Stranger wrote:I thought you were implying that the church is becoming more prominent in law making - and hearing that coming from someone who lives in Seattle, one of the most liberal places on the planet, confused me.
Well we do have televisions and the internet here....And not all of Seattle is liberal. We have a lot of non thinkers here too.....
haha.
Stranger wrote:As far as the church being prominent in lawmaking, I see so much power being brought against the little guy in the form of religious, big business , conservatives. I see so much dis-information and I'm so pissed at the Democrats who had a great opportunity to good and they just threw it away.
But yes, society has made gains in spite of religion. I don't buy your assertion that society is worse off because we don't follow religious teachings.
Well, I may believe it, but where did I assert it? I think you're reading into my post, which has been doing nothing other than pointing out that I don't see society being run by the church - but more by the unchurch. That aside, I think you're confusing Republicans with "the church". I'm not a fan of Republicans either.
Stranger wrote:If we strictly followed religious teachings we'd have something more like a fascist state. Look at the Taliban if you want an example. And I think the founding fathers knew this and made separation of church and state prominent in their new government.
um. you're confusing Islam with Christianity. If were to be a fascist state because of Christianity, we would have started off as one... more recently though, I think you can say we are becoming fascist, if by fascism, you mean government controlled business. But that's further down the time-line, which is my point - moving away from what I thought you meant by theocracy.
Stranger wrote:The reason you have to lock your doors at night is that whole communities have crushing poverty brought about by people that still have the mistaken belief that we all play on an even playing field...
Poverty has always been with us. It always will be. Yet, there was time when it was common to not have to lock your doors. So I don't equate poverty with crime as much as you do, but rather a state of mind that justifies theft, or a state of mind that just views the law as "if you don't catch me, it's legal".
Anyways, I still think we're moving away from a theocracy. By that I mean, church run/controlled state by means of laws. Even at our founding, those laws were democratically put into place based on a general consens of the majority of individuals who, even if they weren't Christian, believed generally speaking that the ethos of the Bible was sutiable to maintain a civil society. That norm is gone - and so now laws are reflecting the non-religious ethos. Laws in a democrasy always reflect the majority's view of morality, both fiscal and moral. That's just the way it works.
Cheers.