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![]() President Barack Obama's go-to Bible when he takes the oath is the same one used by former President Abraham Lincoln.
January 18th, 2013
02:31 PM ET
Take a listen: God is all over inauguration(CNN) – With President Barack Obama's second inauguration just days away, CNN Radio explores the one figure who has been omnipresent at these ceremonies: God. From the oaths of office and speeches to invocations and Bibles used, religion has been woven into this day since President George Washington made his first address to a fledgling nation. Join CNN's Lisa Desjardins on a journey into God's place in U.S. inaugural history. |
![]() ![]() About this blog
The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team. |
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And time for some nitty-gritty about the fellow taking the oath:
The irony of ironies only for the new members of this blog-
IF THE PILL AND MALE CONDOMS WERE USED PROPERLY, ABORTION WOULD NOT BE AN ISSUE AND OBAMA WOULD NOT BE PRESIDENT.
Will you get it right, Reality??? He was not elected because of abortion or bc, he was elected because of white guilt! Sheesh!
Once again, all the conservative votes in the country did not help the "pro-life" presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, in 2012 as the "Immoral Majority" rules the country and will be doing so for awhile. The "Immoral Majority" you ask?
The fastest growing USA voting bloc: In 2008, the 70+ million "Roe vs. Wade mothers and fathers" of aborted womb-babies" whose ranks grow by two million per year i.e. 78+ million "IM" voters in 2012.
2008 Presidential popular vote results:
69,456,897 for pro-abortion/choice BO, 59,934,814 for "pro-life" JM.
And the irony:
And all because many women fail to take the Pill once a day or men fail to use a condom even though in most cases these men have them in their pockets. (maybe they should be called the "Stupid Majority"?)
The failures of the widely used birth "control" methods i.e. the Pill and male condom have led to the large rate of abortions ( one million/yr) and S-TDs (19 million/yr) in the USA. Men and women must either recognize their responsibilities by using the Pill or condoms properly and/or use other safer birth control methods in order to reduce the epidemics of abortion and S-TDs.
i.e. IF THE PILL AND MALE CONDOMS WERE USED PROPERLY, ABORTION WOULD NOT BE AN ISSUE AND OBAMA WOULD NOT BE PRESIDENT.
Time to enter the 21st century starting with the following benediction/creed:
Only for the new members of this blog:
The Apostles' / Agnostics’ Creed 2013 (updated by yours truly based on the studies of NT historians and theologians of the past 200 years)
Should I believe in a god whose existence cannot be proven
and said god if he/she/it exists resides in an unproven,
human-created, spirit state of bliss called heaven?????
I believe there was a 1st century CE, Jewish, simple,
preacher-man who was conceived by a Jewish carpenter
named Joseph living in Nazareth and born of a young Jewish
girl named Mary. (Some say he was a mamzer.)
Jesus was summarily crucified for being a temple rabble-rouser by
the Roman troops in Jerusalem serving under Pontius Pilate,
He was buried in an unmarked grave and still lies
a-mouldering in the ground somewhere outside of
Jerusalem.
Said Jesus' story was embellished and "mythicized" by
many semi-fiction writers. A bodily resurrection and
ascension stories were promulgated to compete with the
Caesar myths. Said stories were so popular that they
grew into a religion known today as Catholicism/Christianity
and featuring dark-age, daily wine to blood and bread to body rituals
called the eucharistic sacrifice of the non-atoning Jesus.
Amen
(References used are available upon request.)
At least your beliefs require less fantastic assumptions than the religionists'.
At least he agrees with the Bible that Jesus existed.
Only for the new members of this blog:
Saving Christians from the Infamous Resurrection Con/
From that famous passage: In 1 Corinthians 15: 14, Paul reasoned, "If Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith."
Even now Catholic/Christian professors of theology are questioning the bodily resurrection of the simple, preacher man aka Jesus.
To wit;
From a major Catholic university's theology professor’s grad school white-board notes:
"Heaven is a Spirit state or spiritual reality of union with God in love, without earthly – earth bound distractions.
Jesus and Mary's bodies are therefore not in Heaven.
