http://www.bartcop.com/111904carla.htm
The Enlightenment vs. Bush's America: Defining liberal values By Carla Binion Media commentators have been asking what role moral values and religion played in the presidential election's outcome. Democrats have been seeking to clearly define liberalism, explain the Democratic Party's moral values and determine the role religion should play in the party's public life. A good start would be to remember American liberalism's roots and religious foundation. This country's founders developed their ideas during the Enlightenment, the historic period around 1650 to 1770, when science and reason began to supplant the barbarism, religious dogmatism and absolutism of the Middle Ages. Thomas Jefferson expressed a personal religious faith, but he had many conflicts with a religiously intolerant clergy wanting to impose their specific dogma on the whole society. Jefferson and many other Enlightenment thinkers placed a high value on reason and opposed any form of religion or philosophical belief that oppressed rational thought. In a letter to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800, Jefferson declared, "They [the clergy] believe that any portion of power confided to me, will be exerted in opposition to their schemes. And they believe rightly: for I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." In "Notes on the State of Virginia" (1781-1785), Jefferson wrote, "Reason and free inquiry are the only effectual agents against error..." (For rest of this article, go to url shown at top of page.) [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/XgSolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> ----- / o o \ ===OO=====OO============================================= (4)Portals (2)News Wikis (2)Conferences - No BuSHIT! Start here: http://pnews.org/ (On Internet since 1982) http://pnews.org/PhpWiki/ (West Coast News Wiki) http://g0lem.net/PhpWiki/ (East Coast News Wiki) ========================================================= FIGHT THE RIGHT! ================== Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rhetoric-list/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
