This letter is in reply to Norm Fitzgerald (“America was founded on religion and the Bible,” Jan. 15 Times-News), who feels that many of America’s violence related problems, could easily be solved by returning this nation to God, with the Ten Commandments and the Bible as a guide.
He also states that America was founded on religion and the Bible. History says otherwise.
Thomas Payne said, “Churches were human inventions set up to terrify mankind.”
John Adams said, “That this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it.”
Rather than cling tightly to his Bible, Benjamin Franklin studied scientific phenomena, like lightening and the northern lights.
Thomas Jefferson, in addition to being a lawyer, an astronomer and physicist, founded the University of Virginia, played the violin and spoke six languages.
James Madison was actually fluent in Greek and Latin, and could translate Virgo and Cicero.
My point, many of our founding fathers spent much of their time studying the world around them through science, sociology and academic pursuit; not thumping their Bibles and preaching the word of God to all.
Some of the founding fathers, people we point to as visionary minds and leaders, actually spoke out against organized religion.
Our nation was not founded on freedom of religion alone.
It was largely founded to avoid excessive taxation and harsh treatment from Britain. It was founded on as many open thought, free thinking principles, as it was religious ones.
To push one religious idea, one group’s agenda on all is as un-American as the actions that drove our founding fathers to act.
Yes, violence in media can cultivate violent acts by unstable individuals. If you are looking for a great inspiration for violence, I suggest the Bible.
Here God commands fathers to kill their children, murders homosexuals, and drowns the world in a flood. Many violent crimes are committed in the name of god, referencing the Bible.
Mr. Fitzgerald, your philosophy is out of wack. Religion is a matter of personal choice and assault rifles make committing a violent crime, easier for murderers. That is simple logic.
Stuffing God and the Bible down everyone’s throat isn’t the answer. Respecting people for who they are, on their own merit and accepting the fact that we all are different, is a better approach.
Jeremy Gosnell
Oakland
Opinion
History says America wasn’t found on religion and the Bible
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Maryland has stopped being “The Free State”
I am a lifetime member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans and, last but not least, the National Rifle Association. I am a yearly member of the American Legion.
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Outrageous
Distrust of government secrecy has been elevated to an exceptional level with the disclosure the Justice Department covertly examined two months of Associated Press phone records to determine who leaked details to the AP about a foiled terrorist plot.
This amounts to spying on an American news organization — common practice in dictatorships but scary conduct in a democratic system that prizes the public value of an independent watchdog press. -
Save the Bridge Program
Please do not close the Frostburg United Methodist Church Bridge Program. The community and many families need this program. Let me enlighten you about a few things.
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It’s good to be the queens
One of the many nuggets of knowledge that Crash Davis tried to bestow upon Nuke LaLoosh in the movie Bull Durham was that ‘strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they’re fascist.’
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Harper just needs to stop scoring the wall
• Happy birthday, Brooks Robinson. No. 5 will be 76 tomorrow.
Remember, in the words of Gordon Beard, “Brooks Robinson never asked anybody to name a candy bar after him. In Baltimore people name their children after him.” -
Town of Westernport needs a police force and a curfew
Since the consolidation of Bruce and Valley high schools the town of Westernport rapidly deteriorated from what was once a quite respectable community to a community in a decline in residents, and along with that came a collapse in local government due to lack of knowledge and bad decisions that set the town of Westernport back 60 years.
One bad decision was to give up their police force, and with no constant visual law enforcement it has created an open range for drug dealerss, addicts, thieves, drunks and speeding vehicles that choose to ignore our city laws and speed limits and have totally disregard for the safety of the citizens who are on the streets, especially the children who are like deer, you don’t see them until their in front of you. -
Financial gutting will damage school system
I am writing in response to the Allegany County Commissioners’ efforts to cut local education spending to the lowest possible level allowed under state law.
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Cemetery organization plans events to mark Memorial Day
This upcoming Memorial Day marks the 30th anniversary of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization (CHCO).
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Rowley proof of experience breeding opportunity
When Bob Rowley learned of the fund-raising efforts to help provide Fort Hill football player Zac Elbin the opportunity to play in the Down Under Bowl this summer in Australia, it became a mere reflex for him to make a significant contribution on Elbin’s behalf. For while very few area high school football players have followed in his footsteps, Rowley, the former Fort Hill great from the late 1950s, had certainly walked in Elbin’s, having faced similar circumstances following his senior year in high school. And thanks to the support of the community, Rowley says he was able to realize an opportunity of a lifetime.
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Better fix it
The West Virginia Division of Highways should not give up on improving safety at the intersection of U.S. Route 220 and Stoney Run Road in Keyser merely because the intersection does not meet the state’s criteria for a traffic signal.
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Maryland has stopped being “The Free State”
