[danzig]

Here negatives are popping through the roof. I do not feel that running a town the size of 7000 people and a state that has the population of a med. sized us city for less than 2 years are qualifications to run the country. I also feel that her radical Christian beliefs are very scary for some one who would have so much power. A person who runs this country should be unbiased about any religion. Religion has to take a back seat to the running of the country. She excites the base because she is so biased about Christianity. She also had a African witch hunter who ran a woman out of her home after he persecuted her for being a witch. WOW that is just out and out crazy and has no place in modern society. As far as the radical people who say that this country was founded on Christianity, all I can say is they have not idea what the history of this country is all about.
[Thomas Paine, _The Age of Reason_]

"That God cannot lie, is no advantage to your argument, because it is no proof that priests can not, or that the Bible does not."


[The Life and Works of Thomas Paine, Vol. 9 p. 134]

"The NT, compared with the Old, is like a farce of one act..."


[_The Age of Reason_, Thomas Paine, p. 153]

"There are matters in the Bible, said to be done by the express commandment of God, that are shocking to humanity and to every idea we have of moral justice....".


[Thomas Paine]

"..but the Bible is such a book of lies and contradictions there is no knowing which part to believe or whether any..."


[_The Age of Reason_, Thomas Paine, p. 104]

"As to the book called the Bible, it is blasphemy to call it the Word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions, and a history of bad times and bad men. There are but a few good characters in the whole book."


[Thomas Paine, Letter to William Duane, April 23, 1806]

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any Church that I know of. My own mind is my own Church."


[Thomas Paine, The Age of Reason]

"The story of Jesus Christ appearing after he was dead is the story of an apparition, such as timid imaginations can always create in vision, and credulity believe. Stories of this kind had been told of the assassination of Julius Caesar..."


[Thomas Paine]

"What is it the Bible teaches us? - raping, cruelty, and murder. What is it the New Testament teaches us? - to believe that the Almighty committed debauchery with a woman engaged to be married, and the belief of this debauchery is called faith."


[Thomas Paine]

"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."


[George Washington, address to Congress, 8 January, 1790]

"In those parts of the world where learning and science have prevailed, miracles have ceased; but in those parts of it as are barbarous and ignorant, miracles are still in vogue."


[Ethan Allen, Reason the Only Oracle of Man, pamphlet, 1784]

"While we are under the tyranny of Priests [...] it will ever be their interest, to invalidate the law of nature and reason, in order to establish systems incompatible therewith."


[Ethan Allen, _Reason_the_Only_Oracle_of_Man_]

"The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma."


[Abraham Lincoln]

"I am for liberty of conscience in its noblest, broadest, and highest sense. But I cannot give liberty of conscience to the pope and his followers, the papists, so long as they tell me, through all their councils, theologians, and canon laws that their conscience orders them to burn my wife, strangle my children, and cut my throat when they find their opportunity."


[Abraham Lincoln]

"My earlier views at the unsoundness of the Christian scheme of salvation and the human origin of the scriptures, have become clearer and stronger with advancing years and I see no reason for thinking I shall ever change them."


[Abraham Lincoln, letter to Judge J.S. Wakefield, after the death of Willie Lincoln]

"It will not do to investigate the subject of religion too closely, as it is apt to lead to infidelity."


[Abraham Lincoln, from "What Great Men Think Of Religion" by Ira Cardiff]

"I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and by religious men who are certain they represent the Divine will. ... I hope it will not be irreverent in me to say, that if it be probable that God would reveal his will to others, on a point so connected with my duty, it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me."


[Abraham Lincoln. Chapter 14 of Part 5 of *Six Historic Americans* by John Ramsburg]

"I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute- where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic) how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whom to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds or political preference--and where no man is denied public office merely because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him."


[President John F. Kennedy]

"I would suggest the taxation of all property equally whether church or corporation."


[Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885)]

"If not an absolute atheist, he had no belief in a future existence. All his ideas of obligation or retribution were bounded by the present life."


[President John Quincy Adams on Thomas Jefferson, 1831]

"The Christian God is a being of terrific character -- cruel, vindictive, capricious, and unjust."


[Thomas Jefferson, _Jefferson Bible_]

"If the obstacles of bigotry and priestcraft can be surmounted, we may hope that common sense will suffice to do everything else."


[Thomas Jefferson]

"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."


[Thomas Jefferson]

"He is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong."


[Thomas Jefferson]

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."


[Thomas Jefferson]

"If we could believe that [Jesus]...countenanced the follies, falsehoods and charlatanisms which his biographers father on him, ...the conclusion would be irresistible...that he was an imposter."


[Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) 3rd president of the U.S.]

"I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State."


[Thomas Jefferson, letter to Danbury Baptist Association]

"All persons shall have full and free liberty of religious opinion; nor shall any be compelled to frequent or maintain any religious institution."


[Thomas Jefferson, 1776]

"I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."


[Thomas Jefferson]

"...difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a common censor over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced an inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites. To support roguery and error all over the earth."


[Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia [1781-1785]"]

"Christianity is the most perverted system that ever shone on man."