Declaration of Independence :
5 references to 'the Creator'?
(Top Posts - Social/Legal - 112008)

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Someone wrote:

> The reality, of course, is that we are, and have been,
> a Christian nation. Look at the stats of people who
> both believe in God and testify Christianity.

I replied:

The word "Christian" does not appear in the "Declaration
of Independence -or- in the Constitution, nor do the words
"Christ" -or- "holy" -or- "Lord" -or- "Jesus" -or- "church"
-or- "mosque" or "temple" -or- "synagogue" appear there,
and the Constitution does, of note, include the following
phrase disclaiming a religious test for holding office:
  http://prohuman.net/social_legal/constitution.htm

     "... no religious Test shall ever be required as a
     Qualification to any Office or public Trust under
     the United States. ..."

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Someone wrote:

> Read the Declaration of Independence-
> Some five references to the Creator

I replied:

The -5- references you're likely referring to,
extracted from the following Declaration of
Independence page, only one of which uses
the term "their Creator":
  http://prohuman.net/social_legal/declaration_of_independence.htm

1) "nature's God"

     "When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary
     for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have
     connected them with another, and to assume among the
     powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which
     the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent
     respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should
     declare the causes which impel them to the separation."

2) "their Creator"

     "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are
     created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with
     certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty
     and the pursuit of happiness."

Notable follow-up to that statement -- "That to secure these
rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their
just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever
any form of government becomes destructive to these ends,
it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new government, laying its foundation on such
principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to
them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and
happiness."

Indeed, rare it is that within a document declaring independence,
the document includes a passage encouraging its own demise
were it to conflict with the unalienable rights which include,
but are not limited to, the right to life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.

3) "Supreme Judge"

     "We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of
     America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the
     Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our inten-
     tions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good
     people of these colonies ..."

4 & 5) "Divine Providence" and "sacred honor"

     "And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance
     on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge
     to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor."

Keep in mind, many of the founding fathers were
Deists, not christians, and their ignorance of nature
was profound relative to the knowledge that human-
kind has discovered in the past 200 years.

Also keep in mind the role that the christian religion
played in Britain and in the King's rule at the time,
a role that the newly founded nation was both rebel-
ling against -and- adversely impacted by on many
levels.

A notable reference in the Declaration which, over
time, has proven itself to be egregiously erroneous
in its assessment of the people who actually inhabited
the land upon which the United States sits for a very
long period of time prior to the invasion of the Euro-
peans:

     "He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us,
     and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our
     frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known
     rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all
     ages, sexes and conditions."

The invasion, dominated by religious prejudice, and the
torture and death and destruction to native peoples by
both arms and most deadly, biological contaminants
(viruses, bacteria) as well as by enslavement, torture,
and deprivation of human rights, a disgraceful and
shameful crime that only recently has begun to be
recognized.  

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