This nation’s heritage is certainly not without its controversial components [there’s more on that in The Good, The Bad And The Ugly section]. However, when you back away and look at the entire “experiment” [as it was referred to by Thomas Jefferson et al], it has had a remarkable history. Under this main heading of America’s Heritage, there are four sections, and each is a key component of the underpinnings of the United States of America. They will be very briefly described here. Links to the associated pages under this major heading appear in Links To These Pages below. Additional detail in each subject area can be found by following those links.
Our Founders
Any country is, in its formative years, a reflection of its founders. That is certainly true of America. Whether a country retains the underpinnings established by these founders depends on many factors. Building the case that America still retains those underpinnings, and that they are strong enough to withstand the current onslaughts against them, is a major reason this site and my blog were initiated.
Founding Documents
Founding documents capture in writing the essence of the philosophical underpinnings in the minds of the founders at the time of a country’s inception. Four documents are summarized, with references to their full text, in this section: The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution [including its amendments], The Bill of Rights [the first ten amendments], and The Federalist Papers.
Was Religion A Key Factor Or Not?
How anybody can come to the conclusion, as many “scholars” apparently have, that this nation was not founded on a Christian value system [not to be confused with “not founded as a Christian nation”] is a mystery. Statements of our Founding Fathers clearly indicate that all of them were Theists, and many were Christian [see descriptions of the Theist Worldview and the Naturalist Worldview on the Why I’m Doing What I Do page of this site], and that in all they did to form this country they were driven by a Theistic Value System at least, probably a predominantly Christian one. This section contains a few examples.
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
It would be safe to say that, despite its past and current problems, America has indeed been a “shining city on a hill”, to use the words of Ronald Reagan. We have been and are a generous nation, responsible to no small degree for improved health and living conditions of many people on earth. For at least a century, we have been the largest single component of the world economy, driving many economic advances and serving as a major source of innovation. However, despite the net positive influence most people believe America has been in the world, some Americans feel that our nation’s inception and growth to unprecented heights of success were not without some pretty bad behavior along the way. This section contains some notable examples that would be quoted in this context as offsets to America’s positives.
Links To These Pages
www.USAparadigm.com 