If you believe that then you sir have never read the Federalists, and
who were the Federalists, just the champions and authors of the
Constitution. If you read their writings then much is explained, though
not everything since they lived in their own time and to them some
things didn't need explaining. The government was meant to be religion
neutral, not religionless, secular but not atheist. The separation
clause was meant to keep the government from oppressing any religion,
not to keep religion away from the government or the people. Your
reading and understanding of the constitution is a completely modern
view, that few, if any, of the founders would have recognized, and is
even a minority opinion today. I have training as a professional
historian, and one of the first things you are taught, though few
actually learn it, is that you must understand the past, not as you
would judge it based on your time, but based on the time of those you
are trying to understand. (As you can see, I never made a living by
writing history but I've read lots, I had to). My specialization by the
way was in US history. Now it's been almost 27 years since I was
studying to be a historian, but some things I haven't forgotten.
Tom Reese wrote:
You should learn something about American History sir.
American history has been a passion of mine for some time. I am well aware
of the various religion faiths that came here to flee persecution.
The fact is that the Constitution is completely free of religion references
except two phrases that both use exclusionary wording. If the founding
fathers intended to base the government on religious principles then those
principles would have been written into the Constitution. They were not.
They intended the government to be completely secular.
Tom Reese
--
When you're worried or in doubt,
Run in circles, (scream and shout).
