Which founders?

Dear Editor,

I surely wish Mr. Anderson could point me to precisely where the Founding Fathers, any of them, mandated or in any way advocated the teaching of the Bible.

Given that one of them, Thomas Jefferson, had the following to say: "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 Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." Thomas Jefferson, Jefferson's Works, Vol. IV, p. 365, Randolph's ed.

And another, James Madison, later president said:

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both superstition, bigotry and persecution. In no instance have the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people. Religious bondage shackles and deblitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise" (April 1774).

And yet another important figure of the revolution declares:

"Yet this is trash that the Church imposes upon the world as the Word of God; this is the collection of lies and contradictions called the Holy Bible! This is the rubbish called Revealed Religion!" -- Thomas Paine.

And Benjamin Franklin was of the opinion that:

"Lighthouses are more helpful than churches."

I believe that Clarence Darrow was a lawyer hired to advocate one side of a legal adversarial proceeding. And as with the "Doctors" Mr. Anderson cited in a previous letter a diligent Google search including Google scholar turns up no information for a Dr. Tamasian.

I'm starting to be of the opinion that Mr. Anderson like so many of the backdoor theocrats simply makes stuff up as he goes.

It also would seem that Mr. Anderson would desire the creation of an American form of the madrassas of Islamic infamy wherein, rather than studying the knowledge gained previously by observation, experimentation, one merely memorizes the portions of scripture that support one's contentions.

Respectfully:

Patrick L. Tolle

via e-mail