I Return But Don't Remain...

I suddenly find myself linked over at Cynic Sage and apparently my knee-jerk blogwhoring over at Slacktivist resulted in people popping over for a visit. Therefore, I feel shamed in to actually doing some actual blogging. Last week I found myself watching Jonathan Millers "A Brief History of Disbelief." It's an interesting documentary on some of the history of atheism. The background, for those who are interested: in 2005 Miller, a British writer and filmmaker and jack of all trades, saw the dangers of militant religion and decided to set about telling the story of non-religion. Anyway, during the tail end of Episode 2 and the beginning of Episode 3 he spent a lot of time on Thomas Hobbes and Tom Paine and a bit of time on the Founding Fathers of the United States. It reminded me of a couple of fundamental issues with the creation of the US, specifically that it was not created as a "Christian Nation" and that most of the Fathers were not only against religion from a civic perspective, but from a personal perspective. As we come up on the 6th anniversary of September 11th I expect to be hearing a lot of Godandcountry patriotism. I've already heard some from the people I know within the Fundamentalist world. I plan on taking the next week or so to look at September 11th and patriotism from a different perspective, one that looks to support the ideals of America and those who created it. Patriotism should never be blind, so I hope to open eyes that are shut or offer a reminder to support those who remain watchful. EDIT: Hmm, upon re-reading, paragraph three of this post, I realize it could indicate that I somehow think Thomas Hobbes was involved in the founding of the United States. That's only true in as much as many of the principles behind the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were based on his ideas. Hobbes, however, was not around in 1776...