THE MASKED ANGEL:
As an American, I believe in everyone's 1st amendment right to free speech (which makes sense or else this blog wouldn't exist). However, as a believer of free speech, I disavow all forms of false and/or misleading speech. This is the reason why I bring up this atheist monument and why this is one of the dumbest ideas I've seen atheists come up with so far this decade. (Since the decade is still young, I foresee far more atheist stupidity on the way).
It took me some time to find out what all the quotes are on the monument, but I have found them so let's take a look at the ones chosen and see why none of them make a valid case for atheism with an explanation in red italics:
"The government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion" – 1796 Treaty of Tripoli
[I have to laugh at this one right out of the gate because it's so typical of how atheists love to lie right to people's faces. First off, it's neither quoted right or presented in its entirety; this is the complete quote:
Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen [Muslims],—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [Muslim] nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
Second, according to Frank Lambert, Professor of History at Purdue University, the assurances in Article 11 were "intended to allay the fears of the Muslim state by insisting that religion would not govern how the treaty was interpreted and enforced. John Adams and the Senate made clear that the pact was between two sovereign states, not between two religious powers."
Third, every atheist who brings this up ALWAYS---without exception--ignores the fact there are two Treaties of Tripoli. The most famous one, that of 1797, was broken in 1801. There was a revised treaty written in 1805 and it doesn't say anything about Christianity one way or the other.]
"When religion is good, I conceive it will support itself; and when it does not support itself, and God does not take care to support it so that its professors are obliged to call for help of the civil power, 'tis a sign, I apprehend, of its being a bad one." – Benjamin Franklin
[There is no proof Franklin ever said this. I tried finding it, and all I got were sites talking about the atheist monument. Let's assume for argument's sake it is a real quote. What is the quote trying to get at: it's okay for atheists to sue for their rights but not okay for Christians to sue for theirs? And how is asking for the help of civil authority a sign of a bad faith? Seems pretty obvious when a government excludes religion, that's a sign of a bad government, not the other way around.]
"It will never be pretended that any persons employed in that service [writing the Constitution] had interviews with the gods, or were in any degree under the inspiration of Heaven." – John Adams
[That would come as a shock, if it were a true quote, but once again it isn't. In fact, it wouldn't make sense in light of the fact Adams once compared the right to private property as a law from God. I would also like to ask why atheists are quoting John Adams in regards to the Constitution; wouldn't quoting James Madison make more sense, since he's---you know---considered the "father of the Constitution? Oh, but they can't have that fact brought to light since Madison once wrote this:
The belief in a God All Powerful wise and good, is so essential to the
moral order of the world and to the happiness of man, that arguments
which enforce it cannot be drawn from too many sources nor adapted with
too much solicitude to the different characters and capacities to be
impressed with it.]
This next one is longer so let's break it down into its parts:
"An atheist believes that a hospital should be built instead of a church.
[Don't churches build hospitals, often out of their own pockets? How many hospitals have atheists built? Is this somehow suggesting only atheists or government should build hospitals?]
An atheist believes that a deed must be done instead of a prayer said.
[And if atheists actually gave anything to charity, that would mean something. Also, since when are prayers and action mutually exclusive?]
An atheist strives for involvement in life and not escape into death.
[That makes no sense.]
He wants disease conquered, poverty banished, war eliminated."
[How are any of these exclusive to atheism? History has shown atheism created eugenics, passed programs that bred poverty and caused far more wars than anything else.]
American Atheists founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair
[Funny they mention her: O'Hair had a son who she raised as an atheist. The son...would later grow up to become a minister and founder of the Religious Freedom Coalition. To show how loving his mother was, when she learned of her son's conversion, she said this:
"One could call this a postnatal abortion on the part of a mother, I guess; I repudiate him entirely and completely for now and all times ... he is beyond human forgiveness."
Apparently, lack of forgiveness ran in the group she founded: O'Hair, along with her other son and granddaughter, was killed and mutilated by a disgruntled former American Atheist office manager.]
Not to stop looking foolish, it also quotes Deuto 13:10 and making it look like those who don't follow the commandments should be stoned to death.
Hey, atheists, ever heard of something called context? Clearly you haven't, because had you put it in context, you would have found a key piece:
[6] If thy brother the son of thy mother, or thy son, or daughter, or thy wife that is in thy bosom, or thy friend, whom thou lovest as thy own soul, would persuade thee secretly, saying: Let us go, and serve strange gods, which thou knowest not, nor thy fathers, [7] Of all the nations round about, that are near or afar off, from one end of the earth to the other, [8] Consent not to him, hear him not, neither let thy eye spare him to pity and conceal him, [9] But thou shalt presently put him to death. It Let thy hand be first upon him, and afterwards the hands of all the people. [10] With stones shall he be stoned to death: because he would have withdrawn thee from the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage:
Notice how verse nine uses the phrase "presently put him to death?" That phrase means an objective authority is to decide whether stoning is a fit punishment; people can't do it willy-nilly, but the atheist fools behind the monument made it look like you can.
So...atheists hate the Ten Commandments so much they didn't care about things like facts or context, or being honest, because why be honest when honesty defeats athesim.
Yet another reason why atheists are idiots.