Separation of Church & State

[tw]

Originally Posted by Rexmons

I think it is hard to separate the two because of there many similarities. The two main things, being that they promote community, and try to keep everyone on there best behavior. Unfortunately, it is more prevalent in some places then others. The county which borders mine is a dry county, meaning they do not serve alcohol anywhere in the county on Sunday's.

Being 'dry' should have no basis in religion. Once religion becomes anything more than a relationship between one and his god - especially when the beliefs of one religion are imposed upon anyone else - then that is the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, a Jihad, and anything else done in the glory of a god.

It's quite easy to separate the two. Once anything religious becomes justification, then that is satanism. Yes, religions and secular societies do share some common values. But when citing a reason for doing something or for passing a law, then any reference to a religious belief is from satanism.

We have principles based in rules once from religion, dictators, and kings only because we learn from history. Does that mean we still use all their rules? Of course not. We have already taken the good parts. We have and sometimes still are disposing of perverted thoughts and outright biases from kings, dictators, and religion. IOW we are done with those rules. We are now a secular society. We look back upon those old rules only to learn their lessons - good and bad. Those are now old and now obsolete systems of government. And yes - religion once was part of government. Therefore bad governments existed.

It is no accident that pedophilia was all but promoted by a religious institution. Just like the Spanish Inquisition continued right on into the 20th Century. Those are the lessons of religion. Those realities have not changed as demonstrated by the hate so often promoted by politically active evangelicals.

One thing we learned repeatedly - at least those who are educated enough to have learned them - is that religion has no place in ruling men. Religion is only a relationship between you and your god - period.

[xoxoxoBruce]

From Wiki

"Satanism" is a term which has been used since the end of the Middle Ages to describe a number of different belief systems in a number of contexts. People claiming to be Satanists, or outsiders claiming to describe Satanism, ascribe a wide variety of beliefs to Satanism. At the same time there is no established, common sense of this word. These range from the obviously fanatiс sects to the groups of people in search of themselves; from the literal deistic worship of a malevolent spiritual being (Theistic Satanism) to the monography of the atheistic philosopher; from a subversive ritual performance stressing the mockery of Christian symbols (most notably the Black Mass) to denying all rituals