When a governments doctrine is based on Religeon... Good or Bad idea?

Question

Freakzilla.. why do the lib bashing conservatives think its a great idea in the US, but want to erase the Middle East for basing their Government on the Koran?

Answer 1

look what`s happening overseas. almost every war in recorded history has been started or kept going because of it.

Answer 2

Extremism of religion is not accepted well in this country either. Religious beliefs are base on murder being wrong, marriage and family and values. Laws formed on these ideas help establish a country and goals that it should attain. In the Middle East, a certain group of people's lives become endangered merely because a certain person takes power. Look at how many people Saddam Hussein murdered who merely disagreed with them and in many instances did nothing at all. Look back at what Hitler did. The United States went to war there and Germany was largely a Catholic nation. The ideas of the Holy Bible and true Muslim beliefs are the same. There is just groups of people who think it's okay to go murder merely because someone choses to worship in a different way and often religion is used as an excuse for war because of land. Many people think the Civil War was truly over slavery. The reason was the Union opposed the South's separation from the Union and slavery was a battlecry to draw the support of the nation. Vietnam is anothe example but I get suspicious when Kennedy got assasinated, the war escalated and LBJ's home state of Texas got huge war contracts through building of Cam Rahn Bay and helicopters. Multi-million or billion dollar contracts. It started off as against communism but it turned into a business. Study history and learn.

Answer 3

Doctrine? Does this mean founding principle or simply rhetorical expression?

Either way, good question, very tough. My answer is that it is a good idea. The reason is that all religions (even Bertrand Russel type Atheism) have some bright line between good and evil, righteous and immoral, etc. These I think are good. We should not shy away from saying that something is wrong and something is right. What is important to me is how the doctrine is enforced and whether that is universal or pragmatic. If enforced universally, then there is no problem for me. If pragmatic so that the government picks and chooses what to do by manipulating the line between moral and immoral then that is problematic to me.

In summation: it is good to have clear moral standards as the foundation for a government, what is important is to keep those clear and not water them down.

Answer 4

The problem is that religion competes with government. They are both seekers of power, regardless of the statements both make that they are doing it for "our good".

When both are the same, you have increasing totalitarianism as there is no check.

That's not to say that secular government based on some general tenants spread by all religions collectively is not good - in fact it's most likely the product of principals which permit humanity to survive - best exemplified by the "golden rule" - treat others as you yourself should be treated.

But any government which attempts to foster a particular religion or sect will end up causing problems in both the local population and for it's world neighbors.

Answer 5

It's a bad idea. There's an article about this and I'll try to find it. In the mean time it has been shown that the more secular a government is the better the country. In a nutshell, with weak secularism or no secularism a country (at least the modern/industrialized countries) have more social problems such as murder, rape and suicide.

Answer 6

A terrible idea. Since when was it a good idea for a president to launch nuclear weapons on an "ungodly" country - i.e. to be prejudiced against them because they don't believe in the right God, and then to be able to perfectly justify it by saying "well God told me to".

People try to justify it by saying that the laws are based on the morality of religion - they're based on morality certainly, but since when did religion have the monopoly on morality? People were moral before Christianity ever came along.

Answer 7

I think it is bad... but I don't have a problem with invoking a generalized spirituality (and you can call it God) to bind us to a larger spectrum outside of ourselves. But I don't feel comfortable using Jesus or Mohammed or Moses or Abraham, etc., in government in general.

FREAKZILLA, I am not a liberal and I don't want government doctrine based on religion. This is not a liberal/conservative issue... when you make it one, your argument is weakened.

Answer 8

Theocracy is never a good idea as it excludes free thought that is contrary to government policy .The irish have some laws based on catholic doctrine as expressed by successive papal decrees[divorce ,abortion ,marriage sexuality etc and they just go abroad to obtain these rights.Nobody in ireland elected the pope.

Answer 9

Jefferson (Author of the Declaration) said, Bad Idea.

Madison (Father of the Constitution) said, Bad Idea.

Any right wingers who want to argue the case for government favoring THEIR dogmas are in opposition to the Original Intent of the Founders. They hate America!

Answer 10

BAD VERY VERY BAD

Religion and government need to be separate. It is the only way to protect the populace from the tyrannical fanatics that are usually associated with right wing religious movements. These 'leaders' are mostly perverted control freaks using religion as a front to manipulate and dominate ignorant people.

Theocratic governments are usually oppressive regimes that thumb there noses at human and civil rights, this is always done in the name of religion.

Again, that is BAD VERY VERY BAD!!!!

Answer 11

It is both a blessing and a curse. Take my country(USA) for example. The founding fathers were deeply religious people who used Christian beliefs to draft our laws and often in their writings and speeches spoke of the importance of God in ruling over the people.Overall it has led to a fair society, but at times religion has gotten in the way and caused problems.