Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Right there, plain as day. The government shall not establish any specific religion, or prohibit a religion. Even if the Founding Fathers DID intend for us to be a Christian nation, their own words clearly prohibit it. Considering this is the very first Amendment in the Constitution, that argues that they must have felt very strongly about this issue, and thought long and hard about the wording. Considering how many people were considered the Founding Fathers, if they truly wanted to limit religion to Christian based religions, I think that would have been spelled out.
The Constitution is there to make sure everyone has a chance to live in safety and happiness. One person's safety and happiness cannot come at another person's expense. My choice to be pagan may upset some people, but no one has the right to prohibit me from being pagan. They do have the right to prohibit me from committing a crime against another in the name of my religion. It would be a crime if my actions, in the name of religion or not, were destructive. Moral or philosophical differences don't apply.
To some, no matter what I do, unless it's in the name of God or Jesus, I'm going to Hell. That is all the punishment necessary for my supposed crime. Let your God handle that when it is time. According to Christian beliefs, that is all you are supposed to do. Honestly, I am not afraid. I don't think God cares how He is viewed, or how I go about my religious practices, as long as I do it with the intent to be a good person doing good things. I cannot believe in my heart that a being so profound as a god cares whether I picture Him with boobs, or a penis, or genderless, or even non-human. Why should he care what face or name I put on Him, and whether or not that face and name is the same in every situation? Why should it matter if I make my divine requests with herbs and candles and respect to the Earth and elements, or kneeling in a church?
Anyway, I digress. No ones soul should be subject to mortal jurisdiction, no matter what the religion. That is for whatever divinity is out there to decide, and if there is no divinity at all, then the subject is moot.
This subject came up at work not too long ago, so I did a little research. Evidence points to most of the "famous" founding fathers being Deists rather than Christians, but the majority of the rest appear to be Anglican/Episcopalian. If you read through some of their letters, however, it becomes clear that the views they professed often varied tremendously, usually based on whether or not they were trying to garner support or votes. Our beloved politicians, it seems, have been hypocrites from day one.
ReplyDelete"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Musselmen; and as the said States never have entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mehomitan nation, it is declared by the parties that no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."
ReplyDeleteGeorge Washington - The Treaty of Tripoli
I think Washington was very clear. We are not a Christian nation and we bear no ill will to those of other religions.
The phrase "separation of church and state" comes to us from Thomas Jefferson (though the concept is John Locke's) in a letter to the Danbury Baptists. I think the founding fathers understood that freedom of religion can only exist in a society that sets religion apart from governance. But what do I know? I'm a godless athiest.
Looking at the apotheosis of George Washington, not only gives me the creeps but also, goes to show how NOT religious the fathers of freedom were. In fact they respected knowledge as a God figure and mathematics as its fruit. These were the descendants and practitioners of people like Galileo, whom were prosecuted by the church for "free thinking". And that is all they intended with the Religious clause of the first amendment. The TRUE intention of the separation from England was to get away from their central bank and their system of enslavement through debt and religious prosecution. The side affects of the first amendment, though, are freedom to express your spiritual views in any manner you choose... Even for people like Charles Manson.
ReplyDeleteAbout how God views people's actions and representations of His laws... It even says in the bible "... as it is on earth, so shall it be in heaven." I would think, especially since Constantine's office had to incorporate Pagan rituals and holidays into Christianity to get anyone to take it seriously, that everyone is right. The bickering therein is just humans being idiots with their "My God has a bigger dick than your God" attitudes. We all know that something more powerful than us is out there... but hell... stars are more powerful in some senses of the notion.
The only thing I can conclude is that man's interpretation of God and the actual thing are totally different. Regardless of religion I highly doubt any one has it exactly right. Hell... it may just be a side effect of human culture and a figment of our imagination or just us feeling the vibrations of matter and its original manifestation. The power of the discoveries of science are similar and therefore there are a lot of "atheists" in science.
I would have to say that physics is my religion. But I don't discriminate many ideas about the origin of life. Who's to say that Georges Lemaître, Darwin and Pope Benedict XVI aren't all right? Creationism at the big bang with evolution... and perhaps magic, voodoo, chi, and all the other mystic interpretations (even virgin birth and resurrection which are not originally Christian ideas.)
I think religion is a group of inherited ideas that literally try to explain the unexplainable. Science only tries to tell us what is physically out there and how it works. The spiritual side of things are indistinguishably beyond out grasp because none of it can be proven without a doubt in physics... for now. Realists will always find an alternative answer. As a final point and just something funny to check out look at www.godisimaginary.com for some fun and informative objections to religion.