http://girlpundit.com/2009/11/separation-of-church-and-state%e2%80%94the-misleading-metaphor/ See Jane Run Sat, 06 Feb 2010 23:13:19 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.1 hourly 1 http://girlpundit.com/2009/11/separation-of-church-and-state%e2%80%94the-misleading-metaphor/comment-page-1/#comment-67 Patrick Oden Tue, 10 Nov 2009 10:03:25 +0000 http://www.girlpundit.com/?p=1885#comment-67 Thomas Jefferson did not believe that any god was the author of our rights. Natural rights are not the same as so-called natural law that is promoted by Christian revisionists. Natural rights comes from utilitarianism, legal positivism, and social contract. These political philosophies to which Jefferson and Madison were attracted really started making headway in the ideas of Mill, Bentham, and Hume, among others. Religious liberty has little or nothing to do with Christianity. The U.S. could have been founded as a Christian nation, but the founders chose to strip all of the public and political authority away from the churches in the vast majority of cases. A prime example is Jefferson's and Madison's Virginia statutes on religious liberty and disestablishing the state churches. Thomas Jefferson did not believe that any god was the author of our rights. Natural rights are not the same as so-called natural law that is promoted by Christian revisionists. Natural rights comes from utilitarianism, legal positivism, and social contract. These political philosophies to which Jefferson and Madison were attracted really started making headway in the ideas of Mill, Bentham, and Hume, among others. Religious liberty has little or nothing to do with Christianity. The U.S. could have been founded as a Christian nation, but the founders chose to strip all of the public and political authority away from the churches in the vast majority of cases. A prime example is Jefferson’s and Madison’s Virginia statutes on religious liberty and disestablishing the state churches.

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