George Washington to Glenn Beck: Please don’t spew “truth” on me.
Glenn Beck says progressives are trying to “fundamentally transform the country” by rendering the Constitution “irrelevant” (“In 1920, they stopped studying the Constitution in law school and started studying case law!”), and by expunging from history the role “religion and morals” played in our founding.
On his April 28 show, Beck announced the launch of Founders Fridays segment, a special feature by which Beck intends to counter these progressive lies with…the truth:
Every Friday is going to be Founders’ Fridays on the program, at least for the next month. And if nobody watches, well, then, we’ll keep doing it anyway. We are going to try to repair some of the damage that is being done by truth. Truth. Truth is like fire. It will burn. It will burn everything that is impure. It will set on fire all lies. But it will not consume the truth. So we’ll set a few fires by spewing the truth.
Don’t think that Beck will have to do all this truth-spewing and fire-setting by himself; he’ll have help from guests who “have history”:
We’re going to have some people in here who have history, who know the Founders better than anybody else on Earth. One of the guys who’s going to be joining us for some of these is David Barton, author of Original Intent and founder of Wall Builders, an organization dedicated to presenting America’s forgotten history and heroes.
In “The Right’s Library of Fake Quotes,” Extra! (4/10) documents many instances where conservatives have promoted fabricated historical quotes, religious and otherwise:
One of the most prolific purveyors of bogus founder quotes is Christian theocrat David Barton. Though not a household name, Barton’s tireless efforts to construct a Christian origin story for the United States have been praised by the likes of Pat Robertson and Newt Gingrich (Church & State, 7-8/96). His 1989 book The Myth of Separation attributed bogus quotes to Washington (”It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible”), Jefferson (“I have always said and always will say that the studious perusal of the Sacred Volume will make us better citizens”) and Patrick Henry (“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”). Barton has also misattributed the “Ten Commandments” quote to Madison.
In 1996 Barton admitted that these and nine other quotes he’d been circulating in his writings, videotapes and live appearances were either false or unverifiable (Church & State, 7-8/96). But Barton’s reputation suffered little from the fraud, according to Rob Boston of Americans United for Separation of Church & State. “He’s doing better than ever,” Boston told Extra!, noting that since 1996 Barton has served as vice-chair of the Texas GOP, and now sits on the Texas state committee advising the state’s board of education on history and social studies curriculum, “despite no history credentials.”
But Barton is no stranger to the show, having appeared several times with Beck in the recent past (e.g. 4/30/10, 4/8/10, 3/15/10.) And Barton has apparently had a real impact on Beck, who repeated one of the spurious George Washington quotes he is famous for promoting on his March 5 show: “It is impossible to rightly govern the world without God and the Bible.”
Beck and Barton should thank God that truth doesn’t really burn lies.
The truth shall set you free.
But lies will make you very, very, very rich.
Liars for Jesus. (That whole not bearing false witness thing is just a suggestion, right?)
Where is the involuntary commitment officer when you need him?
“We are going to try to repair some of the damage that is being done by truth. ” said Beck. Yes, Beck has consistently shown that he thinks truth is damaging, so he has consistently avoided speaking truth.
Leo Toribio
Pittsburgh, PA
QUOTES RELATED TO ATHEISM
[The stated sources have not been confirmed. /
These “quotes” are posted for entertainment purposes only.]
“Christianity: Safer than a lobotomy, but just as effective.” – Anonymous
“Help preserve your child’s belief in Santa Claus. Tell him or her that Santa will send them to hell if they don’t believe in him.” – Anonymous
“Like all religions, the Holy Religion of the Invisible Pink Unicorn is based upon both Logic and Faith. We have Faith that She is Pink; we Logically know that She is Invisible, because we can’t see Her.” – Anonymous, parody created by atheists
“Two hands working do more than a thousand clasped in prayer” – Anonymous
“If you were taught that elves caused rain, every time it rained, you’d see the proof of elves.” – Ariex
“Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived.” – Isaac Asimov, Russian-born American author
“To assert that “God did it” is no more than an admission of ignorance dressed deceitfully as an explanation.” – Peter Atkins
“There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity (…) It is this which drives us on to try to discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which men should not wish to learn (…) In this immense forest, full of pitfalls and perils, I have drawn myself back, and pulled myself away from these thorns. In the midst of all these things which float unceasingly around me in everyday life, I am never surprised at any of them, and never captivated by my genuine desire to study them (…) I no longer dream of the stars.” – St. Augustine. (quoted in Sagan, C. “The Dragons of Eden”, p247.)
