and 3) nonbelievers, like all intellectuals, are cultural elitists.
Authors Moore and Kramnick have written an eye opening history of secular Americans existing in this allegedly Christian State. They detail numerous incidents and litigations where American nonbelievers have been blatantly disadvantaged and discriminated against, and where the wall between church and state has been eroded or downright eradicated.
Contrary to what some reviewers are saying, Moore & Kramnick are not advocating for the suppression of religious freedom. No one wants that (not even me!). What is wanted is the disentanglement of theology from government, the disestablishment of this confessional state, and a return to the ideals and values put forth in our Godless Constitution.
“Hypocrisy is what empties the public square of moral purpose, and nothing encourages hypocrisy more than a God of convenience who finds sin not in what we do but in what our political opponents do.” -R. Laurence Moore & Isaac Kramnick