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To: Mark Felton
"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerve in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors."

-Thomas Jefferson, Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823

"Some have made the love of God the foundation of morality. This, too, is but a branch of our moral duties, which are generally divided into duties to God and duties to man. If we did a good act merely from the love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? It is idle to say, as some do, that no such being exists. We have the same evidence of the fact as of most of those we act on, to-wit: their own affirmations, and their reasonings in support of them. I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to Deism, in catholic countries they are to Atheism. Diderot, D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God." - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Thomas Law, June 13, 1814

"...But while this syllabus is meant to place the character of Jesus in its true and high light, as no impostor Himself, but a great Reformer of the Hebrew code of religion, it is not to be understood that I am with Him in all His doctrines. I am a Materialist; he takes the side of Spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance towards forgiveness of sin; I require counterpoise of good works to redeem it, etc., etc. It is the innocence of His character, the purity and sublimity of His moral precepts, the eloquence of His inculcations, the beauty of the apologues in which He conveys them, that I so much admire; sometimes, indeed, needing indulgence to eastern hyperbolism. My eulogies, too, may be founded on a postulate which all may not be ready to grant. Among the sayings and discourses imputed to Him by His biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence; and others, again, of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same Being. I separate, therefore, the gold from the dross; restore to Him the former, and leave the latter to the stupidity of some, and roguery of others of His disciples. Of this band of dupes and impostors, Paul was the great Coryphaeus, and first corruptor of the doctrines of Jesus. These palpable interpolations and falsifications of His doctrines, led me to try to sift them apart. I found the work obvious and easy, and that His past composed the most beautiful morsel of morality which has been given to us by man. The syllabus is therefore of His doctrines, not all of mine. I read them as I do those of other ancient and modern moralists, with a mixture of approbation and dissent..." - Thomas Jefferson, Letter to William Short, April 13, 1820

166 posted on 11/19/2002 10:14:28 AM PST by reasonseeker
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To: reasonseeker
I am not a practicing Christian. I also married a Jew.

I am a philospher and I am spiritual.

I am a believer in God. I am a defender of Western Civilization.

I am also a realist and rational being that understands that faith in God and a moral underpinning of the 10 Commandments is formula for a succesful civilization.

We are either ruled by God or we are ruled by men. Any true rational, reasoning and thinking libertarian will know this to be true.

Liberties can only be protected with a common set of moral ground rules.

This can also be consistent without imposing a religious creed upon the populace. Behaving morally is not the same as proselytizing.

Using a definition of moral behaviour (10 C's) that has been largely accepted by Western civilization for 1000's of years is a far more reasonable, rational, logical thing to do than to arrogantly attemp to create some new set of "commandments" as you recommended in that link.

Act with reason when you find it.

241 posted on 11/19/2002 10:49:24 AM PST by Mark Felton
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