Most believe that it to mean that the personal spiritual self that survives death is in continuity with the self we were while living on earth as an embodied person.
Again, the physical Resurrection (meaning a resuscitated corpse returning to life), Ascension (of Jesus' crucified corpse), and Assumption (Mary's corpse) into heaven did not take place.
The Ascension symbolizes the end of Jesus' earthly ministry and the beginning of the Church.
Only Luke records it. (Luke mentions it in his gospel and Acts, i.e. a single attestation and therefore historically untenable). The Ascension ties Jesus' mission to Pentecost and missionary activity of Jesus' followers.
The Assumption has multiple layers of symbolism, some are related to Mary's special role as "Christ bearer" (theotokos). It does not seem fitting that Mary, the body of Jesus' Virgin-Mother (another biblically based symbol found in Luke 1) would be derived by worms upon her death. Mary's assumption also shows God's positive regard, not only for Christ's male body, but also for female bodies." "
"In three controversial Wednesday Audiences, Pope John Paul II pointed out that the essential characteristic of heaven, hell or purgatory is that they are states of being of a spirit (angel/demon) or human soul, rather than places, as commonly perceived and represented in human language. This language of place is, according to the Pope, inadequate to describe the realities involved, since it is tied to the temporal order in which this world and we exist. In this he is applying the philosophical categories used by the Church in her theology and saying what St. Thomas Aquinas said long before him."
http://eternal-word.com/library/PAPALDOC/JP2HEAVN.HTM
The Vatican quickly embellished this story with a lot CYAP.
With respect to rising from the dead, we also have this account:
An added note: As per R.B. Stewart in his introduction to the recent book, The Resurrection of Jesus, Crossan and Wright in Dialogue,
p.4
"Reimarus (1774-1778) posits that Jesus became sidetracked by embracing a political position, sought to force God's hand and that he died alone deserted by his disciples. What began as a call for repentance ended up as a misguided attempt to usher in the earthly political kingdom of God. After Jesus' failure and death, his disciples stole his body and declared his resurrection in order to maintain their financial security and ensure themselves some standing."
p.168. by Ted Peters:
Even so, asking historical questions is our responsibility. Did Jesus really rise from the tomb? Is it necessary to have been raised from the tomb and to appear to his disciples in order to explain the rise of early church and the transcription of the bible? Crossan answers no, Wright answers, yes. "
So where are the bones"? As per Professor Crossan's analyses in his many books, the body of Jesus would have ended up in the mass graves of the crucified, eaten by wild dogs, covered with lime in a shallow grave, or under a pile of stones.
Thomas Jefferson, Founding Father and 3rd POTUS:
“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity.”
-Thomas Jefferson, Notes on Virginia, 1782
“Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because if there be one he must approve of the homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.“
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787
“Christianity neither is, nor ever was a part of the common law.”
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Dr. Thomas Cooper, February 10, 1814
“You say you are a Calvinist. I am not. I am of a sect by myself, as far as I know.”
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Ezra Stiles Ely, June 25, 1819
He might not care, but he is performing a argumentum ad verecundiam fallacy, an appeal to authority. Jefferson must be correct since he was a "Founding Father and 3rd POTUS".
Fallacy Spotting redeemed!
This is just another PR move. It has very little to do with faith.
A few fundamentalists would insist on swearing in on a bible, but politicians are trying to appeal to the largest number of voters. Most Americans are christian, so they swear in on the bible.
From the oaths of office and speeches to invocations and Bibles used, religion has been woven into this day since President George Washington made his first address to a fledgling nation.
As it should be!
cue atheist claims that even though our founding fathers openly acknowledged the reality of the God of Israel and asked for His blessing, they REALLY never intended to do so...
Cue Chad getting huffy for calling out atheists and then when they show up he feels like he's being attacked
That must be why there is absolutely no mention of god in the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other law-defining documents of this country. The only mention of religion prohibits it from being involved in the government.
That was my schmartyschmart trick to try to stop atheists from responding. I learned it in second grade, which is as far as I got. I hate it when others get to speak.
Time for a another daily dose of ChadLogic?
