Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Comprehensive Americans -OR- So Long & Thanks For All The Fish

It's not hard to see how some people, encouraged by their spiritual leaders, who believe man; fully evolved, created in place and time, for a purpose known only to a creator, despite ample evidence to contradict the belief, would have trouble with reality-based concepts. What IS hard is having to adjust and limit progress to accommodate such shackles. What is IMPOSSIBLE is to govern a modern world based on prehistoric thinking. To insist on dominance by and for the followers of one distilled diety to the downgrading of other beliefs.

Less sophisticated, but no less fervent followers of dogma, in forming a new nation, forging a new promise for themselves and their progeny, recognized from grim and painful experience that mixing politics and religion is a recipe for less than optimal outcomes. They saw no danger to their own beliefs in allowing others to practice their own. The basis and tenets of our laws were the commonly held and shared beliefs that underpin otherwise disparate peoples. They recognized that the binding elements of these common beliefs were/are enough to sustain their own.

Our forefathers also recognized the risk that mobs can place on majority rule based systems and they came up with a uniquely American concept to deal with the problem.
A succinct prohibition on allowing one religion from forcing its beliefs on either the people or the laws of their new nation. They weren't singling out one dogma or one diety in their immunization. The men who conceived and agreed on the binding promise to all, came from many backrounds and sects. Still, they understood the damage that Theocracies throughout history had inflicted on each other and their own people and they wished to have no repeating of that history.

Taking steps to minimize those dangers was wise and prudent then; it still is.
An accepting, cognizant, secular society with lofty aspirations of peace, freedom and boundless opportunity? What an amazing concept. Timeless. And worthy of ANY deity's desires for the evolution of his/her creation.

But what personally frosts my gizzards is the unconscionable egotism and chutzpah of any persons or movement that would attempt to CONSCRIPT God for personal gain, power and projected dominion over others. Trying to conflate their own zealotry and general apathy into desire, expectation and NEED for their beliefs to be woven into the government.

For you visual/auditory learners, here's a little something for you that conveys
the importance and relevance.





Warning: NSFW

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