Why is it so important to our society that "separation of church and state" is adherred to?

Question

The words "separation of church and state" are not actually in our Constitution.

Answer 1

People think that they are being forced into something by saying things like "one nation under god." It is also the fact that some places push so hard for there religion to be predominent. School prayers over intercoms, the same religion praying before city councils. These things are putting the spotlight on one group and forcing others to adhere, in some part, to there beliefs. However, things like making it illegal for a group of kids to get together in private on school grounds and pray goes to far in the other direction.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

This means they can't take god out of something just to take god out of it, it also means they can't put him in just to put him in. If they decide to change the pledge of allegance, or the in god we trust on the money, it technically has to be for non-religous reasons.

Answer 2

The First Amendment says that Congress shall make no laws establishing a religion. You may recall that at the time the British declared the Church of England as the only allowable religion in England. Many of the early colonists fled England to get away from this religious persecution. After the Revolution, the Founding Fathers wanted to ensure the US did not create a similar problem here.

Eventually, the Supreme Court interpreted this to mean that government could do nothing that looked like it supported one religion over another. So it ruled that school prayer was unconstitutional because it presupposed a belief in God. Atheists, they reasoned, should not be forced to pray if they didn't believe in God.

Like most things, a good idea has been taken to its illogical extreme. One of the first victims in any such crusade is common sense. It has now devolved into a narcissistic power trip where a vocal minority have decided that their misery is more important than the majority's pleasure. Hopefully one day the pendulum of reason will reach equilibrium again.

Answer 3

Very true, those words do not appear in the Constitution. I have always interpreted the Amendment as meaning that the government cannot establish or endorse any religion over another. The Founding Fathers were religious men and believed their hands were guided by God. I seriously doubt they ever intended for religion to be removed completely as some people would like to see. These men feared an institution like the Church Of England. A state religion which all would be forced to adhere to. Alas it is just another subversion of their vision.

hopeful: Just an FYI. The original appearance of the phrase was in a letter from Thomas Jefferson to a group called the Danbury Baptists in 1802. If you wish to read the letter follow the link below.

http://www.usconstitution.net/jeffwall.html

Answer 4

Actually, the idea, if not the words of the "seperation of church and state" are in the Bill of Rights. In case you don't know, the Bill of Rights are the first 10 ammendments to the Constitution. The reason why it is so important is not as obvious as it used to be. Back when the Constitution was being rewritten in the 1790's (the original constitution was the Articles of Confederation which was written with the birth of the nation, but didn't fix the U.S. problems), most countries in the world were run by tyrants who based their policies on their religion. Millions of people died as a result of these tyrants using religion as their laws. Especially in England, people were prosecuted and murdered for having beliefs outside the the Tyrant's beliefs. After centuries of these "Religious Clensing" (the term later changed to "racial clensing" as the 20th century came along), people were fed up with it. Some rebelled and moved to the Americas (the Pilgrims in the 1600's is the first example). Others rebelled but stayed in their country (the creation of the Magna Carta/ Parliment in England is the first example of that).
But even after rebelling and changing laws, religous persecution was still everywhere. Therefore, the Founding Fathers decided that they will never allow their newly created "free country" to reduce to religious persecutions. They therefore wrote in the Constitution the idea of "Seperation from Church and State." This idea has prevented many religous policies from becoming law in the United States. For example, if it weren't for that law, it would be illegal to teach Darwinism. It would be illegal to be of any religion but Catholic (or Protestant depending who is president at the time). Those who didn't share the President's religion would be killed. Millions of Jews, Catholics, Protestants, Mormons, even Quakers would be murdered.
Ignoring the murders that would've occurred, there are many other reasons why religion is seperate from law. Presidents like George W. Bush would enforce their own religious beliefs into their laws (even more than he already does, as evidenced by his policies on gay marriage and abortion). If this were to happen, many of our scientific breakthroughs wouldn't have been made, including our research on cancers since cancer research is based heavily on stem cell research which most Christians including President Bush think is wrong. Even our research on Human Evolution would be illegal. Autopsies would also be illegal.
To answer your question, it's important that we keep our "Seperation of Church and State" so that our country continues to grow closer to an utopia. We are far from an utopia, but we would have been much much farther away if it wasn't for our seperation of Church and State. Keep our laws clean of religion.

Answer 5

Obviously you've never read Martin Niemoller's poem.

> When the Nazis came for the communists,
> I remained silent;
> I was not a communist.
>
> When they locked up the social democrats,
> I remained silent;
> I was not a social democrat.
>
> When they came for the trade unionists,
> I did not speak out;
> I was not a trade unionist.
>
> When they came for me,
> there was no one left to speak out.

The point? If you do nothing in the face of fascism attacking others, you will BE nothing when the fascists attack you.

Now here's the US version:

> When the fundamentalists came for the muslims,
> I remained silent;
> I was not a muslim.
>
> When the fundamentalists came for the mormons,
> I remained silent;
> I was not a mormon.
>
> When the fundamentalists came for the atheists,
> I remained silent;
> I was not a atheists.
>
> When the fundamentalists came for the catholics,
> I remained silent;
> I was not a catholic.
>
> When they came for me,
> there was no one left to speak out.


Pack animals in the wild _always_ turn cannibalistic when there's nothing left to feed on. Unless you're a part of that small minority willing to criminalize and murder all the others, realize that someday, someone will try to criminalize or murder you. And if you ARE a part of that religion which is willing to criminalize and murder others (it doesn't have to be fundamentalist christians, they're just the most violent), you're no better than a Nazi if you go along with it.

The separationg of church and state protects EVERYBODY. When one religion dominates, you get the crusades and Nazism on the christian side, and you get the taliban and sharia law on the muslim side.


.

Answer 6

Declaration of Independance --

"... no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities."

1st Amendment of our Constitution --

"The First Amendment to the United States Constitution is a part of the United States Bill of Rights. It prohibits the federal legislature from making laws that establish a state religion or prefer a certain religion (the "Establishment Clause"), prohibit free exercise of religion (the "Free Exercise Clause"), infringe the freedom of speech, infringe the freedom of the press, limit the right to assemble peaceably, or limit the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Answer 7

It's not important. The founders would LAUGH at the current interpretation of the Constitution, "Congress shall make no law..."

At the time there were numerous states with official religions and they were absolutely fine with that. In fact, they wanted each state to become a virtual laboratory of liberty, with each one trying new and different things while the Federal government kept their NOSES OUT of the states' business. The things that worked would thrive in a free society and the things that didn't would fail. Most religions are completely compatible with such ideas.

Answer 8

It skill the church could desire to have not any impression on government coverage. till you decide on for to stay in Iran, you may desire to evaluate it a good element. additionally the 1st replace for sure states that "Congress shall make no regulation respecting an enterprise of religion, or prohibiting the loose exercising thereof.". it could't be reported as an actual word, yet that doesn't recommend it fairly isn't any longer there.

Answer 9

Religion is irrational and to put irrationality into law will put a stranglehold on society. It's a type of facism. Read some of John Locke's treatises on government. He talks a lot about religious freedom and its importance.

Answer 10

I think whoever started the lie that the constitution said that was somebody who wanted it to be so. I remember it was one of the presidents that actually said it and he said it not for this reason but to protect the church? Something like that anyways.