spineless pinko's update

[Justin Schwartz]

I am sure that there were no open, avowed atheists in 17th C America; it 
would have been worth your life, if not from the law, then from the 
neighbors. It was worse than beinga  communist today. Maybe it was like 
being a communist in the South in 1950. in Btw, Newton was a secret 
Unitarian (a denier of the Trinity), and if I recall correctly, his 
successor as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at CAmbridge, lost his job in 
Restoration England for advocating Unitarianism.--jks


>But my impression was that atheists, Jews and
>avowed Unitarians were still forbidden from holding public office there
>during his lifetime, which is what I meant by citizenship (admittedly a
>somewhat anachronistic term in the colonial period, when we were all still
>subjects, despite extensive self-government). . . . It's only compared to 
>today
>that I was saying that religion played an inordinately bigger role in
>determining one's life chances.
>
>Michael
>__________________________________________________________________________
>Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com
>

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