What is it so important to separate church and state?

Question

If you don't believe in democracy, then please don't answer this question. You know who you are :P

Answer 1

The separation of church and state is important for a number of reasons, but I'll focus on one major reason that most people forget:


The separation protects religions from each other.

Imagine for a moment that the 1st Amendment was overturned and it was now legal to promote religion in public schools.

It wouldn't be 1 day before:
1) A jewish teacher tells their class the Jesus was a man, not god.
2) A baptist teacher says that the Catholic church is the Great Whore from Revelations
3) A Jehovah's Witness teacher says that Methodists are all going to hell for their liberal ways
4) A Muslim teacher says that all of christianity is wrong, and leads a prayer to Allah.

... and on and on...

The end result would a culture war and political power struggle of one religious sect over another. It's ignorant to think that "Christianity" is actually one religion, for some of the reasons noted above.

the religious would fight each other in Washington D.C., and when they lose, would fight each other in the schools, and when they lose, will fight each other literally in the streets.

Us agnostics and atheists actually thus have the least to fear from the Separation ever being torn down. If that happens, we'll pop some popcorn and watch the theists tear each other to shreds in a battle for religious supremecy.


Think about it!

Answer 2

It is important, because in a democracy, no one ideology should prevail over another....

We live in a democracy. If you were Islamic or some other religion, would you want Christianity to come into play in every aspect of life? If religion permeates the social/political areas of life, your courts will begin basing judgement on Christian values and ideas. Thats not fair for everyone else that isnt that particular religion. Of course, majority rules in a democracy - but where we have freedom of choice in regards to religion, then being forced into a religion doesnt make sense.

So keep them separate!

Answer 3

The original intent was to keep the state from imposing an ordered religion where-by everyone must submit to it. That is why puritans, quakers, and other European groups came to America in the first place. To be able to practice whichever religion they believed, rather than the Church of England, or whatever the king in power decided. It was not written with the intention of obliterating Christianity, which is how it is being interpreted nowdays. Rather, the founding fathers had the intent of allowing religions to be practiced anywhere, without fear of retribution. Is that what we have now?

Answer 4

1. To make sure that everyone is free to practice their religion anywhere (note: the fundie emails claiming that we can't pray in school or in government are untrue; no representative [teacher, boss, etc.] can endorse a particular practice)
2. Religion has often been misused where its concepts and beliefs are accepted as Truth; the concepts are typically just projections of what was insided someone's mind. Given this and the fact that most don't question, we get a dangerous thing, like what we see in the Middle East theocracies. How can we trust something when to question any of it is completely against the rules?

Answer 5

When it becomes a requirement of a country that citizens adhere to a particular belief system, people are robbed of their freedom of choice. When Christianity became a state religion, people were born Christians. This goes against Scripture. People must be able to choose to become Christians.

Any faith that needs the support of state law has a fatal flaw. People that choose not to have that faith are breaking the countries law and subject to judicial punishment. This is, in effect, placing the law of man above the law of God. Especially if those that impose the law have little or no true belief in that faith, but merely see it as a way of exercising power.

Answer 6

First of all, your question should have started with Why! If you didn't have a separation, than you would get some bible thumping freak like George Bush in the White House. This would screw everything up. The united States would then try to push their believes onto the rest of the world, we would get involved in a war where our children are getting killed, For what reason? Than they would try and tell us all how we should live our lives, they would take all our rights away. They would out law abortion for any reason. Don't get me wrong I do not like abortion, but that is not for me to decide if some woman has one. I could go on for hours.

Answer 7

Have you actually seen what is going on in the world, and what the Muslims are trying to do? this is what happens when the 'church' runs the country, or tries to. Do you really want women not to be able to go outside without their father or brother present, or have to dress in garments that completely hide them, or do you want to have discrimination in hospitals, and the courtroom simply because you don't belong to a certain religion? Do you want some church leader deciding whether you can get married, work at a specific job,or deciding where your tax money is going?

Answer 8

I saw a bumper sticker that said it best once: "The last time we mixed religion and politics, people got burned at the stake!"

The concept of the separation of church and states protects government from religion, and religion from government. We live in a melting pot of religious beliefs and to have one religion running our government...well, it wouldn't be a government very representative of the people anymore, would it?

I also don't think that people of other religions would enjoy the thought of their tax dollars going towards institutions that teach religions they disagree with.

But it's also for the church's protection too. No, government and religion need to stay separate, for everyone's sakes, on both sides.

Answer 9

While we can all agree in a secular way on the rules by which we want to live, we do not and should not agree on a single religion to which we would all be bound, regardless of our religious convictions (or lack thereof).

Separation of church and state has been a hugely beneficial doctrine for the US.

Answer 10

Because of freedom.
You must have some kind of moral base but be able to temper it with reason without religious influence.
But on the other hand we cannot let the 1 person dictate what the other 30 cannot do in their presence.
That in itself is self-inflicted segregation.
We have a long way to go.