Pauldy's House of Geek

Today I read yet another article referring to the separation of church and state clause.  The case was one of creationism and the idea the world and everything in it was created by an unknown intelligence.  Someone argued that teaching creationism violated the separation of church and state law.  After reading this I got infuriated that someone was so arrogant that they would make creationism a religion and then because they would say there is a law separating church and state.  Both of which are not just questionable in nature but outright wrong.

  When people look at the US and state one of the reasons we broke free from England was “Freedom of Religion” this is the part of the Bill of rights they are talking about.  Today however I read yet another article referring to the separation of church and state clause.  The case was one of creationism and the idea the world and everything in it was created by an unknown intelligence.  Someone argued that teaching creationism violated the separation of church and state law.  After reading this I got infuriated that someone was so arrogant that they would make creationism a religion and then because they would say there is a law separating church and state.  Both of which are not just questionable in nature but outright wrong.

  The bill of rights clearly states that congress will make no law respecting an establishment of religion.  If you read this it is very clear that congress will not make a law establishing a national religion.  The rest of it is clear to the point of free speech in how it pertains to an open society.  So why is it church leaders are not allowed to talk about politics without fear of loosing their tax-exempt status.  This law clearly violates the idea of abridging their freedom of speech.

  If you look at the decline of America you will see a common thread and not being a bible thumper myself I would not have believed it until just recently.  The only common thread in what has happened over the past 50 years has been an attack on religion in the US.  I don’t use the term attack lightly.

  Just the use of the term separation of church and state is an attack on religion.  By using the term they have slowly put a stigma on any religious involvement in government.  The US is such an open society limiting involvement in government limits involvement in society.  Slowly the use of this term has come to mean no religion in government at all.  Just look at how president Bush has been attacked by the media for his invocation of his religious beliefs.  The attacks only slowed when it became very apparent that Americans where not going to take personal attacks on someone’s personal faith.

  Another case where someone abused the idea of separation of church and state was the 9th circuit courts ruling of the words under god in the pledge of allegiance was unconstitutional.  The originator of the lawsuit, in my opinion a true scumbag, did not take into account that his atheistic views are considered a religion and by stripping all religious symbolism from government he is in effect establishing and national religion, atheism.  Why the courts did not see this is another mater entirely.

  This brings me to the crux of the problem.  Who are those that are attacking religion?  The truth is I don’t know, not yet.  So far it appears that the majority of the supporters of this type of thinking all have liberal views.  Not all those with liberal views though feel the same way about religion as these people.  So in the end there is no label for this type of thinking except that it is dangerous and very wide spread.

  Why is it so dangerous?  If our founding fathers had the mindset to put religion as their first thought towards the protections found in the bill of rights it must be important.  For people to say this country was not found on religious views and religion should have no part in government pushes us as a society to pick as leaders people who are not in the same spirit as those who founded this country.  This means we pick people who are for the most part in opposition of the very things this country was founded on.

  The way to fix this is to become involved in your church and not be afraid to talk to people.  This is very hard for me as I can see the solution and I know I’m part of the problem but I can find all kinds of excuses as to why I shouldn’t be a part of my local church.  What a paradoxical issue it is for me and I would assume others.  From here out I will make a special effort to go to church not for the sake of my soul but for the sake of this country.  If our fore fathers saw such an importance in religion then maybe I should invest more time in it.  In the end I think if more people found religion there would be far fewer problems in this country and maybe we can get rid of the stigmas associated with its involvement in politics.