Here's another post by guest blogger Bill:
Our Founding Fathers believed that since all government structures inherently seek to consolidate more and more power into itself, a government's powers separated into distinct branches could potentially keep each branch in check. In the construction of the U.S. Constitution, the Congress was likewise separated into 2 houses for similar reasons. There is another check and balance that does not receive any attention, and should not only be recognized, but genuinely understood.
In the Declaration of Independence, there is an establishment of another balance, that between Humanism and Godliness. A great many people believe that God is not only mentioned in our founding documents, but is Present in them. Undeniably so too are distinct Secular Humanist elements. Our Natural Rights are primarily an embodiment of looking at man as having innate affirmative claims in this physical world. The juxtaposition of these two elements, I contend, has within it a place that is the optimum for human existence. Neither strict humanism nor strict religion bodes well, but when tethered together, keeping each other in a check and balance, greatness can be the result.
You say there is no God and therefore your opinion carries more weight than those who believe there is a God? And you're trying to apply your 21st Century "sensibility" retroactively to an 18th Century document and those great men who crafted it? How..how...arrogant of you! And how ignorant.
Frankly I expected more from someone like you. Instead you show your intolerance for beliefs and political philosophies that do not fit into your narrative and you dismiss them out of hand.
"A great many people believe that God is not only mentioned in our founding documents, but is Present in them." What does this even mean?
You are right obviously that as an atheist all talk of God is complicated by my lack of believe in such a being. It would be more interesting, I think, to balance humanism against a more natural world order (survival of the fittest etc), which I think is more to the point when we look at American politics today.
this post wouldn't make sense to someone who doesn't believe in God, that's understandable. the fact is, though, that the authors of the Declaration of Independence did believe in God.
No where in this post is a claim that they themselves were godly beings that came down from on high to give us mortals their words. They were people who understood that there can be no one absolute power.
This argument makes no sense. For one thing, there is no God. And the people who wrote the Declaration of Independence were just that, people, not some sort of infallible, all-knowing entities who had some sort of wisdom as regards to godliness. At best their wishes, hopes and faiths show through in their documents, but it does not make their argument any more valid.