By Andy Rooney

DID YOU KNOW? As you walk up the steps to the building which houses the U.S Supreme Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward with a full frontal view .. it is Moses and he is holding the Ten Commandments!

DID YOU KNOW?
As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.

DID YOU KNOW?
As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall, right above where the Supreme Court judges sit,
a display of the Ten Commandments!


DID YOU KNOW?
There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings and Monuments in Washington, D.C.

DID YOU KNOW?
James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our Constitution" made the following statement:
"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."


DID YOU KNOW?
Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said:
"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".


DID YOU KNOW?
Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher, whose salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.


DID YOU KNOW?
Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the established orthodox churches in the colonies.


DID YOU KNOW?
Thomas Jefferson worried that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of interpreting the law would begin making law . an oligarchy the rule of few over many.


DID YOU KNOW?
The very first Supreme Court Justice, John Jay, said:
"Americans should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."

How, then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for 220 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional?


It is said that 86% of Americans believe in God. Therefore, it is very hard to understand why there is such a mess about having the Ten Commandments on display or "In God We Trust" on our money and having God in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Because mass education is very gradually enabling the populations of the world to have the confidence to ask for evidence and validation of all religious statements and to realise when this is never forthcoming, that there is no god and religion is redundant.

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ". -Patrick Henry

Perhaps God as you believe does not exist.

Some consideration to the Ten Comandments and their moral implications are implied in self government, and The Teachings of Christ not as a religion but as a Teaching of empowerment. A thought that within each person exists a strength in Truth, compassion and wisdom if it is nurtured and developed, rather than manipulated and controlled through repression of expression and free thinking.
A God within, and the outer being a reflection of thought.

There is no God reflected on the outside of there is none (no power, no consciousness, no life) experienced within.

During the crusades the Church had the power (be it corrupt) to try and tell people what to think.
Today Democracy, the power of the majority (be it corrupt by mass education) as a loud voice, seeks the power to tell people what to think.

Education doesn't empower anyone to freely think, that is inherent. Education only piles opinions relative to comprehensive determinations of what is relative according to the majority, onto freedom of thought.

On a similar note
Lynn Westmoreland, Republican Congressman on the 10CMDs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KcofsmFXCYE...=related&search

What you are calling God I call life. I can call it Life with a capital L, but it is still just physics and biology, nothing supernatural at all.

You can call it whatever you like. Physics and biology are just topic headings for qualifying or categorizing the underlying qualities that are percieved as life and much more.

I agree with that.

What is life and how do you know that physics and biology can qualify or categorize its underlying qualities? I put to you that life is supernatural and that there is no less evidence for a supernatural force than there is for the Higgs.

I know my perception of life, and it has nothing to do with biology, physics, religion, or anyone other than myself for that matter. Only you can give meaning to your life. As far as I am concerned anyone telling me the meaning of my life has yet to find meaning in their own~

"If you swear that there's no God who cares why do you say it like you're right" -Bright Eyes

Physics can categorize. Electrons go into the electron sub-bin of the matter category. Protons go into the proton sub-bin. Physics can qualify: electrons are attracted to proton shells. Protons and electrons are underlying qualities. Gold is shiny, for example, because its free electrons freely fling photons into my eye. I know that because the well-accepted physical models are successful in describing the causes of experience (observation).

I think the natural explanations are (potentially) complete and need no supernatural buttressing. Why divide a model of reality into natural and supernatural parts when you don't have to? It would only add to the potential for confusion. That's Occam's principle.

Evidence for the Higgs boson is solidly theoretical on the so-called standard model. In a few years, when research collider energies exceed 500 GEV, evidence for the Higgs may be empircal (by indirect observation).

Just kidding! Help!

I thought you appeared to be somewhat out of character there.

Science is an answer to a how, not a why, so until science can prove a why there shall remain the idea of a supernatural.

An idea of a supernatural will always exist, if only to describe our primitive past in history books. Most scientists have overcome personal belief in superstition, but there are still a few holdouts who are competent scientists in spite of that handicap. An answer as to why does not necessarily involve recourse to any supernatural hypothesis.

The word "supernatural" suggests that which exceeds complacency in thought and perception.

I would use the term "superhuman." "Supernatural" implies something above nature, for which there is no credible evidence. All my conscious experience is part of nature. That includes spiritual feeling.

I think being able to understand the nature of the need to define that which exceeds the present experience and understanding will remove any attachment to a personal point of view.

This way labels are labels and easily understood in their intent.

It seems to me that certain experiences preclude (or discourage) excessive personal attachment. I might have a need to define that which exceeds understanding, but probably lack the ability (or symbols are inherently limited).

Symbols are limited