How to prevent Christians from stoning you.

[daftbeaker]

You can't have extreme points of view in the Church of England. You must have tea and cake with the vicar or YOU DIE! Cake or death?

[Valanthe]

It's odd how a country that is supposed to have separation of church and state in its very founding document has so many extremists in it. The Westboro Baptist Church crowd, the people responsible for the death of George Tiller, the list goes on. I realize that not all xtians are that extreme, but the ones that are tend to make me want to give them a wider berth than the hypocritical ones have already managed to do.

[Scott the Pirate]

Ditto.

[PKMKII]

It's odd how a country that is supposed to have separation of church and state in its very founding document has so many extremists in it.

Actually, the fact that this country was "founded" by a bunch of nutty puritans is a very central part of why we have the respect clause in the first amendment. The puritans left England because they were sick of the church being a branch of the Crown, and didn't want to be member of a church whose doctrine and philosophy was determined via politics. The respect clause was just as much about protecting religion from politics as it was about protecting government from religion.

[Qwertyuiopasd]

Country wasn't founded by the nutty protestants. The land was perhaps.... invaded and set up for Europeans by them, in part. But that all either started as or ended up as royal colonies, no less than other parts of the English Empire.

The united states was actually founded by a slew of intelligent enlightenmnet thinkers, the most prominent of which made very sure that Separation of Church and State was an inherent part of the constitution.

So yes, the history does lead to an explanation of the radicals in this country (on all sides), while still having sensible ideas in the constitution.

[PKMKII]

That's why I put "founded" in big, ironic quotation marks. I suppose it would just be more accurate to say "guys that arrived in what is now New England first."

[Scott the Pirate]

That's why I put "founded" in big, ironic quotation marks. I suppose it would just be more accurate to say "guys that arrived in what is now New England first."

Would you be referring to the natives? They were here first.

Columbus Day! An entire day celebrating the life of a lost white guy! When he left he didn't know where he was going, when there got there he didn't know where he was, and when he got home he had no idea where he'd been.

Besides, Scandinavians, specifically Icelanders, were here before Columbus as well.

[PKMKII]

That's why I put "founded" in big, ironic quotation marks. I suppose it would just be more accurate to say "guys that arrived in what is now New England first."

Would you be referring to the natives? They were here first.

Okay you pedantic bastards, the first Limeys to show up and build a house in New England! sheeesh.

Besides, Scandinavians, specifically Icelanders, were here before Columbus as well.

Difference being that the Scandinavians didn't set up any truly permanent settlements. They just arrived, did some fishing, and went back.

[daftbeaker]

Columbus Day! An entire day celebrating the life of a lost white guy! When he left he didn't know where he was going, when there got there he didn't know where he was, and when he got home he had no idea where he'd been.

[pedantry]Columbus was planning on going to India, which might just work if North America didn't exist. Perfectly reasonable assumption given the knowledge available. Also, on a previously unknown continent it's a bit hard not to be lost[/pedantry]

Has anyone tried bringing up the Treaty of Tripoli when faced with the 'The US was founded on christian principles' statement?

[PKMKII]

All the time. Also works well when people try to argue that America and the Muslim nations are inherently enemies.

[ET, the Extra Terrestrial]

It's very likely that European fishermen knew about North America, at least the northern portion in the vicinity of the Grand Banks, well before Columbus got around to his first trip across the Atlantic. There is historical evidence of a successful colonization of Greenland by Norse settlers, that lasted around 500 years before dying out. The European colonization effort that started in the early 1600's is still about 100 years shy of this record. The book 1421 presents a decent case for a pre-Columbian Chinese expedition to North America, as well. It's entirely possible that Columbus knew exactly where he was going when he left - I've seen a precolumbian map of an island that looks suspiciously like Puerto Rico, but of course I can't find it now. Columbus, on his first expedition, described the natives as lovely industrious and intelligent people. On his second trip, looking for slaves to enrich himself and his sponsors, the same people were described as stupid, lazy and generally inferior. Columbus was a colossal asshole, who deserves to have a urinal mounted on his grave, and we celebrate a huge annual holiday in his honor.

[Scott the Pirate]

Difference being that the Scandinavians didn't set up any truly permanent settlements. They just arrived, did some fishing, and went back.

Not so. I'll go get my book and post tomorrow.

[Qwertyuiopasd]

That's why I put "founded" in big, ironic quotation marks.

How did I miss that? Argh, I feel slightly stupid now. Ah well.

And curse you, ET, for beating me to the 1421 Chinese point.

But yes, it's not hard to do a little research and prove easily that the constitution is quite intentionally devoid of religion.

[Valanthe]

Now if we could only get the point across to the ignorant fundies out there. I know I'd feel a little safer out there.

[Ubi Dubium]

I read a book about cod that said there were indications that the Basque fisherman had not only found the Grand Banks before Columbus, but also Newfoundland. Apparently the Basque fishing fleet would put to sea, the other fishermen had no idea where they went, but they returned with their holds stuffed with magnificent dried salt cod. And another early explorer reported the coast of Newfoundland full of Basque fisherman salting and drying their catch.

The Norse built a settlement in Newfoundland, at L'Anse Aux Meadows http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%27Anse_aux_Meadows. I think it was an outpost of their settlements in Greenland, which collapsed when the Little Ice Age hit. Greenland was barely marginal for the cattle and agriculture lifestyle that the Norse were determined to have. Once the climate shifted, it just couldn't support them. Ironically, the native "skraelings" (I believe that meant "wretches" in Norse) that the Norsemen despised were the ones with the culture that allowed survival in that environment. If the Norsemen had respected the natives, and learned from them about things like fishing and seal hunting, they could have survived in Greenland. But no, they built their churches, raised their cows, tried to farm, and all died.