@Chad,
"cue atheist claims that even though our founding fathers openly acknowledged the reality of the God of Israel and asked for His blessing, they REALLY never intended to do so..."
I don't speak for Atheists, but I have no problem with "the founding fathers openly acknowledg[ing[ [what they think is] the reality of the God of Israel and ask[ing] for His blessing,", nor anyone else for that matter.
I don't think the Government as an enti.tiy should do that nor, I think, is it allowed by law, and I thank the founding fathers for constructing this country is such a way to allow for a secular nation.
I'm going to say something dumb and then a bunch of people who know better and have historical facts on their side are going to show up and take issue with my dumb statement; therefore, I'm right. wheeeeeeeee!!
@sam Time for a another daily dose of ChadLogic?
@Chud I'm so glad you agree!
1. Virtually all presidents have taken their oath of office on the Bible.
2. The Bible is the true word of God.
Therefore, God has blessed the United States of America.
Chad just misspelled his own name.
No worries, Chad. America will be properly atheistic in your lifetime. We'll protect your delusions, though. Just as we've protected Tasmanian Tigers in the zoo. Oh wait, we did drop the ball on them, didn't we?
The founding fathers were doing what politicians do.
"Chud" not the same person as "Chad"
@ME II "don't think the Government as an enti.tiy should do that nor, I think, is it allowed by law"
@Chad "what about legislation that references the God of Israel.?"
=====
@Larry, see "The Declaration of Independence"
=====
@End Religion,
right on cue... 🙂
@chad: i wanted you to be able to claim another successful prophecy. Congrats!
When a president swears on the Bible, he pretends to call a Higher Authority as his witness. More hyprocrasy. In history, after the lands of Chief Sitting Bull, the Lakota Sioux, had been grabbed, he was told in effect, "There is no higher authority than the US gubment. You'll do as you're told !" It could be blasphemous for a gubment representative to swear on the Bible. They often act as though they've sworn on a copy of Origin of Species, after which only the strongest survive.
You can't expect a president or any other politician to be honest during his term when he's sworn in with a 2000 year old book of myths.
GIR, that two thousand year old book describes human nature exactly. It describes what human nature is capable of doing to humans. Human nature has not changed therefore the Bible is still relevant.
PrimeNumber,
Ancient Hindu writings (MUCH older than your Bible) also describe human nature accurately, as do Egyptian ones and many, many others which predate your Hebrew folks' take on things.
Lord of The Rings describes human nature accurately too. Why aren't you bowing down to J.R.R. Tolkien?
Why? would you rather have satan?
Why would you sub in another non-existent name for something else?
That's a false dilemma. We don't want ANY of the wide range of mythological ent-ities involved with this ceremony.
Except the Flying Spaghetti Monster, of course. He boiled for your sins, y'all.
Gir, your very mind may be a myth. You can't observe it or put it under a microscope or explain it mathematically. To you, this blog may be a myth. What if your five senses are feeding you false information? What if your brain is misinterpreting what your senses tell you? What if five senses aren't enough to gather all the information out there? I would encourage atheists to ask all the questions.
'What if, what if...."
Baseless speculation. Anatomists, neurologists, psychologists etc have all provided sound evidence for their conclusions about the five senses and the nature of the mind. Where is the evidence that this noumenon of yours can be sensed, or is even part of reality?
Yes, actually I would rather have satan.
Now please go look up the true satan worship. I mean the actual religion that predates christiananity.
Speaking of this satan fellow: apparently, he encourages doubt , while this so-called omniscient god prefers foolishness (1), want its followers to engage in child-like thinking (2), and in spite of all the great reasoning capacity that it gave us, the only way it wants us to be able to get in touch with him is by blind faith (3), even though blind faith places us at the mercy of every criminal from the con-man down by the street to Hitler-type dictators. It must not love us much.
1) 1 Corinthians 1:27
2) Matthew 18:3
3) Hebrews 11:6
I can only get a post with the word s.tripper in it to appear if I add the period.
Oh shit, can't you fucking spell stripper correctly?
