Still trying to decide for myself what our founding fathers original intent was when they approved the two religious clauses in the First Amendment to the Bill of Rights. I have been gathering information about the thinking of the early colonist and their supposed beliefs. 1. They were all most all creationist, as Darwinism was not known about. 2. Many of them, including many of our founding fathers were Deists. 3. Christianity was the dominate religion. 4. Many thought that the practice of religion was key to having a successful government of any type. 5. The founding fathers were opposed to the idea of England intervening in the colonies religious life, and did not belief that the King ruled by divine inspiration. 6. The founding fathers were heavily influenced by the revolutionary ideas of the enlightenment. Men like John Locke, Milton and others. 7. The Virginian, George Mason was the primary advocate of a Bill of Rights, as he feared the Constitution alone put to much power in the governments hands. James Madison wrote the Bill of Rights with the help of Mason, Patrick Henry and others. Interesting to note that James Madison was a Episcopalian. I have not as yet made any conclusions about their intent, for I still have a lot of reading to do. I kind of get the gut feeling that they would not be apposed to public display of religion as long as it was not supported by the government, and that they would not be opposed to resemble accommodation. I am finding this project very hard as there is so many bias views, including my own.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 00:17:56 +0000