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First of all, basically nobody interprets Establishment Clause to ban expressions of faith in public, so that's a strawman argument. The Establishment Clause does, however, ban the GOVERNMENT from SUPPORTING one faith more than another (using tax dollars to fund religious institutions, etc.).

Note that "faith" does not necessarily mean Christian, and also that, per the Constitution, a diehard Atheist's faith that God does not exist is just as valid as a Diest's faith that He does, from the Government's perspective. Neither can advance proof of their beliefs (if they could, faith would not be required), and so the Government has no particular reason to believe that either of them is any better informed about the state of the universe than the other. After all, just because a lot of people believe something does not make it true.

Secondly, you might want to do a bit more research on the religious beliefs of the founding fathers before declaring that they were Christians. In fact, most of them were Deists, not Christians. Several prominent ones (Thomas Jefferson, etc.) were Atheists. In particular, I suggest doing some extra reading about what various Founding Fathers actually had to say on the subject of religion before you expound on the supposed Christianity of the Founding Fathers.

Hopefully those farmers will be smart enough to invest in a new food.

However by the tyme a farmer knows a crop is going to fail it may be too late for them.

Those that can't or won't have the option to sell their land.

If they can find a buyer, a big "if", selling their land may put them in a worse position.

Not to mention people going hungry.

We got hungry people in the United States, too. Let's fix our own house before we start crying about our neighbor.

I think feeding the hungry in the US, as well as in the Third World, is economically easy, the problem is political. Multi billion dollar US multinational corporations get billions of US taxpayer dollars in subsidies, Archer Daniels Midland has been called the Corporate Welfare Queen. Instead of the corporate paid politicians giving all that money to large corporations, if the money was given to charities like soup kitchens if not directly to those who need the help, then there's no reason they should go hungry. And by corporations not getting those hugh subsidies, they would have to compeat with Third World farmers. As it has been since NAFTA was ratified, Mexican farmers have been driven off their farms because they can't grow corn for what ADM and Cargill can export and sell corn for in Mexico. The Doha rounds of the WTO failed because First World Nations, specifically the EU and Japan refused to budge on subsiding their farmers, though Bush did agree to cut some US subsidies.

And people didn't like it when President Lincoln had an income tax of up to 5%. They accepted it only because the Civil War had to be paid for.

Yup. It was sold as a purely temporary thing.

That's part of the problem with government, government rarely ever does something temporarily. Take farm subsidies, they are only supposed to be used when farmers are having a tough tyme. However year after year agricultural businesses get billions of dollars in subsidies. And a lot of that money farmers don't see. For instance Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (ADM) receives billions as does Cargill.

Ok, how about we take a look at this in your terms of self-exposure to risk. The odds of dying are 1 in 55,000,000 in a terrorist-caused plane disaster assuming one such incident a month and you fly once a month. You may note that the exposure is relatively frequent when compared to rock climbing for your average Joe.

More death related statistics available here http://www.anotherperspective.org/advoc530.html

stop living in fear

Yes the threat of terrorism is real, but I'm think we have a lot more to fear from our own government than from terrorists.

First let me say that the slashdot story is about a couple of crackpots, not about any genuine science news.

Did you ever notice how science changes its anwsers so damn often.

Sure science changes. It increases in knowledge and understands and explains more. The very computer you're typing on wouldn't have been possible a hundred years ago. Spacecraft to other planets wouldn't have been possible a hundred years ago. And on and on. The fact is that science works, and it's always improving.

But the Bible stays the same.

The Torah and Koran stay the same too.

They graded our papers, and gave us low marks. Why? They did it to everyone. In my Chem class, and "A" was a 38.7%. That is about 4 out of 10 points on a test. The curve was fucking rediculous.

Have you considered the possibility that your regional highschools provided an inadaquate background in science (and or math), and that the reason that the curve was so rediculous was that the college would obviously have had a shitfit had the teacher properly FLUNKED THE ENTIRE CLASS? Students in any field will fail in any college level class if their highschool did not provide them the required foundation for the subject.

In my highschool chemistry class we had to understand the periodic chart backwards and forwards understand the structure of the electron orbitals and how those orbitals establish the structure of the periodic chart and do basic chem and organic chem and nuclear chemistry and pH and nuclear chemistry and build and balance equations and calculate energy and reaction rates and calculate equlibrium states and more, most of which required not only algebra but skill in logarithms as well. And you needed to test at 90% on all of that to get an A.

working for in the factory of an atheist

Atheists are practically zero percent of the US population. Are you suggesting they have some super advanced abilities above normal people that enables them to own and run all of the factories? Are you suggesting that people of faith are somehow incapable of owning or running factories?

moral

The atheist prison rate is about half the rate of the general population. SO either atheists are half as likely to commit crime, or atheists are some sort of super geniuses that somehow manage not to get caught.

Oh, the atheist divorce rate is also substantially lower than that of any major religion.

There are certainly other definitions of "morality", however those are the only two I can think of offhand for which I can get population statistics.

And there is less of God too. He is letting us know.

Amen brother. As Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson said, God gave us what we deserve with the 9/11 attacks.

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Here are some quotes for anyone claiming that America was formed on Christian principles:(copy/paste from here)

"I have examined all the known superstitions of the Word, and I do not find in our particular superstition of Christianity one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded on fables and mythology. Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the world ... The clergy converted the simple teachings of Jesus into an engine for enslaving mankind ... to filch wealth and power to themselves. [They], in fact, constitute the real Anti-Christ."

Thomas Jefferson

"The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes; fools and hypocrites. To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical."

Thomas Jefferson

"Accustom a people to believe that priests and clergy can forgive sins ... and you will have sins in abundance. I would not dare to dishonor my Creator's name by [attaching] it to this filthy book [the Bible]."

Thomas Paine

"For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate error so long as reason is free to combat it."

Thomas Jefferson

"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no God."

Thomas Jefferson

"Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason, than that of blind-folded fear."

Thomas Jefferson

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and torturous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness, with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we called it the word of a demon than the Word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind."

Thomas Paine

"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the Roman Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church."

Thomas Paine

"My country is the world, and my religion is to do good."

Thomas Paine

"Let us with caution indulge the supposition, that morality can be maintained without religions."

George Washington

"Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated. I was in hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy, which has marked the present age, would at least have reconciled Christians of every denomination so far that we should never again see the religious disputes carried to such a pitch as to endanger the peace of society."

George Washington, letter to Edward Newenham, October 20, 1792; from George Seldes, ed., The Great Quotations, Secaucus, New Jersey: Citadel Press, 1983, p. 726]

"There is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature. Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness."

George Washington, address to Congress, 8 January, 1790

"Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcila