Seperation of Church and State

@Yanny:

Wow, 17% Buddist? Very interesting. The only religion I have ever respected was Buddism, but I didnt think it had such a following in Europe.

Buddhism philosophy turn around the elimination of suffering, and french are “bon vivant”. Also buddhism is the only religion that is not in confrontation (for now anyway) in any point with science…

Well, I tried to study every religion before chosing one (or choosing atheism). Buddism is a close pick. However out of the Asian religions, I think Toaism (which follows closely to Confucius teachings) comes out on top. Toaism follows very closely to my own personal beliefs (moral standards, ethics, communism [sorry had to throw that in] :wink:). It would be even stronger if not for the Chinese era of warlords and the ensuing Cultural Revolution. But from what I heard, it has a pretty good following in Canada. :roll:

BTW: Neo-Toaism fits this bill very much, though adaptations of viewing Lao-Tse as a deity don’t touch with me.

Asian were very evolved, they not make such simplification as Good & Evil, their “equivalent”, the Yin/Yang theory, is far more complex, deep, and even very coherent with the world around us. Sadly, some occidental “translate” Yin into Evil and Yang into Good.

@yourbuttocks:

Anyway, any family who wants a Catholic Education can get it.

I completely agree with you all the way until this last sentence. There are many families out there who would love to get a Catholic Education, but they cannot. This isn’t because they don’t have the money, it’s because they’re not accepted. For instance, yourbuttocks, here at O’Dea, you and I both know that for every student in our school, there are at least 3 or 4 other students who didn’t get in…that’s why I don’t agree that “anyone who wants catholic education can get it.”

Financially, Yes. But there are other circumstances to consider.

Anyways, back to the topic at hand. Banning “one nation under God” from our Pledge of Allegiance is absolutely absurd. First of all, an overwhelming 90% of American citizens believe in “God.” So don’t tell me that the United States shouldn’t be a Christian state. That’s b-u-l-l-s-h-i-t becuase if banning God from the Pledge of Allegiance stays, and every mention of “God” is unconstitutional, the official religion of this country will be Atheism. In turn, you’re breaking my right to “freedom of speech.”

“Who cares about “the majority”, “the majority” was in favor of slavery at one time, was that right?”

Whoa, sounding much like the dictator here aren’t we? Interesting how many dictators, think that they are ruling for “what’s best” for the people before consulting the majority. This is a tall order to follow. But about slavery, yes, it wasn’t right. So what if our Found Fathers (many of which owned slaves themselves) were to write the Constitution to outlawing slavery? Would’ve saved us a whole lot of trouble right? Of course, this is assuming the Southern States would’ve signed the Constitution in the first place, a fragile issue even without slavery (many Americans were distrustful in handing over their rights to another centralized government). Also the issue of slavery isn’t black and white. Just in the North, there was also racism and prejudice. Slaves were cared for; they were a valued commodity. You never saw a homeless slave nor without food, as seen in the North.

Eventually there were enough people to say slavery was wrong (though the majority only wanted the containment of slavery in the Deep South), and this is what led to the election of Abe Lincoln. This took time, as well as many other “rights” (ex Universal Suffrage, direct election of senators). In slavery, there were many Compromises, Popular Sovereignty, intermittent conflicts (ex. Bleeding Kansas) and eventually a Civil War that led up to the “end” of slavery. However, even after Reconstruction, many blacks were still working in a sharecropping system very similar to if not worse then slavery. And how many people think alcohol here is harmful, too? Yet, because the majority supports it, it would be impossible to prohibit. Same, with the Pledge of Allegiance. However, with the Pledge, it isn’t as easy to tell what is “right.”

Ummmm 90% of Americans belive in God?..…somehow I do think so.

“No, thats why we have laws.”

Please, point me to the law that strictly justifies the separation of Church and State. The problem is that you can never find those words in the US Constitution. In fact, even the “wall of separation between church and state” was originally an allusion to a wall around a church to keep the government from interfering in the free exercise of religion.

“The constitution says this, Your free to practice any Religion, but the Goverment will not take into account any Religion (state sponsered or otherwise) when making laws.”

Lets take a look at the Constitution and its original intent. The incontrovertible fact is that the Establishment Clause was never intended as a restriction on state governments. In fact, the majority of states did have state-established religions. Nor was this much less a restriction on state education (where this battle on “Under God” is mainly fought), where most schools were church run at the time.

Its purpose was to prevent the federal government from establishing a national religion or to interfere with any religions already established by the states so that people in the several states (and their communities) could exercise their religion free from federal coercion, unlike the England from which their ancestors fled. Before the American Revolution, five of the 13 states had government-sponsored churches supported by tax revenue. The 1st Amendment came as an answer to the their prayers.

The Framers did not mean to bar God from our public lives or even from all aspects of our federal government. Indeed, the day after the House passed the First Amendment, the House passed a resolution establishing a national day of prayer and thanksgiving (unless we also want to declare these actions of our Constitutional writer’s “unconstitutional”)

BTW: I did some looking up into this Newdow guy, and what a whackjob!
"It’s fairly easy to poke fun at the eccentric Newdow, who also, incidentally, wants to eradicate masculine and feminine pronouns from our dictionary. He would replace “he” and “she” with “re,” “his” and “hers” with “rees” and “him” and “her” with “erm.” “‘Come on, try it out,’ he says. ‘Re went to the store. It’s easy.’”

O’Dea is a special case, because a lot of people want to get in to play foot ball, but O’Dea is a special case. First of all, Parochial grade schools take all comers, and most highschools, like Blanchet, take almost 100% of the applicants. Now not everyone can get into any particular Catholic school, but they can get into one period.

IZ you are from O’Dea? What grade are you in?

FISTERNIS YOU ARE SO FULL OF CRAP!

90% of the people of France are Catholic (although undoubtedly some are only culturally Catholic) which is a HUGE difference from 12%. Yeah right, like The U.S. is more Catholic than France.

Don’t believe me, try http://www.photius.com/wfb2000/countries/france/france_people.html

17% Budhist! Give me a break. Try less than 1%

@yourbuttocks:

90% of the people of France are Catholic (although undoubtedly some are only culturally Catholic) which is a HUGE difference from 12%.

Major Weakness… :o

@Mr:

Ummmm 90% of Americans belive in God?..…somehow I do think so.

That doesn’t mean that they are Christian. In fact, 7% of the theists in the united states are non-christian.

But 90% are religious, though a few percent of those may not believe in God. Check out http://www.photius.com/wfb2000/countries/united_states/united_states_people.html

From the same page, later on:

No claims are made regarding the accuracy of France People 2001 information contained here

In case you are in denial, here is another source:

http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html

You may have to select France/United States from the list on the left.

@yourbuttocks:

FISTERNIS YOU ARE SO FULL OF CRAP!

90% of the people of France are Catholic (although undoubtedly some are only culturally Catholic) which is a HUGE difference from 12%. Yeah right, like The U.S. is more Catholic than France.

Don’t believe me, try http://www.photius.com/wfb2000/countries/france/france_people.html

17% Budhist! Give me a break. Try less than 1%

I am sure you are quite happy… wooooooo, you were not able to counter my argument about why your dogmatic religion is not rational with your old Kantian & Cartesian logic (Design argument, Uncaused cause), so you jump on the occasion to make me look like dumm ? Well you miss my friend…

You see, what you take was a statistic about How They Were BORN. That is not base on survey. Is someone here, that is or has been in France, can agree with YB ? 90% Catholic; yeaaa, they are BORN catholic like i am BORN christian, huge difference… Statisticly i am a protestant…

Just look at the CIA statistics, they will say; France 90% Catholic, blablabla, no Atheist, no Agnostic… Germany x% catholic… blablabla, no Agnostic, no Atheist (well maybe because of West Germany) but anyway, you get the point… Sure statistic are always a little false somewhere… but my stats is not THAT false. And in the case of religion/opinion about religion; survey is the best option. The survey i have is the only one i have the source and the question, so i trust it…

Also, even if my statistics were false (that is even not the case), this does’nt mean i am “full of crap”.

If you ask i will even give you the source of these statistics

@FinsterniS:

Also, even if my statistics were false (that is even not the case), this does’nt mean i am “full of crap”.

and if they were true would that mean that you are “full of crap”? :D

(it’s late . . . ).

Well, even if US is the only religious country, I’m happy. It’s yet another ‘perk’ that makes us unique. :wink:

@TG:

Well, even if US is the only religious country, I’m happy. It’s yet another ‘perk’ that makes us unique. :wink:

Not the only one… spain, poland, are very religious… and most poor country are also very religious.

don’t forget Canada . . . although not the most religious country, there are more believers here than many other places (of many faiths). Interesting - two of the wealthiest countries in the world, as well as many poor ones. Throw Israel and many Arab nations into the mix, as well as the wanna’ be wealthies (Brazil, etc.) and there is little correlation or pattern emerging just yet. . . .