Ban on discussion of religion or politics prevents film discussion.

[terjeber]

Originally Posted by Merrick

For the record, the oft-quoted "separation of church and state" appears in no founding Federal document, and certainly not the Constitution or any amendment. The phrase "building a wall of separation between church and state" was written by Thomas Jefferson in a January 1, 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptist Association.

You are absolutely correct. Sorta. Article IV says: "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States". Jefferson, probably one of the sharpest people ever wandering around the offices of DC, and a staunch atheist, understood the consequences. Thankfully the Common Law system in the US makes this wall of separation more or less impossible to tear down.

Sadly, the current people claiming to be Republicans, the likes of Bush Jr etc, who have no idea what a Republican is, and who hold very few political views that are in line with what was once the party of ideas used to stand for, have desperately been trying to tear down this wall. This is exceedingly sad, since one of the pillars that the country was built on, albeit a very small pillar, was the security from religious persecution. There is only one way to ensure freedom from religious persecution and that is to have a 100% secular government. This doesn't mean that individuals within it has to be, just the organization it self. A secular government requires a wall as described by Jefferson.

So, given that the US has a Common Law system, and a Common Law system has to look strongly at the intention behind legislation, not just the words used, it is not hard to argue that the US in fact has a legal requirement to maintain a strong, insurmountable wall between religion and state. Thankfully.

This is one of the many things that makes the US a great place to live. No matter how hard the lunatics on the religious right try, they can't make this country into their own version of Afghanistan under Taliban (with a different religion, but who cares?). Oh, and they are trying to do just that. Those of us who live in the US by choice, not by accident of birth, are plenty happy that this wall exists and that it is exceedingly hard to tear down.

[buckshot]

Originally Posted by EuLoGY

no one was talking to you because that would mean that we were talking sports to a red sox fan...........................that's not allowed here.

Reason: because Red sox fans, treat baseball as religion, and Ted Williams as god


AND WE ALL KNOW BABE RUTH IS GOD!!!

holy crap, that was hilarious. oh my ***. (that was bad. almost slipped out the g word) funny thing is, ted williams was a san diego native. there's a freeway named after him right by my house, and i even got to meet the guy and talk with him at the opening of it eat that bostoners . but i'm discussing freeways not religious icons.

i'm just surprised this thread is still going. man. craziness. by the way. i watched planet earth last night (or at least some of it) and man was it pretty.

[buckshot]

and evidently everyone in this thread wasn't around for the whole blu blood thing and what a mess that all turned into when people started getting waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay to serious. so lets keep it on blu. i'm going to go snuggle with a few titles now. its a forbidden love.

[iceman]

Originally Posted by terjeber

You are absolutely correct. Sorta. Article IV says: "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States". Jefferson, probably one of the sharpest people ever wandering around the offices of DC, and a staunch atheist, understood the consequences. Thankfully the Common Law system in the US makes this wall of separation more or less impossible to tear down.

Sadly, the current people claiming to be Republicans, the likes of Bush Jr etc, who have no idea what a Republican is, and who hold very few political views that are in line with what was once the party of ideas used to stand for, have desperately been trying to tear down this wall. This is exceedingly sad, since one of the pillars that the country was built on, albeit a very small pillar, was the security from religious persecution. There is only one way to ensure freedom from religious persecution and that is to have a 100% secular government. This doesn't mean that individuals within it has to be, just the organization it self. A secular government requires a wall as described by Jefferson.

So, given that the US has a Common Law system, and a Common Law system has to look strongly at the intention behind legislation, not just the words used, it is not hard to argue that the US in fact has a legal requirement to maintain a strong, insurmountable wall between religion and state. Thankfully.

This is one of the many things that makes the US a great place to live. No matter how hard the lunatics on the religious right try, they can't make this country into their own version of Afghanistan under Taliban (with a different religion, but who cares?). Oh, and they are trying to do just that. Those of us who live in the US by choice, not by accident of birth, are plenty happy that this wall exists and that it is exceedingly hard to tear down.

This thread is for discussing IF/when it's allowed to discuss religion/politics, not TO discuss religion/religion.

[Grisle]

It's crazy how quickly things turn nasty when talking about religion or politics. A little off topic I just noticed your join date is 2003 Iceman...how long has this board been around?

[buckshot]

Originally Posted by Grisle

It's crazy how quickly things turn nasty when talking about religion or politics. A little off topic I just noticed your join date is 2003 Iceman...how long has this board been around?

thousands of years ago, robot santa claus created this website from some bone bits of string and fecal matter. which were hurled at predators for we were to stupid to understand their significance.

from what i've seen iceman and marwin created this site in 2003. they are the creators.

[ottscay]

Originally Posted by terjeber

Jefferson, probably one of the sharpest people ever wandering around the offices of DC, and a staunch atheist, understood the consequences.

That's not true (and I am an atheist). Jefferson was a staunch Deist, a theological outlook inspired by the European Enlightenment. Deism espouses belief in a non-personal God that created the universe and set its laws in motion, but does not interphere in day to day operations. Deism accepts that some people may be more morally enlightened, but doesn't generally accept miraculous acts or direct revelation. That's why Jefferson made the aptly named Jefferson Bible, which espoused what he thought was valuble about Jesus' moral teachings but removed supernatural events from the story.

In short, Jefferson was certainly not a Christian, but he was niether a materialist nor an atheist either.

My strongest belief is that all of us, on all sides of a debate, need to spend more time adhering to the facts rather than trying to get the facts to adhere to our preconceptions...

[WickyWoo]

This thread is for discussing IF/when it's allowed to discuss religion/politics, not TO discuss religion/religion.

Thank you

[iceman]

ok, thread locked :>