“The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other” – Francis Bacon
“To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin.” – Cardinal Bellarmine (1615, during the trial of Galileo)
“Infidel: In New York, one who does not believe in the Christian religion; in Constantinople, one who does.” – Ambrose Bierce
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
“Anyone who engages in the practice of psychotherapy confronts every day the devastation wrought by the teachings of religion.” – Nathaniel Branden, Ph.D.
“If the Bible is mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust it to tell us where we’re going?” – Justin Brown
“No, I don’t know that Atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God.” – George H.W. Bush, as Presidential Nominee for the Republican party; 1987-AUG-27
“Believing is easier than thinking. Hence so many more believers than thinkers.” – Bruce Calvert
“I would defend the liberty of consenting adult creationists to practice whatever intellectual perversions they like in the privacy of their own homes; but it is also necessary to protect the young and innocent.” – Arthur C. Clarke, author
“Gods are fragile things; they may be killed by a whiff of science or a dose of common sense.” – Chapman Cohen
“Human beings never think for themselves, they find it too uncomfortable. For the most part, members of our species simply repeat what they are told–and become upset if they are exposed to any different view. The characteristic human trait is not awareness but conformity, and the characteristic result is religious warfare. Other animals fight for territory or food; but, uniquely in the animal kingdom, human beings fight for their ‘beliefs.’ The reason is that beliefs guide behavior, which has evolutionary importance among human beings. But at a time when our behavior may well lead us to extinction, I see no reason to assume we have any awareness at all. We are stubborn, self-destructive conformists. Any other view of our species is just a self-congratulatory delusion.” – Michael Crichton in “The Lost World”
“Just think of the tragedy of teaching children not to doubt!” – Clarence Darrow, American lawyer (1857-1938)
“It appears to me (whether rightly or wrongly) that direct arguments against christianity and theism produce hardly any effect on the public; and freedom of thought is best promoted by the gradual illumination of men’s minds which follows from the advance of science.” – Charles Darwin
“Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.” – Charles Darwin, Introduction, The Ascent of Man, 1871
“Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using his intelligence; he is just using his memory” – Leonardo Da Vinci
“I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world.” – Richard Dawkins
“Faith is powerful enough to immunize people against all appeals to pity, to forgiveness, to decent human feelings. It even immunizes them against fear, if they honestly believe that a martyr’s death will send them straight to heaven. What a weapon! Religious faith deserves a chapter to itself in the annals of war technology, on an even footing with the longbow, the warhorse, the tank, and the hydrogen bomb.” – Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene
“I believe the spreading of Catholicism to be the most horrible means of political and social degradation left in the world.” – Charles Dickens
“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” – Frederick Douglass, escaped slave
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God? – Epicurus
“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish” – Euripides
“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army” – Edward Everett
“If god wanted people to believe in him, why’d he invent logic then?” – David Feherty, PGA Tour golfer
“When the first swindler met the first moron, the first god was born.” – Millor Fernandes
“The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason.” – Benjamin Franklin
“It is surely harmful to souls to make it a heresy to believe what is proved.” – Galileo Galilei
“Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.” – Siddartha Gautama (the Buddha)
“Nothing fails like prayer.” – Annie Laurie Gaylor
“Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.” – Sir William Haley
“An open mind, like an open window, should be screened to keep the bugs out” – Virginia Hutchinson
“The ultimate court of appeal is observation and experiment… not authority.” – Thomas H. Huxley
“To rule by fettering the mind through fear of punishment in another world is just as base as to use force.” – Hypatia (Alexandrian mathematician, murdered by a Christian mob in 415 CE)
“The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself” – Robert G. Ingersoll
“The inspiration of the Bible depends on the ignorance of the person who reads it.” – Robert G. Ingersoll
“You say there is but one way to worship the Great Spirit. If there is but one religion, why do you white people differ so much about it?” – Chief Red Jacket, Seneca Indian Chieftain
“In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own” – Thomas Jefferson
“Religions are all alike – founded upon fables and mythologies.” – Thomas Jefferson
“= AN HONEST PRAYER = Dear Lord, love me today and forever, bless my soul and conscience daily, agree with all of my decisions, punish my eneimes until I am staisfied, give me huge amounts of money, promise to help me always win, look the other way when I cheat, justify my excuses and believe all my lies, obey my wishes, and reserve the most luxurious part of heaven just for me. I will be thankful as long as you do what I say. Amen.” – Wally Kaspars, from LUMPEN vol 5, Nos. 8/9
