Discernible Virtue

This sentiment is echoed again and again in the writings of the Founding Fathers.  Virtue brings happiness, vice unhappiness, both to the individual subject and to society in general.  The nature of virtue is not mysterious, to be comprehended only through Christian revelation;  it is clearly evident in nature and discernible through the exercise of reason.
—    Brooke Allen
From her book:  “Moral Minority“
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On This Day In:
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2021	I’ve Still Not Found #45’s One Thing
	Chewin’ On A Piece Of Grass
2020	Listening To A #IncompetentDonald COVID-19 Press Briefing
2019	I Am Doubtful
	Future Justice Looks Corporate
2018	True Measures
2017	Hoping For Tapes
	In It Now
2016	On Viewing This Mudball
2015	It Takes A Village
2014	In God’s Eyes
2013	We Root For Ourselves
2012	Like A Shark
2011	Discernible Virtue

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What About Freedom?

And what about the ideal of freedom, the principle that in America has served as a beacon for both the left and the right, the religious and the secular, for the past three hundred years?  This has become such a fundamental part of our thinking that we have all but forgotten its origin as an Enlightenment project.  But in fact no one before that era ever considered individual autonomy to be a “natural” right.
—     Brooke Allen
From her book:   “Moral Minority“
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On This Day In:
2022	Truly And Simply
2021	Lessons
	We Used To Sing
2020	And #45 Is Flat On His Face
2019	I’m Still Hungry
2018	What Matters
2017	By Far
2016	Until…
2015	Or Infinitesimal
2014	I’ve Looked At Clouds
2013	Undiscovered Ocean
2012	Feeling Old? (Part 2)
2011	What About Freedom?

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Not Just The Facts, Ma’am

Science is not merely an array of debatable facts, as its religious critics claim, but a series of hypotheses that are continually subject to empirical investigation, change, and refinement through inquiry.
—     Brooke Allen
From her book:  “Moral Minority“
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On This Day In:
2022	Threat Calculus
	7 (And 6) – 40
2021	Questioned By Life
	If There’ll Come A Time
2020	Trying To Grow Pearls?
2019	Instantly Turned
2018	Sitting
2017	No Right Way
2016	Still Ticklish
2015	Maybe Sooner Than You Think
2014	The Path Of Mastery
2013	Love’s Ignorance
2012	Here’s To Enjoyment
2011	Not Just The Facts, Ma’am

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Skeptical Fathers

Yesterday, I developed a bad sore throat.  I made it through the work day, but it was getting progressively worse.  I woke up around 2:30am with difficulty breathing, unable to swallow, and what felt like sandpaper at the back  of my throat and a walnut under each of my jaws.  This morning I went to the doctor’s office and was told it’s viral not bacterial, so all I can do is continue to gargle and hang in there (lots of fluids and rest) for a few days and it’ll go away.
So today I completed “Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers“, written by Brooke Allen (2006©).  The book is about the religious beliefs of six of the “Founding Fathers” of the United States of America (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Adams).  If you’ll pardon the pun, the book has been a revelation to me!!
I had always assumed our Founding Fathers were highly religious (Protestant) Christians.  It seems this is mostly (but not entirely) untrue.  For example, Washington was an occasional church attendee, but he never participated in communion.  In fact, when communion was about to begin, he would stand and leave the service.  When confronted about this behaviour, he admitted he never considered it to be distracting to others attending the service.  Although he continued to occasionally attend services, he never attended another service where communion was to be offered.  The rest, although raised in Christian faith, appear to be mostly Deists.  The exception being Hamilton, who seems to have re-discovered Christianity late in life – but not early enough to have had it significantly affect his politics.
In any case, all were stridently against the mixture of Church and State, and so it seems strange to me to think the Religious Right in today’s America hold up the Founding Fathers as the guides in returning the United States to our religious and political roots.  It seems they (the Religious Right) either don’t read (or refuse to understand / believe) the history of our country.  Well, what else is new?
After presenting a chapter on each of the six Founding Fathers, the book concludes with two chapters describing the world which produces the Founding Fathers and some of the turmoil and issues since 1787.  Both chapters are excellent overviews of the religious / political worlds before and after our Constitution and are worth the price of the book themselves.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in American History, Politics or the specific issue of the separation of Church and State.  Rest assured you will see numerous quotes from this book over the next few months…
And lest I forget to mention, this is one of the two books I purchased with the gift certificate my daughter Rebecca gave me for my birthday.  Thanks Bec, this book has brought me hours of enjoyable reading and reflective thought!!
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