jem.
I thought swapping quotes would lead to slow and painful conclusion whereas interrogating the Declaration of which you must surely admit contains the ACTUAL WORDS and therefore is a good indication for any context being considered, might lead to more obvious clarity.
It appears I wrongly assumed you were attempting to make a serious point.
Your reference to Jeffersonâs second Inaugural speech is laughable.
You talk of CONTEXT, just how do you expect arrive at any reasonable context if you take the beginning of one paragraph of this speech, select the word you like, then chop 300 words out in one place to shift the context of the word Creator off subject into another paragraph which you conveniently delete 900 words away from and finish by constructing one paragraph of your own, wrongly connecting Creator to God of Israel, with the exuberant conclusion " I rest my case. I am thoroughly excited by my overwhelming and convincing victory " lol. That would be hilarious if it wasn't so ridiculous.
The Second Inaugural Address you refer to was a political address, Jefferson was a political animal. That he played to the peanut gallery with "God of Israel" is not a surprise.
That he and all the other Founding Fathers left out specific religious reference in the Declaration IS a surprise IF he believed in a "God of Israel".
This is an emotive contextual narrative especially to a bunch of bible thumping persecuted new land religionists. The way in which the Declaration of Independence specifically leaves out reference to a "God of Israel" in which he professes to, is strikingly evident.
Here are some other quotes for you by the same Thomas Jefferson, in his writings to other Founding Fathers friends and colloquies, painting a different picture and one which gives some CONTEXT as to why a "God of Israel" was not deemed fit for inclusion in the Declaration itself.....
"To talk of immaterial existences is to talk of nothings. To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are nothings, or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise ... without plunging into the fathomless abyss of dreams and phantasms. I am satisfied, and sufficiently occupied with the things which are, without tormenting or troubling myself about those which may indeed be, but of which I have no evidence."
"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies."
"The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."
Your wasting your time just attempting to wrap religion around anything and everything even to the point of making up your own context by recreating history so as to fit a god in every corner of it.
. Since I don't have any kids I've often wondered what I'd do in the same situation. Hopefully I'd be just as cool about it. There are too many people with their asses over the fence (as Granny would put it) about the whole thing as it is.
