I agree in that Christianity was an influence on fascism and Communism in the sense of a "one true answer" belief system that as Jefferson points out "..burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned....millions of innocent men, women, and children" in its pursuit of "uniformity". In this section on Notes on the State of Virginia he is arguing against the establishment of state religions within the U.S. Your comments about "our politicians" is as absurd as someone saying the religious right wants to establish a Theocracy in the U.S. It's difficult having serious conversations when the opponents views are distorted beyond recognition.

"Difference of opinion is advantageous in religion. The several sects perform the office of a Censor morum over each other. Is uniformity attainable? Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. What has been the effect of coercion? To make one half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites" Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

I might be wrong but the fact he put quotes around the word deists implies he questions they actually were deists and therefore not Christians. I've read a lot of Jefferson's writings and he was most definitely not a Christian as defined by believing Jesus was the son of god, born by a virgin, performed miracles, etc...

Prager still seems to question the deism of some of our founders. I ask all of you who have doubts about Jefferson's beliefs to please do the research. The following link takes you to a letter he wrote while President where he compares the teachings of the Greeks/Romans, Jews, and Jesus: http://www.angelfire.com/co/JeffersonBible/jeffbsyl.html. Two excerpts referring to the Old Testament: "Their system was Deism the belief in one only God. But their ideas of him and of his attributes were degrading and injurious." and "Their Ethics were not only imperfect, but often irreconcilable with the sound dictates of reason and morality, as they respect intercourse with those around us; and repulsive and anti-social,as respecting other nations."

My statement didn't address let alone deny "leftism" and emotion. I'm just pointing out emotion also plays into conservative thinking and I find it a little amusing when conservatives proudly state how they reach their conclusions through reason. At least that's what Dennis seems to be implying.

Correct. Fear doesn't define marriage but I believe fear of homosexuality drives a lot of people into the conservative side of this issue...not reason. There is a reasonable argument against gay marriage no doubt but I believe many who take the position don't do so out of reason. Just as in the illegal immigration debate there are reasonable positions of both sides but so much obvious fear and hate oozes out of the conservative side of the issue.

I always laugh when I hear this kind of statement from Dennis: "one must understand that above all else leftism is rooted in emotion, not reason". As if fear and anger are not emotions and don't drive so many conservative positions.

To add some historical perspective. The following is from Wikipedia on the founder of Protestant Christianity Martin Luther: Luther's other major works on the Jews were his 60,000-word treatise ... (On the Jews and Their Lies), and On the Holy Name and the Lineage of Christ, both published in 1543, three years before his death. Luther argued that the Jews were no longer the chosen people but "the devil's people": he referred to them with violent, vile language. Luther advocated setting synagogues on fire, destroying Jewish prayerbooks, forbidding rabbis from preaching, seizing Jews' property and money, and smashing up their homes so that these "poisonous envenomed worms" would be forced into labour or expelled "for all time".

Speaking of government stimulus....conservatives conveniently omit the fact the US National debt literally tripled under Reagan. It was $.9 Trillion when he started and $2.7 Trillion when he left. You could argue his policies increased GDP so much the increase in debt didn't matter but unfortunately it's not true. The ratio of debt/GDP was decreasing steadily since the end of WWII until Reagan. In 1981 it was 32.5% and in 1989 53.1%. The Reagan "miracle" was built on the back of 2 trillion borrowed dollars. Since GDP was $5 trillion in when Reagan left his borrowing would be like 6-7 trillion in today's economy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_public_debt

Since these mass killings are caused because we don't teach God in the schools and of course gun control laws would never prevent bad people from getting guns then why doesn't Western Europe have these kinds of mass killings every month? every week? I don't understand it doesn't make sense.