a what kind of nation?

Mark Twain:

- "This is a Christian nation. Why, so is hell. Inasmuch as "Strait is the way and narrow is the gate, and few-few-are they that enter in thereat" has had the natural effect of making hell the only really prominent Christian community in any of the worlds; but we don´t brag of this and certainly it is not proper to brag and boast that America is a Christian country when we all know that certainly five-sixths of our population could not enter in at the narrow gate." Mark Twain, a Biography


- "If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be -- a Christian."


- ""One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriads have believed it - they also believed the world was flat."


- "Man is a Religious Animal. Man is the only Religious Animal. He is the only animal that has the True Religion -- several of them. He is the only animal that loves his neighbor as himself and cuts his throat if his theology isn´t straight. He has made a graveyard of the globe in trying his honest best to smooth his brother´s path to happiness and heaven.... The higher animals have no religion. And we are told that they are going to be left out in the Hereafter. I wonder why? It seems questionable taste." "Mark Twain and the Three R´s, by Maxwell Geismar, p.110, from Twain´s Bible Teaching and Religious Practice essay, in "Europe and Elsewhere", 1923


- "If I cannot smoke cigars in Heaven, I shall not go." Mark Twain, "Letters From the Earth"


- "´In God We Trust.´ It is the choicest compliment that has ever been paid us, and the most gratifying to our feelings. It is simple, direct, gracefully phrased; it always sounds well -- In God We Trust. I don´t believe it would sound any better if it were true." Mark Twain, on Jesus Christ, in "Letters from the Earth"


- "So much blood has been shed by the Church because of an omission from the Gospel: 'Ye shall be indifferent as to what your neighbor´s religion is.' Not merely tolerant of it, but indifferent to it. Divinity is claimed for many religions; but no religion is great enough or divine enough to add that new law to its code." Mark Twain´s "Travels With Mr. Brown"




- ""Of the delights of this world, man cares most for sexual intercourse, yet he has left it out of his heaven."


hmmmmmm...