...too good to be true? The words echo the sentiments of the Founding Fathers, but as always only time will tell.
wow... great speech...
I dig Obama...
~Dan
Edited By Siteowner: Unrelated link
Wow, he was speaking at church!
Obama is a great speaker. He always impressed me with his speeches!
I'm just loving him.
This is the best thing I have seen all week. I would love to see what Christopher Hitchens thinks about all of this. On one hand, McCain's foreign policy seems to be more aligned with his. On the other hand, it seems that Obama's domestic policies and his devotion to the principals of logic are more Atheist friendly than any president in recent memory. It must be tough to decide.
Has he said anything remotely like this in the last 17 months?
That was two years ago, I like Bjorn's comment....
If he meant it when he said it 2 years ago, that is good enough for me. We all know how politicians have to pander to their voters.
Now that's one of the best speeches i've heard so far.
Obama till the end!
I'm going to search for an unedited version of this. It seems that some non-atheistic views might have been edited. i.e the part where he's talking about his bible.
I think it's important to also note that it was two years ago and he hasn't touched on this subject since, that I have seen anyway. I would venture to guess his campaign managers would furrow their brow at such talk, as it would obviously upset the religous masses/majority voters. This being said, I have always appreciated Obama's appeal to logic in his debates and legislation.
Ok. I just saw the full version link underneath the video. woopsies
Wow.
I'd be proud to call Obama my president. And, I'm a working white woman, supposedly not his demographic.
Can we please, please, PLEASE have a president this well-spoken now, after so many years of bumbling Bushisms?
Obama is completely right, but I hope the Republicans or the media will never get hold of this video.
This will surely offend millions of Christians if they see it and make it even harder for Obama to win the election.
So no thanks for sharing this with us and those that will misuse it.
Obama would build on the successful Clinton policies with his own refinemens and additions.
He would indeed be pro- First Amendment! McBush McSame would appoint those who would be reactionaries to the courts.
Very skillfully edited.
Caught the whole thing. Not bad for a religious guy but more unsettling than the edited version. He was speaking to an audience of co-religionists and may have shaded things that way a bit. Downside: faith-based 2.0 may be in our futures. Be wary.
I love this speech!!!
my faith as a Christian Women and some call an evangelical, is confirmed in the teaching of Christ.
I love Jesus Christ and believe that tolerance is a key of Christian faith. I am a sinner and do not wish to put myself above of anyone. God Bless America,
and God Bless Barack Obama
DCnLA
Great to see a politician acknowledge that it is dangerous to use quotes from the Bible to affect government policy. There are so many outrageous teachings in the Bible that it scares me to think that any politicians let the Bible influence them at all.
Below is a letter to the editor I sent to the Colorado Springs newspaper that deals with the many crazy laws in the Bible.
There are many contradictions, errors and horrible laws in the Bible, yet many Christians promote following the teachings of this book.
Lev. 20:13 Gay men should be put to death.
Ex. 31:15 Kill anyone that has worked on a Sunday.
Ex. 21:17 Kill anyone who has ever got upset and used swear words against one of their parents.
Lev. 20:10 Kill anyone that commits adultery (adultery is defined as marrying someone that has been divorced according to Matthew 5.32)
Ex. 22:20 Destroy those that follow other religions.
Deuteronomy 17:2-7 Kill anyone with a different religion.
There are many more outrageous laws Christians are ordered to follow. All these laws are supposedly direct quotes from God and there is no mention of a time limit when the laws end. Many Christians will say that since the above laws are in the Old Testament, Christians can ignore them because Jesus came to change those old laws.
I spent a lot of time reading the Bible and I found this interesting supposed direct quote from Jesus in Matthew 5:17-19 (Ryrie Study Bible, New American Standard)
"Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say unto you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the Law until all is accomplished. Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments and so teaches others, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But, whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
This quote is very clear. Keeping and teaching the Laws of Moses should be continued and the laws should NOT be changed "until all is accomplished" and it is not clear what "until all is accomplished" means. My guess is that "all" still has not been accomplished because "all" means "all" and "all" probably includes Jesus coming back, which has not happened yet.
Why do so many Christians quote scripture from the Old Testament when they agree with what it says, but say that Jesus changed it when the Old Testament says outrageous things? Why do they use the line about Jesus changing the laws of the Old Testament when Matthew 5:17-19 clearly states that Jesus did not want to change the old laws???
Many people have suffered or been killed because of those who follow the teachings of the Bible. A human being is probably less likely to want to hurt another person unless there is a book they think comes from the word of God that tells them to kill people that have different religions or work schedules that force them to work on Sunday, etc.
I believe the Bible was not the word of a god, but just the words of ordinary men trying to accomplish the following:
*get money (10% of everyone's money is supposed to go to the people who created and then later promoted the religion)
*dominate women: Exodus 20:17 (women are property of husband), Exodus 20:17 (rules for selling your daughter), Exodus 22:16-17 (rules for how much of a dowry to pay when a man has sex with a virgin and wants to marry her), Leviticus 19:20-22 (if a man rapes a female slave the female should be punished), Deuteronomy 22:28-29 ( rules requiring a virgin to marry the man who raped her), 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 (women should remain silent in church), Ephesians 5:22-24 (rules about how women should submit themselves to their husbands), Numbers 31:17-18 (here the writers of the Bible claim that God has ordered them to kill all the Midianites except for the Midianite virgins which they can keep for themselves) Hmmm, do you think the men may have thought that one up themselves???
*to make it seem ok to have many wives (the writers of the Bible did not condemn having multiple wives in many parts of the Bible)
*get the masses to go to war to conquer new lands (the Bible has helped motivate Christians to go kill people in other lands that have different beliefs)
*to try to explain things that are probably always going to be unexplainable
What are the chances that the religion someone chooses to follow is actually truthful? Out of the thousands of religions that have been started throughout history only one could be right, and probably they are all wrong. No one really knows what created all this and what happens after we die. It is amazing how many religions are flourishing when there is so little evidence that any of them are telling the truth.
My experience has been that the more I read the Bible the more obvious it is to me that it was not inspired by a god, just written by a small group of men trying to get a religion started that would benefit them. When you read the laws in the Bible about men not getting punished for raping a woman and raped virgins being required to marry the man who raped them, does that sound like teachings from a god or laws thought up by men??
Bill Carson
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