I do not understand what point you are making, other than your beliefs are as wrong as theirs are. There is nothing wrong in using the principles contained within the Holy Bible in church and state. Much of it is there by default anyway. Like thou shalt not kill, and what should be there are things like "thou shalt not commit adultery." Why people like yourself want to keep good moral principle out of government and school baffles me.
If hadn’t broken up and deleted parts of my post, you’d probably find it easier to follow along.
I’m trying to point out that secularism doesn’t equate to atheism. That’s why I pointed out that religious diversity and freedom tends to thrive in a secular environment, whereas it tends to stagnate in a theocratic and/or authoritarian environments. I used the US as an example because as far as I know, it is pretty much the only country that spells out its secularism in its Constitution.
What’s wrong with ruling a country based on the principles of an ancient holy book?
First of all, it tends to result in loss of religious freedom and diversity, as already mentioned. Have we forgotten how things went when the Catholic Church ruled over Europe for centuries? Have you not noticed that people living in countries that are more theocratic in nature tend to have less freedom?
Secondly, how do we determine whose holy book or religion is the one we go with? Why assume the Bible? Why not the Qu’ran? Why not the Bhagavad Gita? And if we assume the Bible, which particular sect of Christianity do we go with? You must realize that public schools are made up of children from all different cultures and religions. Why is it “right” to push one particular brand of religion on all of them, when many of them don’t even follow the religion to begin with? And what happens when they decide to instill the principles of the Qu’ran instead of the Bible? How would you feel about that? You must see the problem here.
Thirdly, the problem with these ancient holy books, specifically the Bible, is that it contains a whole lot of stuff that is not considered good moral principle these days, like slavery and stoning people as punishment for pretty much any “crime” including adultery and homosexuality. I don’t know of any country in the developed world that punishes its citizens for adultery; such things tend to take place under theocratic governments.
Finally, the reason I point out that many religious people agree with the idea of church and state is because they also realize that freedom of religion doesn’t come from governments forcing one particular religion on its citizens, and they don’t want the government instructing their children on religious matters. They realize how such a thing can get out of hand the second the government begins dictating a religion to you that you do not want to follow. You can’t always assume the religion you personally like the best will be the one that rules the day.
Years ago, I read about some parents in school district that were upset that a child was not allowed to hand out Bibles (or some kind of Christian religious material, I can’t remember what exactly). So they petitioned to have the by-laws changed so that it would be allowed. What they didn’t realize in doing that, was that they had opened a whole can of worms. Because another parent who was opposed to this idea decided to send some kind of satanic material in for their child to hand out. Well, the first group of parents were outraged at this. They wanted it banned immediately. Never did they seem to realize that they were the ones who had opened the door to that, in their own selfish desire to push THEIR religion in schools.
I’m not averse to keep good moral principle in government and public education. I just don’t happen to think that the Bible is the best place to find good moral principle and I don’t think a religion (i.e. something based on faith in unseen things) should be forced on people. We can have laws forbidding people from murder without the Bible. We can have laws against rape and child abuse, in spite of what the Bible has to say about it (funny how they were left out the commandments for some reason). And we do. I hope you don’t think people didn’t know it was wrong to murder other people before the Bible was written.
I’m not sure what it’s like in the UK, but in Canada and the US, parents can opt to send their children to religious schools instead of putting them in the public education system, if they’re so upset about the lack of religious teaching in public schools.
