No, Greg. What you said was that separation of church and state was "laudable", but that it was impractical as being akin to splitting a child in two. Your anthropomorphic analogy was silly in the extreme and exposed the fact that you are merely spouting meaningless phrases from Christian websites, rather than giving reasonable thought to the question.
Now...again...there are myriad religions. If any ONE religion is permitted to participate in the "governing" of the people, then freedom of religion (and thus democracy itself) can not be said to exist. If you were a Christian living in Afghanistan you would bloody well want freedom of religion--wouldn't you?? So why do you argue for a religious dictatorship here in what is supposed to be a democracy?? Why do you, as you glaze your pots, persist in an opinion that is popular only amongst religious fanatics?? The state GOVERNS. Greg McRitchie does not.
Firstly, you tried to shroud your hatred of religious freedom by claiming that the idea of separating the elitism of the state from the bias of religion was laudable...BUT...then you say (really slooooooowww) that separating religion from the state FORCES atheism to become a state religion! This is the most inane comment I have ever heard you make...and that is saying a great deal. Pitiful!
Since Atheism classically makes a religious truth claim that there is no God...
the State therefore, becomes a promoter of a religious truth claim.
Don't you get it, Greg. The separation of church and state prevents the state either from promoting OR from demoting the individual expression of religion. Freedom of religion means that the state may NOT have a prejudice against any religion, or for any religion. It means that ALL citizens may worship as they choose to--without ANY bias or threat from the state. In other words: People may not be FORCED to believe in atheism, to believe in Christianity, or to believe in anything else. People may believe in whatever they choose to believe in. They are individuals; they are free; their life belongs to them, and not to another.
ANYBODY who does not believe in the separation of church and state is an enemy of freedom, of conscience, of thought, and of existence. Such a person is a thoughtless and dangerous fool. A fool who wishes to control the thoughts of others, and thus to deny their existence as human beings.
I have never found an intelligent Christian who did not support the separation of church and state.
"We all agree that neither the Government nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that religious sects ought not to interfere with the Government or with political parties. We believe that the cause of good government and the cause of religion suffer by all such interference." --Rutherford B. Hayes
"To discriminate against a thoroughly upright citizen because he belongs to some particular church, or because, like Abraham Lincoln, he has not avowed his allegiance to any church, is an outrage against that liberty of conscience which is one of the foundations of American life." --Theodore Roosevelt
"I believe in absolute freedom of conscience for all men and equality of all churches, all sects, and all beliefs before the law as a matter of right and not as a matter of favor. I believe in the absolute separation of church and state and in the strict enforcement of the Constitution that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. I believe that no tribunal of any church has any power to make any decree of any force in the law of the land, other than to establish the status of its own communicants within its own church." --Alfred E. Smith |
