This is true.... This is letter responding to just that...this Glen R. Salter wrote a respond to my letter above to which I responded with this one:
May I redress the letter in the NW Times, July 19?
Mr. Glen R. Salter states I “falsely accused Art Hobson (Physics Professor at the University of Arkansas) of not having an open mind about creation being taught in the public school system.” Logic indicates if the Creator were banned in schools, much unique American history would be also. Hobson stated, “Creationists are among the most arrogant of humans”. Salter opines believers are ignorant.
Salter claims my faith in the Declaration of Independence with its reference to God “is humorous” and “shows a lack of knowledge of Mr. Jefferson and the history of that period.” Hardly! I read Jefferson’s original writings from my personal library collection. Jefferson read David Hume’s works at nineteen, along with a staggering list of literature that would overwhelm most that age. For Salter to state, “The Founding Fathers were not privy to this later philosophical literature, so we do not know what their religious beliefs would be today”, smacks of sneering elitism.
Salter wrote, “The Christian clergy back then accused Mr. Jefferson of being an atheist.” That’s true. “My views…are the result of a life of inquiry and reflection and very different from the anti-Christian system imputed to me by those who know nothing of my opinions. I am a Christian….” Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush. Salter said, “It is well documented that Mr. Jefferson did not believe in the divinity of Jesus.” However, Jefferson’s writing illustrates opposite. Its interesting the clergy of Jefferson’s time thought him atheist. Now, atheists and modern historians, and those who want to keep intelligent design out of the classroom, repeat this falsehood.
Jefferson penned in Query XVIII of his Notes on the State of Virginia: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the Gift of God?” to be violated, but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that His justice cannot sleep forever.” This is why Christian-Americans cannot disavow the Declaration from our beliefs. Our rights originate from the Creator who made us free. The Declaration’s truths are the bedrock of our founding; to separate from this concept severs our freedoms.
“The Christian Religion, when divested of the rags in which they (the clergy) have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of its Benevolent Institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science and the freest expansion of the human mind.” Does Jefferson sound arrogant, ignorant? Words of an atheist? No! A testimony of a Christian who authored and signed a pledge with “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence” pledged his “life, fortune and sacred honor” to overthrow tyranny.
Ben Stein’s movie Expelled is the ultimate discussion of intelligent design within academia and science. I recommend it.
It's a funny thing, but I strongly believe in Intelligent Design, and not in New-Earth Creationism. I don't understand how anyone can, really, and particularly since Bishop Ussher was an Anglican. God works on a different time scale than we, just as we work on one different from that of the mayfly. If I'm not making sense, here, I've got a headache that won't quit, and have been trying to fix my wife's computer all day. This is the ops check.