America was supposed to be the "new Israel" & up to a certain point it was. God's hand over that nation was clearly seen by the countless blessings it received from Him.
This is just is not true. It is true that Puritans such as John Winthrope certainly made comparisons between their establishment of the Massachussetts Bay Colony and Israel. He also made reference to it being "as a city on a hill" (Matthew 5:14) and uses much Biblical imagery and metaphors between their colony and the Kingdom of Heaven. Is that really so surprising? These people were hardcore Bible pounding Puritans for goodness sake! Why WOULDN'T they view themselves like this?
But the thing is, the Puritans were not the Founding Fathers. The Founding Fathers, while many of them practised some type of Christianity, made it abundantly clear that they did not think that there should be any crossover between religion and the state. Thomas Paine was not by any definition a Christian. There are numerous cases where they criticized the role that religion has played in politics, and make it clear that they are avoiding making that exact same mistake again. They are trying to get away from the church/state/royal monarch system of England, and just simply have a state ruled by a consensus of the people (somewhat). As I pointed out earlier, the very idea of Christianity, submitting to an absolute authority, is the opposite of America, and clearly not what the Founding Fathers intended.
Up until a few years ago it remained the sole world super-power. Economically, scientifically, army wise, natural-resource wise, etc...
Oh we are still the world superpower. How many aircraft carriers do you have over there in Portugal? None? Pity. How many stealth bombers are in Portugal military hangers? None? So sad. Do you have a 411 terawatt laser? Do you have Francis Collins? Neil Tyson? No? Shame.
At the time of the founding fathers, non-believers were scarcer than ivory-billed woodpeckers. 's
Not really, it's just that they could not freely speak their mind without being ostracized or killed by such loving tender religious persons as yourself. Now that secular society has convinced religious people that it's not ok to burn other human beings alive for entertainment purposes, we have been able to move on to something like a civilized society. Look at poor Thomas Paine, who wasn't even atheist, but a Deist who was hugely critical of religion and slavery, and was ostracized, again by such good hearted religious people as yourself, SHIN. Given your rabid level of fundamentalism in this day and age, I can imagine what you might have done to non believers in a time where you had free license to torment them anyway you want. And I bet that you would do it. You would be Thomas Moore, burning people like Tyndale and Hitten at the stake for translating the Bible into English.
There are those of us who would like to continue this progress and have been trying to do so, but end up having to deal with persons with primitive, delusional, and obsolete worldviews who want to take our society back to the late Bronze Age. No thank you. We don't want human sacrifice, we don't need salvation, we have real problems to solve, so lets not wasting our time trying to please an imaginary friend.
Since then it has slowly but surely been declining as it further moved away from Yehovah.
A decline away from Jehovah can only be a good thing. Consider the evidence. Countries such as Iceland, Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, and Finland, which are well known for more progressive policies that the fanatical right dubs "socialism", and who all have a very high percentage of atheists in their population, and a very secular culture, have the lowest crime rates on earth, the least poverty, the least income disparity, less teen pregnancies, less unemployment, better healthcare, better education, better transportation, less pollution, stronger economies, less restrictions on vital advancing fields such as stem cell research and genetics, the most equality between the sexes, etc etc. The most progressive, civilized places on earth are the ones where people are the least religious. The most backwards, oppressive places to live are all run precisely by religion (Iran, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and.... Vatican City
[1]!) Seems like religion just doesn't measure up to the standards of a secular society.
