The Limits of Religious Belief

Religious beliefs cannot be part of public education because of separation of church and state, but I started this thread out of concern that that separation is beginning to crumble. For instance, posting excerpts from the Bible like the 10 commandments in the public schools would be a violation of that separation, but if the electorate votes for it and the Supreme Court approves it, as seems increasingly possible lately, then we've lost that separation.It's difficult to see how the Supreme Court could approve something like this that eroded that separation because then it would seem impossible to exclude excerpts from other religion's holy books such as the Quran or the Bhagavad Gita and so forth, but I fear the current Supreme Court might find a way to allow one and disallow the others, further eroding the separation.--Percy

No one said it was a quote from the constitution. The phrase "separation of church and state" refers to the two clauses about religion in the First Amendment of the Constitution: the establishment clause and the free exercise clause. What it actually disallows is the establishment of religion, not the founding of a Church, though it includes that, too. As interpreted by the Supreme Court it means that the state cannot endorse, promote or sponsor any religion. It's why prayer was disallowed in public schools in 1962. It's why the 10 Commandments were ordered removed from the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building, which you mention here: To me, too. For a while it seemed like we were gradually removing religious references from public buildings, but I think this effort has stalled. I doubt many see problems with a religious studies course.An example of the actual problem is when 30 students in a classroom recite the Lord's Prayer without regard to whether all the students are Christian or even whether they wish to recite the prayer. Pressure, sometimes social, sometimes bureaucratic, sometimes authoritative, sometimes a combination, to recite a prayer contrary to one's wishes or beliefs is regarded as antithetical to the free exercise clause of the First Amendment.I'm glad you're including the Unitarians (not to be confused with the Universalists). Unitarianism was dominant in the late 1700s and early 1800s, which is why the church on the town green in many New England towns is Unitarian.Leprechauns Bless!--Percy

Most? That can't really be true, can it? Don't polls show that a majority favor a right to abortion? According to a Gallup poll from May of last year, 34% believe abortion should be legal "under any circumstances" and 51% "only under certain circumstances." Only 13% thought it should be illegal under all circumstances: Where Do Americans Stand on Abortion? If I understood you correctly, you said that most people consider abortion to be murder, and that's inconsistent with the poll results. This isn't important, but you're right that it's far less impactful and wrong that it's limited in scope. In fact, the Navajo request affects all Americans, while only half of Americans could be denied an abortion. I'm not anti-religious. I'm anti "refusal to honor separation of church and state".I think we're talking past each other. You claim you're not disputing something I thought you were disputing, and you interpreted what I said as all or nothing when I used the word "correlated" three times. Morals are what feels right and wrong.--Percy