Commentators like Alan Colmes put on a very constipated expression when they encounter the idea that America is a Christian nation. How else to explain Colmes' attempt to convince me that the founders were Deists? Actually I went on the Fox News Channel's Hannity & Colmes last night expecting to debate Christopher Hitchens. I was looking forward to informing Hitchens off the air that my book What's So Great About Christianity is outselling God Is Not Great even in the "Atheism" category on amazon.com. Alas, Hitchens was on a plane somewhere and didn't make it to the studio. So I had to make do with battling a much less adept opponent in Colmes.
The problem is that I don't think Colmes knows what a Diest is.
He seems to think that Deism is the eighteenth-century term for atheism. Deists, however, believe in a transcendent God who created the universe. In this sense Deists are by definition theists. Where Deists differ from Christians is that they believe that, having set the universe into motion, God goes on permanent vacation. The Deist God is akin to Aristotle's "first mover."
The vast majority of the American founders were not Deists but rather practicing Christians. As I pointed out on the show, even Benjamin Franklin could not be comfortably fitted into the Deist category. Franklin after all called for prayers to save the new country. Clearly he believed that God is solicitous of His Creatures and that prayers could be heard and answered. This isn't Deism.
Jefferson was the most irreverent of the founders, and he rejected the divinity of Christ and the miracles. Colmes seemed fascinated by Jefferson's habit of cutting out passages in the Bible he didn't approve of, a strategy that liberal judges seem to employ when dealing with the U.S. Constitution. Even Jefferson, though, gave as the source of our inalienable rights none other than the Creator. To translate for the benefit of atheists who have trouble understanding simple English: God is the source of all our rights. Not the Enlightenment. Not social contract theory. Not Voltaire's parlor ramblings. Startling though it may seem, America is based on "divine right," not the divine right of kings but a divine source of political authority extended from the one (the monarch) to the many (the people).
So America is not a Christian nation in that this country is not a theocracy, nor do Christians seek to make it one. America is, however, a Christian nation in that it was founded by Christians who recognized that its most fundamental principles derive exclusively from a transcendent source. Atheists may fret and fume over this, but that's the way it is.
Reader Comments ( Page 13 of 13)
181. Actually, it was Karl Marx who said that religion is the opiate of the masses.
RN at 4:39PM on Nov 6th 2007
182. #174 -- "It is hilarious how Jews and Judeism are never part of these religious debates. Judeism is no more provable and has all sorts of illogical bizarre beliefs associated with it - and yet it is never criticized, dragged throught the mud, or made fun of the way Christianity and Islam is."
It's pretty simple, really. The posts here are in response to an attack by D'Souza, who is a Christian. If someone of the Jewish faith were doing the attacking, then the discussion would involve Judaism.
It doesn't matter if it's Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any other religion. They are all based on acceptance of the supernatural, and that is the problem.
Tatiana at 2:53PM on Nov 7th 2007
183. I'm just bumping this because I click "most recent" and get an empty page and no way to see the last few comments!
Who is in charge of this blog? Supply a link to the LAST page with actual entries on it.
Thank you.
fabio at 4:56PM on Nov 7th 2007
184. Per Tatiana in post 180: "...It doesn't matter if it's Christianity, Judaism, Islam or any other religion. They are all based on acceptance of the supernatural, and that is the problem."
KB - I do not understand your fear. Why is a "problem" that the majority of people in this nation (or any other nation for that matter) accept the idea and existence of the Divine?
Ken Berg at 7:31PM on Nov 7th 2007