Re: [Phys-l] The Perils of American Stupidity

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Thomas Jefferson coined the term separation of church and state.  He managed
to get the Church of England destablished in VA just the year before the
constitution made it mandatory.  If you watch the series God in America it
brings out the various entanglements of church and state in the US.
Jefferson as one of the framers of the constitution should have known what
the clause was intended to convey.  He was also an intensely religious
person who always consulted his faith when making decisions.  But he would
in modern terms be considered a Unitarian.

The real problem from out point of view is entanglement of religion and
science.  And that is what is going on in the school boards, congress, and
decision making in our country.  While the original post could have been
less blatantly political, it had a lot of good educational information.
This entanglement with the Republicans gaining benefit from the religious
right is going to cause us lots of problems.  It needs to be opposed, and
severed.  We can not ignore this.

As to Sharon Angle having a good point, the Republican governor of TX is in
favor of returning prayer to public schools.  But this means conservative
Protestant prayer.  What about the Hindus, Mormons, Catholics, Jews, Bahai,
Wiccans, Atheists, Agnostics...  They will not have their people leading the
prayers.  If the schools gave equal opportunity to all students they would
have to allow an atheist the opportunity to give a sermon on why the prayers
are stupid.  If Angle thought this through, she would be in favor of
absolute separation.

We ignore the alliance between one party and the anti-science factions at
our own peril.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> This isn't the place for such conversations, but let's just look at
> your comment on Christine O'Donnell. When she asked where separation
> of church and state were in the Constitution, she made an excellent
> point. Unfortunately, she did not follow up adequately and explain
> that Congress not establishing a religion does not equate to
> separation of church and state. The audible gasps and laughs are more
> of a credit to the students in that audience not understanding the
> First Amendment. O'Donnell did not clarify her comments well, but that
> does not make her an idiot. Ad hominem attacks don't enlighten anyone.