Most people in the USA are Christians -- why take God out of the State ?

Question

most people are christians in the USA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States

if we take Religion out of government we cater to the minority and lower our standards

we do this with our schools we do this with our language with our civl services why should we do it with our government ?

Isnt it time to stop catering to the Minority ?

WOW how can peope say god was never part of our government ?
Look at a dollar bill or read about the lives of our framers !!!

Answer 1

"In God We Trust" was not added to coins until 1864, and not on the paper currency until 1957.

Many of our most prominent forefathers were deists, believing in an impersonal god - one who set the universe in motion and then walked away - only because they had no other explanation at the time for the origins of life. Had they had the benefit of such an explanation, some of them may well have not believed in a god at all.

These forefathers include Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, James Madison, Thomas Paine, John Quincy Adams, Thomas Edison, John Hancock, and later on Abraham Lincoln, and so on and so forth.

Futhermore, you will notice in a document called the Treaty of Tripoli (which was ratified unanimously by the Congress and passed by the President) this statement...

"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;

[Notice that first statement]

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."

Answer 2

even though it's probably true that most are Christians, one of the very things that makes the US what it is IS the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. And how the HELL are we lowering our standards?! personally, I'd catch the first plane out if the U.S. suddenly did what you're suggesting! Why? because while the majority rules for the most part, the minority is what spices it up, you could say. It makes it so that we have more than just Christians running the country. I'm sort of a Christian (only like, half you could say), so don't even try to say that I'm just saying that because I"m not Christian. If you can prove to me, beyond the possibility of a doubt, that the people in the U.S. "lower our standards...with our schools...our language...our civil services", then I'll support you. By the way, you say that language standards have been lowered. I think you're right, because you don't know how to put together a proper sentence and use punctuation correctly!

Answer 3

It was intended, at least from the Constitution onward, that government and religion not be entangled. Things like "In God We Trust, "Under God" in the Pledge, etc, were not used until much later and were passed only because the U.S. was going through difficult times and to reinvigorate the poeple, who as you state are very largely Christian, and even more so then.

It is disrespectful and ignorant to think that non-Christians have lower standards or something.

The Constitution was not created to protect the majority, but to protect all, including the minority, and it can do so. We are a representative government and people can and should make sure their communities reflect their values and agenda. And, something I'm sure we agree upon, the courts should not be as free as they often are to create law that is unfounded in both the Constitution and the individual States laws.

Answer 4

First of all the constitution is a really good place to start,perhaps you should read it in its entirety,not simply the parts you choose. And once you have done that might I suggest you read some of the writings of our forefathers,some of whom were very ardent in their religion,and some of whom had no real place in their lives for those teachings other than as what they are,mankinds way of wording an ideal of things they would like us to aspire to but put into a supernatural context.

And of course many of our laws were written with the absolute intentional intent of avoiding the ability of the majority to exercise unreasonable control over the minority. Many of the equal protection laws,and civil rights laws were written at a time when it was not necessarily the agreement of the majority,or when it would at best be very difficult to build a majority,because it was nothe popular thing to do but the right thing to do. The senate makeup is another example of law written to specifically avoid oppressive power over the minority by the majority by giving even the smallest state the same say in the senate as would the biggest state. It is too bad that many Christians today do not even begin these ideals nearly as well as the few founding fathers they are so proud of quoting when speaking of the laws of this country. But then again what is modern religion,of all stripes,but a resurgence of the old days of trying to use religion to oppress.

Ps Thums up to the question though,it is good question in it's own way,maybe it will help some think to study the accurate founding of the ideals of this country.

Answer 5

Read up on the creation of the United States. Many of the founding fathers feared a majority rule mentality. To believe that the Christian God is integral to the American system is an injustice to the country and the people that occupy its borders. The answers that you want are beyond this site. Do your homework and look up the beliefs of Jefferson, Madison, etc. You'll see that the very idea would irk them.

Not to sound harsh here but Christian sources mis-represent the Nation's history. Do not read them when doing your research. Try and find non-biased sources.

On a personal note, how can a govt that endorses a specific religion support/endorse the religious freedoms and plurality of its citizenry? People can believe what they believe but the govt cannot endorse any of them specifically if it truly wants to protect their freedoms.

Do you really want the US to be a theocracy and not a democracy? Do a little research and you'll see theocracies are atrcocious when it comes to personal rights and freedoms: the very things the US govt should protect.

Answer 6

Which framers? These guys?

"The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."
"Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined and imprisoned; yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity."
-- Thomas Jefferson

"I have found Christian dogma unintelligible. Early in life, I absenteed myself from Christian assemblies."
"Lighthouses are more helpful then churches."
-- Ben Franklin

"Whenever we read the obscene stories, the voluptuous debaucheries, the cruel and tortuous executions, the unrelenting vindictiveness with which more than half the Bible is filled, it would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God. It is a history of wickedness that has served to corrupt and brutalize mankind."
-- Thomas Paine

"The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity."
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."
-- John Adams

"During almost fifteen centuries has the legal establishment of Christianity been on trial. What has been its fruits? More or less, in all places, pride and indolence in the clergy; ignorance and servility in the laity; in both, superstition, bigotry, and persecution."
-- James Madison

I think YOU need to do some reading, not us.

Answer 7

The greatness of the U.S. lies in the separation of powers, which were designed expressly to protect the rights of all minorities from the desires of the majority.

The founding fathers recognized that the downside of a representative republic was that the majority would vote in their own best interests and that this would adversely impact everyone else. Chances are that that would have included you or your family, back in the day, because voting was tied to property ownership.

The Bush government has done everything it can to thwart the separation of powers, especially re states' rights and the judicial branch. That is the lowering of standards we need to address.

Answer 8

If we force people to believe in only one god, we are only trying to light a match for another civil war. This country is not based on any single religion because the Shamans of the native americans were the original religion. The christians threw a fit because of this seemingly "new" idea (the Shamans' religion is FAR older than christianity by about 40,000 years) and thought that to eliminate this multi-god idea would be a great way of promoting the single-god theory to other places who are new to the single god theory. the christians are evil and blind, dude, i'm sorry they got to you like that.

Answer 9

while technically the majority is Christian, none of them actually agree with each other on the details of their god, so they actually do not believe in the same god or belong to the same religion.

But to answer your question "why?", I would say that the reason we ought to take God out of the State is that God is a harmful delusion. There are other reasons but that is the main one. You're right, until all of the superstitious right lose their voting consolidarity, we will still have a lot of aspects of religious culture intruding upon our system of government.

Answer 10

It goes right to the Constatution: Freedom of Religion. In other words (no forcing one religion to be mandatorly taught in schools):
To teach about God and Jesus in public school would just be wrong,wrong wrong.
Not every American is Christian. There are students of many,many varied religions in the public schools.
If you do not have the separation of Church and State,(who's religion would be taught)? No you would open the flood gates for all (religions) to be taught in public schools.
Would you want your Children being forced to have to learn ,Budhiasiam,Hindousisam,Paganism,Islam,Native American Shaminisiam?
I think you see the delima that would arise from not seperating religion from state.
I am sure people of other faiths,would not want their children being forced to learn Christianity..
No we must (keep church and state seperate).