I for one am proud of you for your intelligent consideration of "political affiliation" at your tender age.
As time goes by and consideration for ideas spark your affiliations, you will find that most politicians argue for the sake of argument and that philosophy isn't prevalent in politics.
Allow me to encourage you to consider remaining in contact with a few "sponsors" from the Gulch who (with years of wisdom under their proverbial belts) can offer guidance and advice with logic and reason.
You are WAY ahead of the "game" as compared to my own life...GOOD FOR YOU!

The New Testament has detail like no other religion. I tried to ignore that annoying fact until I was saved at 25 years of age. You should rent a recently made movie called Heaven Is For Real. It's based on a true story.

That was precisely the reasoning for Zeus and his thunderbolts. When humans, at a particular point of their development, cannot understand some part of the Universe, they attribute it to Supernatural. It is an easy escape from further study or a self-realization of one's limited capabilities. I admit that, years ago, I too tried to invoke the Supernatural when having trouble doing Laplace transforms, but the darn professor was biased against it; so unfair...

This is where rights come from without a God. The O. Standard says it better than I could. https://www.theobjectivestandard.com/iss...

I have a problem with something coming from nothing without a supernatural explanation.

"Who made you The Dictator - the person who decides WHEN people can handle which freedom?"
No one. I'm talking about what I think can win an election. We haven't even seen my slow phase-in of liberty yet, so it's silly to condemn me for saying change will have to come slow. If someone can sell overnight liberty, that's great.

You're too cool. Outstanding, precise and all true.

"or Muslim) display..." Don't confuse Islam with religion. Islam is a competing political system, that includes a religion, and whose openly stated goal is the destruction of all other political systems. Since Islam proclaims everyone else to be it's enemy, why would you want to place your enemy's display in your country in the first place?

Control freaks? Really? Who claims to speak for the entire nation by putting “In God We Trust” on our coins, and “under God” in the Pledge of Allegience?

As for Christmas displays, I wonder how long an atheist (or Muslim) display would survive on the grounds of a City Hall in Middle America.

I think of atheism as an anti-religion religion.

I actually consider Atheists, Green, Progressives - as being religious. They all fervently believe in centralized direction, they do not use their own brains for critical analysis independent of their dogma and they all say bah, bah, bah in unison. That makes a religious follower, does it? It really has little to do with god or God, but more with control of others that so many people crave. Seems that it is just human nature (for most of us) to try to control others, and it really doesn't matter on what subject. Saving the planet, saving a spider, Allah or Jesus... When they run out of causes, they pay extra fees to live in a home owners' association neighborhoods so that once in a while they too can be little nazis by telling their neighbors that the grass is too high.

I came back edited the above just before you responded.. You may have missed the click-on.
Just had a new thought. Maybe atheists are pushing payback for having to say God in the Pledge of Allegiance as a kid way too far.

Well, I can only speak for myself - I don't believe in supernatural and I have no problem with you believing in supernatural. I am not trying to forcibly change you in that belief and I would appreciate you not trying to forcibly change me. How is that being disrespectful, control freak or anything else negative? Oh, by the way, I am not a Progressive. So, the bottom line - being an atheist does not mean being a Progressive, socialist or a control freak.
PS. I enjoy Christmas displays.

Yeah, the atheists who care what Christians want while they sue to tear down Christmas displays and remove all things Christian from public view. Yeah, atheists really care what Christians want.
They are control freaks as bad as the Progressives.
Here's an example I got in my email yesterday--

http://conservativetribune.com/military-...

Who made you The Dictator - the person who decides WHEN people can handle which freedom?

I point I make often that usually is discounted. I like to vote for a person such that, when I look into the mirror after the election, I can still look myself in the eye.
Neil Smith says that if voting could change anything, it would be illegal.

I turned 18 53 years ago. I recommend staying independent. There are many intelligent comments posted by folks who got here first and I can not say I disagree - I just see no point in 'joining' any party (unless it's the Surprise Party!)

All well and good. In closing to answer your questions on accuracies, suggest you read Josh McDowell's "Evidence that Demands a Verdict". Very well researched and referenced and answers all you asked.

First of all I would like to point out that even the accounts of Caesar's activities differ depending upon historian, so I might not give every account the same amount of credence, but the ones which all corroborate the same event precisely...

Regarding Christ: There is also the possibility that the people who wrote the accounts were embellishing the story. The evidence suggests that the accounts were not written till years after the fact. They could be filled with errors unless you can authenticate the identity, credibility/reliability of each of the authors too since they could have been recorded from stories passed by word of mouth. They are also subject to translation errors. It is also possible that some, or all parties concerned were not lying as lying implies intentional deceit, but they were mistaken and relating what they truly believed even though wrong. It is also possible they all ate the wrong mushrooms... the possible explanations are manifold. The problem is not with the existence of a man so named, or with many of his arguably good moral teachings, it is only with the evidence of accounts of the supernatural events. When any of these "miracles" can be reproduced, documented and tested with modern scientific methods without legerdemain then one would have to accept, otherwise it must be taken on faith.
I would not care to characterize the players in your 3 optional terms. Each of us must make our own determination I am agnostic on the matter. The entire thing could be true or it could be an embellished assortment of stories.

Seriously, I have given this much thought, and now I feel we are wandering and detracting from ddardick24's primary concern.
I do not feel comfortable commenting further here.

ddardick24, my apologies,
Respectfully,
O.A.

Then why should atheists care what you want? Do we need to degenerate to that level?

Perhaps, but there really isn't an opportunity to "shrug" here. Doing that only allows someone else's vote more weight. In a typical election (especially the primaries), only 1 in 3 show up. That means my vote carries the weight of three people - not just myself.

And I don't really consider a vote for a Republican a vote for evil like I do a Democrat. The Republicans I have helped to elect still get some things right - more than I would get with a Democrat. Is it the perfect situation? No. But I have neither the connections nor funding to run for office myself - the only other course of action I see available.

So we can have that basis to stand on at least. It's not a matter of faith to believe Caesar was a real person who did basically what history records about him?

In the same sense, it's not a matter of faith to believe that Jesus Christ was in fact a real person, correct?

With regards to who he was, there's 3 options (and these apply to Caesar also). He could be one of these 3:
- Liar (in the case of Christ, this would make him quite possibly the most despicable man in all of history, to purport to be the method of salvation if in fact he knew it was not true).
- Lunatic - Ask any psychiatrist or other mental health professional if there is any evidence of a mentally unstable person in the words of Christ
- Lord - He was who He said He was.

There are *only* those 3 possibilities.

No offense taken, but I beg to differ. One can believe the many historians account of Julius Caesar and the archaeological evidence of his accomplishments, but it is altogether a different problem to believe he was capable of the supernatural or was a deity. Caesar was proclaimed to be a God.
Respectfully, I suggest you start a new thread. I may find amusement in continuing this discussion and it may gather other input.

No offense but that doesn't answer the base question I asked: "Is it a matter of faith to believe Julius Caesar existed and was who history (and he) said he was?"

I'll answer your question later.

I did this during GWB's elections. Wrote in the candidate of my choice each time.