Religion and Government

Originally Posted by Watts

We have those commies to thank for that addition to the pledge in the 1950's(?).

Um... commies, as you so affectionately call them, were the stark raving mad atheists. Those people who were against communism and the likes of it were often people of religious bent.
Please try and at least get your history right.
In fact, I believe that was one of the reasons they inserted it into the pledge. Because communism hold's it alliegance to atheism, and the change in the pledge was the attempt to safeguard against that at the most basic level of citizenry.

Also, like Minion said, the congress is forbidden to make any laws that respect an establishment of religion, or prohibit the free exercise therof. This means that in lawmaking, no particular religion can be singled out for special treatment(whether good or bad for them). However, this does not mean that it cannot have support available to all religions. Nor does it mean that the people of the government cannot be publicly practicing members of religious organizations.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, I don't know which groups are supported under the Faith Based Initiatives thing, but I would imagine that the reason why a majority of organizations supported are Christian is because a majority of faith-based charity organizations based in the U.S. ARE Christian in origin.

EDIT: Also, I think a reason why this was even created was because, previously, people were with the understanding that so long as it was a non-religiously polarized organization, it was okay for the government to provide support funds, and any government support of faith-based organizations was a intermixing of religion and state, implying a possible interdependancy of the groups.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Could you clarify the grammar in that? I am awfully confused .

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Cyrus XIII

Being an atheist and pretty much of a hardliner too, I consider ties between state and religion an immediate threat for human life and religious people curious entities, trapped in a mentally limiting, almost childish system of beliefs. It's probably due to global events in recent years, the violence, the lack of progress in certain institutions. And of course, there is a certain comfort in the rather carefree way, people like me can go about their lifes, free from irrational forms of guilt or discrimination.

It is funny that in many ways it seems your perspectives about religious beliefs being "mentally limiting, childish, and irrational" are very similar to how hardliner theists and such viewed atheist beliefs.

In other words, get your head out of your high-and-mighty atheist ass

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Originally Posted by Cyrus XIII

This kind of retort is probably as old as ancient greek philosophy and all it ever did was to emphasize the insurmountable rift between believers and non-believers. Big deal, I can live with that, I'll have to anyway.

So what exactly is you point (apart from getting for personal just for the heck of it) ?

My point is the fact that you appear to be no different from those people who you are so diametrically opposed to, except for the subject to which you oppose them over.
So... perhaps you need a change of perspective.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Cyrus XIII

Yes and no.
If founding my moral code and decisions on personal experience and reason as opposed to superstition and hierachy doesen't make me any different from those people, then yes indeed there is no difference at all. And as I have stated before, I'm fine with that and quite happy with my perspective as it is.

Well, then I guess you need to be re-edumacated, because faith is not just a bunch of superstition and hierarchy (although your usage of that second term seems rather ambiguous).

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