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The bottom line is this: nothing that is true and relevant should be excluded from the art of governing. Reality matters, and reality is not limited to the physical and material.
There are moral truths, and religious truths, and spiritual truths, and philosophical truths. It's profoundly irrational not to pursue these truths and act upon them.
The bottom line is this: nothing that is true and relevant should be excluded from the art of governing. Reality matters, and reality is not limited to the physical and material.
There are moral truths, and religious truths, and spiritual truths, and philosophical truths. It's profoundly irrational not to pursue these truths and act upon them.
It is true, and relevant, that religious truths and morals defined at whim to promote certain religions are nothing but a sham.
It is also true and relevant that secular governance is not easy but desirable.
Religious beliefs can be wrong. Science can be wrong. Observations can be wrong. Reason can be wrong. And yet, they are all tools for ascertaining the truth of things, and their conclusions should not be arbitrarily or summarily dismissed.
Religion should be investigated like anything else. Reason can help determine its merits or lack thereof. Christianity is unique in the sense of depending for its very existence upon a long series of historic events that can be analyzed and examined. The problem is that modern, non-rational prejudices prevent things like tradition and the supernatural from being admitted as evidence.
The problem isn't that tradition and the supernatural are not allowed as evidence. The problem is that upon being investigated, analyzed, examined, they have not the weight of "truth". Christianity has had a profound effect on history. But that doesn't mean that the beliefs that are its foundation are truer than the beliefs of other religions. And it certainly isn't rational to think that a government imposing Christian beliefs isn't violating the beliefs of other religions. I think you even run into the problem of which Christian beliefs you are talking about. As another poster pointed out, Methodists are different from Episcopalians are different from Calvinists are different from Adventists are different from Baptists are different from Presbyterians are different from Catholics. Which "truths" are you going to impose? And when you impose them, do you really think you're going to change what people believe in their hearts?
As oppressive as the Church of England was in the 16th & 17th centuries, there were still Catholics secretly holding mass, and there were sects like the Puritans and Quakers and Shakers and others rising.
You can't force people to be the kind of people you want them to be. You can use laws to make them behave in certain ways, but that won't change their minds or hearts. Personally, I don't want to change their minds or hearts. I am fine in a world where people have a wide range of beliefs, where people do things I would never do, where people have family traditions and cultures that contrast rather than match my own. I revel in the contrasts, I love the challenge that your ideas present to my own. I would regret a world where you weren't allowed to express your ideas, and I weren't allowed to disagree. That's what conversations are for, to share ideas, to turn them over and examine the undersides, to express distaste and outright revulsion, or to embrace and make our own. The fluidity of ideas that can only exist where a plethora of ideas are allowed is what freedom means.
The ressurection of Jesus Christ is one of the unprovable myths of all time. That Jesus Christ lived and died is fact. What happened to his body is still unknown.
lol wut? the existance of Jesus is far from a fact. there is no first hand historical or even biblical accounts of the man. its pretty obvious the story of Jesus was a plagerization from previous messiahs. Horus and a host of others...zzzzzzzz
What the liberal says: You have a right to X
What the liberal means: The government has the authority to regulate X
Remember, any right the government gives the government can take away. The liberal will give you all sorts of rights that sound great, but of course to administer and provide this wonderful new right, the government is going to need just a bit more power to tax and regulate and you're going to have to surrender a bit more of your property and freedom.
And the Christian Conservative will take away your rights, especially those they do not agree matches their particular set of beliefs. Not gonna happen, the American People will see to that, so this entire topic is simply wishful thinking on the part of the OP.
It is true, and relevant, that religious truths and morals defined at whim to promote certain religions are nothing but a sham.
The resurrection, for instance, was not "defined at whim". There's more evidence for this historical event than for a hundred others that you take for granted as "knowledge". You just don't like the sources of evidence, and your crass materialism bristles at their conclusion.
The Christian doctrine of marriage was not "defined at whim", but is deeply rooted in human experience, natural law, and the teachings of a Man whose very birth sets our calendars.
You don't have to like these things. But your personal choice not to bother thinking about them doesn't change the fact that they are as true as the existence of Julius Caesar and the (natural) law against unjust killing, against which you presumably have no argument.
I completely disagree. Faith does not require either observation, reason or proof. Faith can be imaginary. Faith is completely different from fact. Faith should be instilled by the family guided by the Church if desired. Faith is not mandatory but can help people be happy in a completely indifferent universe.
Teaching facts in public schools through observation, experiment and reason is right and proper. With a secular education a person can live a full, prosperous, satisfying and happy life in the same indifferent universe.
Please provide a "fact" that the "big bang" happened. Not "theory".
With 85%+ of the earths population believing in a creator, isn't it ridiculous for schools not to accept it as a viable "fact"?
Provide a "fact" that everything you see came from nothing, which you MUST believe if you take a creator out of the equation.
There is an ever present God, or Creator....or,
Everything came from nothing.
Which is more plausible?
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