Author David Niose posts at HuffPo about the ascendent secular movement and illustrates his point with a short list of non believers of historic weight. The preamble is some sweet mind candy:
Though the secular movement is new, nonbelievers in America are certainly not. We are frequently told that America is a very religious country, but rarely are we reminded that a strong current of religious skepticism also flows through the nation’s history and culture. Atheists, agnostics, humanists, and nonbelievers of all stripes can be found prominently throughout the American narrative. Here is a list of nine important religious skeptics in American history.
The inclusion of Thomas Jefferson in a list of non-believers is totally erroneous. Jefferson is best described as a non-christian theist, who believed in an intervening deity but not the one described in the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. Thus, it would also be erroneous to describe him as a Deist.
Pat Tilman is on the list. I’m almost feel the need to go back and check out the coverage. My memory had him in the xtian bucket but given the rest of the lies regarding the coverage of his death, what’s one more?
While I knew of all those people, I didn’t know that Stanton and Randolph were nonbelievers. Like slc1, I don’t think Jefferson should be counted as a nonbeliever.
baal @ # 2 – your memory is wrong. The entire Tillman family are outspoken nonbelievers: a christian general created a stupid and unnecessary flap by declaring publicly that, as such, they had no reason to push inquiries into their son’s/brother’s death.