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Old January 15th, 2012 #9
SmokyMtn
Banned
 
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: East Tennessee
Posts: 8,506
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Rounder,

SisCyn and I have been ruffling the feathers of the Christards for Paul who are under the illusion that America is a Christian nation at the Ron Paul forum.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by SisCyn View Post
So where does Masonry fit into this fine kettle of soup?
You will like this.

The following chart is based on Baylor University sociologist Rodney Stark's study of American Christianity titled What Americans Really Believe. Stark’s new book is anchored in research he’s done on religion in the U.S. for more than 40 years, and relies on recent surveys conducted in 2005, 2006 and 2007 by the Gallup Organization for Baylor University.



Most Christians today are unaware that church attendance in America really did not pick up until after the Civil War and that Christianity was in a decline prior to that. From the early 19th century to the mid 19th century there was a growing interest in Free Thought in America.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) is too little known today. Yet he was the foremost orator and political speechmaker of late 19th century America -- perhaps the best-known American of the post-Civil War era. On tour after tour, he crisscrossed the country and spoke before packed houses on topics ranging from Shakespeare to Reconstruction, from science to religion. Known as the Great Agnostic, Ingersoll was the best-known and most widely respected ambassador the American freethought movement would ever have.

In an age when oratory was the dominant form of public entertainment, Ingersoll was the unchallenged dean of American orators. He was seen and heard by more Americans than would see or hear any other human being until the advent of radio and motion pictures.

Ingersoll bitterly opposed the Religious Right of his day -- yet though he was an outspoken agnostic, he was also the foremost political speechmaker of the Republican Party. During Ingersoll's public life no GOP candidate for whom he declined to campaign attained the White House.



http://www.freethought-trail.org/pro...=Person&Page=5