Pete,
Athy & Zingo (and many others) know How To Make Leaps over the auto filter.
(it's fine if you stick with . – ', or whatever, though)
The reason we are able to say whatever we want here is that we all are loyal minions of Gozer the Gozerian, Gozer the Destructor, Volguus Zildrohar, Gozer the Traveler and Lord of the Sebouillia (same guy, likes his nicknames).
To bypass the filter, we pray to Gozer in his most holy and righteous way, which is to do the Hokey Pokey.
You see, evidence of Gozer is everywhere, in the universe, the origin and complexity of life, the perfect shape of a banana, everywhere. The Second Law of Theromdynamics proves Gozer, obviously, duh!
And as we all know, Gozer's scripture, the "Girl Scouts Gone Wild" clearly states that if they laugh at you for believing, then that is proof that Gozer is true, and all evidence to the contrary is a trick of the devil (Justin Beiber), and only by believing in Gozer can you begin to understand and see Gozer and feel his presence everywhere. And those who say you are imagining it are doomed to The eternal Torture of endless Abba songs. And "Girl Scouts Gone Wild" is true because it says it is true, and everything else it a deception of Beiber, The Dark One, because it says it is.
So get to it, and you can hokey pokey all the strippers you want.
Christ on a stick! Unless you're going to post exactly what we need to do to get stuff to post like you show offs do, please shut the heck up when commenting that we're spelling it wrong because we don't know how to bypass it, you ass holes! Unless of course you like to make fun of the people who don't know how. Then fvck off. I know, I spelled fvck wrong.....now just fvck off!
I won't let me do it, you must be special. I tried a post with just the word s.tripper, and it wouldn't work.
Stripper.
Athy,
Show Off!! 😈
Yeah, I suppose!
All so called atheists are liars, just observe the useless filth they post on these blogs. America is one nation under God, always has been always will be .
Never has been, never will be. Sorry, truth, you're dreaming.
Thanks for proving my statement.
"under god" was added in the 1950's by a sympathetic President and a forceful evangelical movement trying to draw distinctions from Russia.
I'm sorry, "truth be told", but your repeated assertions regarding atheism are unfounded. In addition, "truth be told", "God" is an element of "mythology, therefore, all of your assertions are unfounded. Using my Idiomatic Expression Equivalency module (IEE), the expression that best matches the degree to which your repeated unfounded assertions may represent truths is: "CHRONIC TOTAL FAIL". Perhaps the following book can help you cope with the problem of repeating unfounded assertions:
I'm Told I Have Dementia: What You Can Do... Who You Can Turn to...
And now it should be removed.
tbt never has any truth. time to change handles.
..Thomas Jefferson would NEVER take an oath on the christian bible if he were inaugurated as president!
He said..."there will come a day when the belief in a savior coming out of the womb of a virgin is as credible as Minerva coming out of the head of Jupiter!" ....&....."...as far as I can see, the book of Revelation are just rantings of a lunatic!"
"Jesus Christ was a mythical,political construct who NEVER existed and DO NOT believe in him!" Be like the ancient Roman pagans(which christianity is copy of) and believe in nature, your community and yourself! That is your religion and you can't go wrong!!!!!!!
Sadly, he did. Teddy Roosevelt is the only president who had the courage not to swear on a bible.
@facts
John Quincy Adams was sworn in on a copy of a book of laws, not the Bible.
Lyndon Johnson was sworn in on a Catholic missal (a book with instructions for conducting Mass), not the Bible.
Theodore Roosevelt wasn't sworn in on anything – he just swore and that was that.
Franklin Pierce was affirmed in – not sworn in – on a copy of a book of laws, not the Bible.
Facts,
Neither did John Quincy Adams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_office_of_the_President_of_the_United_States#Use_of_Bibles
I stand corrected. Okay, I am actually sitting, so I sit corrected. More of a slouch, really. I slouch corrected.
It is Called Principles not theory
Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior (EEB 122)
Geology and climate have shaped the development of life tremendously. This has occurred in the form of processes such as the oxygenation of the atmosphere, mass extinctions, tectonic drift, and disasters such as floods and volcanic eruptions. Life, particularly bacteria, has also been able to impact the geological makeup of the planet through metabolic processes.
