Xeno, I feel at the least by the science we should all vouch-safe the human experience of the transcendent Unified Field for all humankind and that is a proper role for all government. In your posting this ingersoll piece to this longer FFL thread describing the spirituality experiment implicit of the Fairfield, Iowa Meditating Community, is that what you were thinking too? -Buck in the Dome
Anartaxius writes: It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as sharply upon political, as upon theological questions; and when that day comes, if there are not liberals enough to hold the balance of power, this Government will be destroyed. The liberty of man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and sword are in partnership, man is a slave. All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining and punishing blasphemy — making it a crime to give your honest ideas about the Bible, or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should be at once repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to protect himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures. Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep him from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare from ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment. It strikes me that God might write a book that would not necessarily excite the laughter of his children. In fact, I think it would be safe to say that a real God could produce a work that would excite the admiration of mankind. Surely politicians could be better employed than in passing laws to protect the literary reputation of the Jewish God. --- Robert Ingersoll (1879) (You can substitute other related concepts for Bible, God, and can substitute Christian, or Hindu, or Quaker, Islamist, etc., for Jewish. [This quotation is from a work that focuses on Moses]) .