Quote:
Originally posted by off2cjb:
Quote:
Originally posted by Mobycat:
[b]
Quote:
Originally posted by MAKWAY:
[b]
I find it furthermore interesting that the idea of a "seperation between church and state" is only found in a letter from one of the founding fathers (Jefferson) and not in any of the documents they collectively agreed on.
Not true.

Madison: The civil Government, though bereft of everything like an associated hierarchy, possesses the requisite stability, and performs its functions with complete success, whilst the number, the industry, and the morality of the priesthood, and the devotion of the people, have been manifestly increased by the total separation of the church from the State - Letter to Robert Walsh, Mar. 2, 1819

Strongly guarded as is the separation between religion and & Gov't in the Constitution of the United States the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history - Detached Memoranda, circa 1820

The experience of the United States is a happy disproof of the error so long rooted in the unenlightened minds of well-meaning Christians, as well as in the corrupt hearts of persecuting usurpers, that without a legal incorporation of religious and civil polity, neither could be supported. A mutual independence is found most friendly to practical Religion, to social harmony, and to political prosperity - Letter to F.L. Schaeffer, Dec 3, 1821.

Arguably, Jefferson and Madison were two of the most imporant of the founding fathers, if not the two most important (after all, one wrote the Delcaration, the other is the "father" of the Constitution).[/b]
Wrong Moby. Jefferson didn't write the Constitution, he merely rewrote it so it was legitable. Alexander Hamilton actually wrote it.[/b]
Um...you want to read that sentence again...

One wrote the declaration, the OTHER is the "father" of the Constitution.

Jefferson wrote the Declaration. The "other" is Madison.

Hamilton had nothing to do with the writing of the Declaration, and he had almost nothing to do with the writing of the Constitution.

Where did you learn your American History, anyway? [Huh?]
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"Nature has constituted utility to man the standard and test of virtue. Men living in different countries, under different circumstances, different habits and regimens, may have different utilities; the same act, therefore, may be useful and consequently virtuous in one country which is injurious and vicious in another differently circumstanced" - Thomas Jefferson, moral relativist