“Faith is a euphemism for prejudice and religion is a euphemism for superstition.” – Paul Keller
“When the missionaries first came to our land, they had the Bibles and we had the land. Fifty years later, we had the Bibles and they had the land.” – Jomo Kenyatta, first President of Kenya after independence
“Killing is a form of mercy because it rectifies the person. Sometimes a person cannot be reformed unless he is cut up and burnt…You must kill, burn and lock up those in opposition.” – Ayatollah Khomeini, Iranian religious leader, Feb. 3, 1984
“We found a great number of books…and since they contained nothing but superstitions and falsehoods of the Devil we burned them all.” – Catholic Bishop Diego De Landa, after burning priceless books of Mayan history and science, July 1562
“Ubi dubium ibi libertas (Where there is doubt, there is freedom)” – Latin Proverb
“Physics isn’t a religion. If it were, we’d have a much easier time raising money” – Leon Lederman
“Christian Fundamentalism: The doctrine that there is an absolutely powerful, infinitely knowledgeable, universe spanning entity that is deeply and personally concerned about my sex life.” – Andrew Lias
“How many legs does a dog have if you call the tail a leg? Four. Calling a tail a leg doesn’t make it a leg.” – Abraham Lincoln
“I don’t really miss god but I sure miss Santa Claus!” – Courtney Love
“Reason should be destroyed in all Christians.” – Martin Luther
“It is becoming quite clear that religion is at the heart of so many civil wars and international struggles. People seem willing to kill, maim, torture and die for a religious or spiritual belief which moves them to believe that their source of the divine is the only source…Consider: In the name of God, a fatwa against Salman Rushdie. In the name of God, murder in the Balkans. In the name of God, the bombing of the World Trade Center. In the name of God, the siege at Waco, Texas. In the name of God, Hindus and Muslims kill each other in India. In the name of God, bloody warfare between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland. In the name of God, Shi’ites and Sunnis are at each other’s throats in Iraq and Iran, as are Arabs and Jews in the Middle East. In the name of God, a doctor is murdered because he believed in a woman’s right to choose. In the name of God, what is going on?” – Shirley MacLaine, quoted in “2000 Years of Disbelief, Famous People with the Courage to Doubt”, by James A. Haught, Prometheus Books, 1996
“The Church says that the Earth is flat, but I know that it is round, for I have seen the shadow on the Moon, and I have more faith in a shadow than in the Church” – Ferdinand Magellan
“Religious experiences are like those induced by drugs, alcohol, mental illness, and sleep deprivation: They tell no uniform or coherent story, and there is no plausible theory to account for discrepancies among them.” – Michael Martin, Atheism: A Philosophical Justification
“The theist and the scientist are rival interpreters of nature, the one retreats as the other advances.” – Joseph McCabe, “The Existence of God”, p. 84
“The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.” – Delos B. McKown, Ph.D. U.S. professor, philosopher, author Former clergyman
“Sunday School: A prison in which children do penance for the evil conscience of their parents.” – H. L. Mencken
“That so few now dare to be eccentric marks the chief danger of the time” – John Stuart Mill
“Science has proof without any certainty. Creationists have certainty without any proof” – Ashley Montagu
“How many things we held yesterday as articles of faith which today we tell as fables.” – Michel E. de Montaigne
“Where it is a duty to worship the sun it is pretty sure to be a crime to examine the laws of heat.” – John Morley
“Facts are facts and will not disappear on account of your likes” – Jawaharlal Nehru
“Creationism was created. Evolution evolves.” – John Nicholson
“The Christian religion begins with a dream and ends with a murder.” – Thomas Paine
“It is fear that first brought Gods into the world.” – Gallus Petronius, 1st Century Roman courtier
“They came with a Bible and their religion- stole our land, crushed our spirit… and now tell us we should be thankful to the ‘Lord’ for being saved.” – Chief Pontiac, American Indian Chieftain
“Once a ruler becomes religious, it [becomes] impossible for you to debate with him. Once someone rules in the name of religion, your lives become hell.” – Colonel Moammar Qaddafi, at the General People’s Congress in Tripoli in October, 1989
“If death is the end of everything, then living is everything.” – Robert D. Richardson
“In view of the stupidity of the majority of the people, a widely held opinion is more likely to be foolish than sensible” – Bertrand Russell, Marriage and Morals
“The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, and wiser people so full of doubts” – Bertrand Russell
“Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so.” – Bertrand Russell
“The true contrast between science and myth is more nearly touched when we say that science alone is capable of verification.” – George Santayana (1863-1952), “The Life of Reason” (1905-1906)
“There is no god but man.” – Raul Seixas
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful.” – Seneca the Younger (4? B.C. – 65 A.D.)
