In an elegant demonstration of a historical truth, Atheists in California are refuting the notion that the U.S. was founded upon the Christian religion.
On Friday, Backyard Skeptics, a California based group catering to humanists, rational thinkers, atheists and agnostics, held a press conference to publicize a new billboard refuting the claim made by some that the U.S. is founded upon the Christian religion.
The new 48x14-foot billboard raised above 1526 Newport Boulevard in Costa Mesa, California, simply quotes the 1797 Treaty of Tripoli. The billboard reads:
AMERICA IS NOT, IN ANY SENSE, FOUNDED ON THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION.
The Treaty of Tripoli, 1797 - Signed Unanimously by Congress
The Treaty states clearly that America was not founded upon the Christian religion, a treaty having the unanimous endorsement of the U.S. congress, a congress filled with the founding fathers. The treaty was ratified unanimously by Congress and signed by then President John Adams.
By simply quoting the Treaty of Tripoli, the Backyard Skeptics should successfully silence those Christian historical revisionists who attempt to pervert U.S. history by claiming somehow this is a country founded upon Christianity.
Indeed, as children of the enlightenment, the founding fathers would probably be surprised by the number of Americans still clinging to a literal interpretation of the Bible 200 years later, something their educated contemporaries had for the most part abandoned as religious superstition and ignorance.
Nevertheless, the founding fathers would probably be proud of the efforts of freethinkers and others to fight for and maintain that glorious wall of separation between church and state. Despite the efforts of a few misguided and/or nefarious religious extremists, America remains for the most part a secular nation, free from any established religion.
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