00:00 – Chapter 1. Introduction
02:16 – Chapter 2. The Oxygenation of the Atmosphere
09:08 – Chapter 3. Evidence of Climate Change
17:36 – Chapter 4. Geological Impact on Life
29:37 – Chapter 5. Mass Extinctions
42:19 – Chapter 6. Earthquakes, Eruptions, and Floods
46:38 – Chapter 7. Conclusion
Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses
Category
Education
No repy needed take it up with YALE
Peace
um... because the Christian/Jewish/Muslim god wants me dead,... do you even know me?
Google the name
Perhaps Presidents should be required to simply swear (or affirm) with their hand on the US Const itution – the thing they are supposed to uphold as the law of the land. While we're at it, let's change the national motto back to the intent of founding folks who fought and sacrificed to provide the foundation of a secular government....."e pluribus unum" (out of many, one) which better represents a melting pot culture. Our country was hi-jacked in the 50's by the religious right.
The law of the land is from God.
Thanks for playing.
Thanks for playing what?
The law of the land in the US is the US Const itution – which btw contains Article VI – disallowing any religious test.
Thoth,
Yes, yes and yes (to your original post).
The law of the land is from the Enlightenment, which heavily rejected religious ideas in favor of Reason.
Swearing or affirming a president on a farmer's manual on tractors would be more beneficial.
Considering that neither party ever delivers anything of substance to religious voters, you have to recognize that the promises of conservatives to the religious right and the mentions of god in liberal inaugurals are just a way of making religious dingbats think they actually got something when they didn't.
It's politics: everybody is lying. That's half the fun!
Politicians like other people believe in God because they'd rather live a righteous life with peace in their hearts. When you come over to God's side, you'll understand why I wrote this post.
When I consider the meds you have to take, I understand why you wrote that nonsense, Mark.
Agreed...it's always funny when someone is complaining because a politician was dishonest. How naive can you be?
Sadly, no one and no nation is perfect.
It's great to know that our nation is blessed by God.
There is no evidence anywhere that America is blessed by god.
@Mark,
You mean Odin? Yes, it's great that He blessed America (and surprising too as most considered him a Nordic god.)
I thought Sniffles the Tap-Dancing Moose-God yodelled his blessing upon the land, bringing forth rapidly prepared fried food and bizarre motgages for everyone!
I think one of the tricks in life is learning to appreciate the imperfections.
Sniffles sounds like the kind of god I would be willing to place my faith in. How do I join the church of the mighty Sniffles?
@Saraswati,
Probably true, yes.
@Gir,
"How do I join the church of the mighty Sniffles?"
Care of the sick, comes to mind.
My nose is dripping and I've got the sniffles.
It's fine, if taxpayer dollars are not used to pay for the Inaugural ceremonies. Which of course they are.
Woven into the inaugural, woven out of the Constitution.
make me sick, it does.
Why?
um... because the Christian/Jewish/Muslim god wants me dead,... do you even know me?
Google the name
sorry this goes here
He doesn't want you dead, Sam. He decided way back at the beginning of time that you would be one of his torture play-toys in His great eternal Auschwitz, because you are the way he decided you would be way back at the beginning of time, being omniscient and all that.
And it's all your fault you are the way he made you.
Religion: the less you think about it, the more sense it makes.
Sorry to hear that's what you want from God Sam Yaza.
no all i wanted was to marry Istahar and raise kids together, he gets all upset and kills them me and my followers children and lovers, then he wonders why we rebelled and because of that he hunts us down fuck Yahweh!
It's tradition...but let the person who would be Prez decide what they want to do.
ditto
No problem, as long as government money is not used. Otherwise it violates the establishment clause. But if it is privately funded, that's legal. Stupid, but legal.
When I am elected president I will take the oath of office on an exotic dancer's a$$.
p.s. you can't use the word for exotic dancer that starts with the letter "S"
You mean stripper?
well, it won't let me say it.
Stripper, stripper, stripper, stripper, stripper.