“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality” – George Bernard Shaw
“The first-cause and prime-mover argument, brilliantly proffered by St. Thomas Aquinas in the fourteenth century (and brilliantly refuted by David Hume in the eighteenth century), is easily turned aside with just one more question: Who or what caused and moved God? (p. 146)” – Michael Shermer
“What is the nature of God? His nature is entirely dependent upon the age or culture that has reinvented him.” – Solomon Skink
“If you are a creationist, why do you try to talk about science? Don’t you have faith? Don’t you believe that God made everything? Why do you even consider science?” – M. Smith-Slattery
“The shepherd always tries to persuade the sheep that their interests and his own are the same.” – Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
“God’s only excuse is that he does not exist.” – Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)
“Invoking the Unknowable to account for the “Unknown” is an intellectual dead end.” – Neal M. Stevens
“Formerly, when religion was strong and science weak, men mistook magic for medicine; now, when science is strong and religion weak, men mistake medicine for magic.” – Thomas Szasz
“It is a just retribution for improper sexual misconduct.” – Mother Teresa, on AIDS
“In the presence of a theist, every action will have a futile or laughable reaction.” – “Bill’s First Law of Theodynamics” – Bill Thacker in alt.atheism
“And on the 4.5 billionith year man said: Let there be god.” – Justin Thomas
“You can fool too many of the people too much of the time” – James Thurber
“When we talk to god, it’s prayer. When god talks to us, it’s schizophrenia.” – Lily Tomlin, American actress
“If God is our Father (you thought), then Satan must be our Cousin [or half brother]. Why didn’t anyone else understand these important things?” – Tool
“We must have strong minds, ready to accept facts as they are” – Harry S Truman
“Something about my conduct and bearing troubled my mother and she took me aside and questioned me concerning it with much solicitude. I was reluctant to reveal to her the change that had come over me for it would grieve me to distress her kind heart, but at last I confessed with many tears, that I had ceased to be a Christian.” – Mark Twain, An Autobiography
“One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed it – they also believed the world was flat.” – Mark Twain
“Man created god in his own image” – Unknown
When you understand why you do not believe in other gods, then you will understand why I don’t believe in yours. – Unknown
“I believe in the separation of church and state… We all have our own religious beliefs. There are people out there who are atheists, who don’t believe at all. … They are all citizens of Minnesota and I have to respect that.” – Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura, explaining why he refused to sign a National Day of Prayer proclamation, 5/06/1999
“Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy than reason and common sense.” – Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, 1764
“Hell is where cowards have sent heroes.” – Lemuel K. Washburn, Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays
“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 (1790)
“I’m in favor of a dialogue between science and religion, but not a productive one. I’m bothered by the fact … that many people are getting the (false) impression of a happy reconciliation between science and religion. … Religion … is an insult to human dignity.” – Steven Weinberg, Nobel prize-winning physicist
“I do not believe I have any immortality. The greatest evil in the world today is the Christian religion.” – H. G. Wells
“Mythology is what grown-ups believe, folk-lore is what they tell their children, and religion is both.” – Cedric Whitman, letter to Edward Tripp, 1969
“Truth in matters of religion is simply the opinion that has survived.” – Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
“If triangles had a God, he’d have three sides” – Yiddish proverb
“What was it that Adam ate that he wasn’t supposed to eat? It wasn’t just an apple – it was the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The subtle message? Get smart and I’ll fuck you over – sayeth the Lord. God is the smartest – and he doesn’t want any competion. Is this not an absolutely anti-intellectual religion?” – Frank Zappa
[The stated sources have not been confirmed. /
These “quotes” are posted for entertainment purposes only.]
(Comment added to Beck/foxnews)
Yes, it is very well that Glenn and various GOP cronies are expounding upon their newfound “we are the experts on the constitution and support african american (votes) history …” but they really need to make sure of the so-called expert/guests. Google, as they say, will not let you lie any more.
The I’ll-talk-over-you-so-fast-you-won’t-be-able-to-verify-what-I-say David Barton (?) made, in the 2 minutes I watched, several obviously biased (actually ‘racist’) statements:
No, “teaching/learning to read” negroe/slaves was NOT a capital offence. While not an exemplary factoid such offences were “minor offences”: you can read such i.e. here – Slave Codes of the State of Georgia, 1848 http://academic.udayton.edu/race/02rights/slavelaw.htm
A quick aside about how blazingly brilliant and oh-so neglected certain african-american notables were – I ‘missed’ some of the names suggested – there was an exclamation of “(he) designed the layout/streets of the capitol …”:
Actually it is variously documented (and never disputed) that the actual design and ‘brilliance’ of Washington D.C. is attributed to a FRENCH citizen, Pierre Charles L’Enfant, and even though further work was completed by an american surveyor, Andrew Ellicott, neither of these people were remotely anything other than caucasian in any manner. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streets_and_highways_of_Washington,_D.C.
Sorry, although praising and properly documenting, where applicable, African American history and place in the foundation of the U.S. is not to be ignored, blatant condescension and “you dem folk” rabble rousing (“guess who has been eradicating all this from text books…?”) won’t make the facts change. Try again.