What religious rights, if any, are currently being eroded in the USA?

WILLOWTREE jibs:

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But I am not without valid points...

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Then what are they? What can't you answer this simple question without appealing to Sylas for help? And what the hell difference does your post count make?I looked at the earlier thread. You did aver that religious rights are being eroded. You were asked to provide examples but you refuse to do it, appealing instead for someone else to come to your aid. Why won't you answer the damn question? What religious rights are being eroded?You also said that atheism is a religion. I'd be interested in seeing how you define 'religion'.

WILLOWTREE thunders:

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Separation of Church and State is nowhere to be found in the Contract, it is an invention of atheists who robbed a theist (Thomas Jefferson) of his words and twisted their meaning to suit their objectives.

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No, Thomas Jefferson's comments came from his Letter to the Danbury Baptists in which he likens the first ammendment to a "wall of separation between church and state". So it was indeed Jefferson who used these words to sum up the intent of the first ammendment. Atheists (and some Christians) use this phrase in precisely the same way Jefferson did, so in fact you are the one twisting meanings here.You'll note, if you trouble yourself to read the letter, that Jefferson is expressing agreement on this point with the Danbury Baptists. That is because the idea of this separation was first promoted by Baptists (it might even go back as far as the Anabaptists, I've forgotten and don't care to look it up at the moment).

Verzam, although I think I agree with your basic thought there are myriad problems with your post. I will mention just one of them: the 1st Amendment most definitely goes further than merely preventing a prohibition of religion. You're forgetting the words "or the free exercise thereof".

Verzem writes:

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As I mentioned, and PaulK so succinctly wrote in his second sentence above, the "free exercise" clause of the First Amendment in no way gives religion carte blanche to do as it will, regardless of civil law.

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No, but the post I responded to earlier strongly implied that you felt the 1st amendment merely prevented the government from prohibiting religion when in fact it goes much further than that. If that was not your point I apologize for misreading it.

'Learnt' is correct. It is an alternate form of 'learned'.'Bugger' I'm not sure of, but I suspect it must be slang. From context it seems to be a noun meaning 'nothing'. The only common noun form of this word I'm aware of is one that means 'fellow' or 'chap'.The verb form is a vulgarity meaning 'to engage in sodomy'. Its use is similar to the use of the word 'fuck' to mean 'engage in sex'. There is a related noun form to mean 'one who engages in sodomy' but it's very rarely used.The use of 'learnt' and 'bugger' is rare in the US.Trixie, can you help us out with another meaning for 'bugger'?Edging closer to the subject topic, WT, I want to point out that you never acknowledged my post 37 upstring about Thomas Jefferson and his 'wall of separation between church and state'. I think this is important because you claimed that Jefferson's words were taken out of context and twisted in meaning. I want to know if you realize, after reading the linked letter, that you were incorrect.

I can answer that; it's a name, not a word, which should have been obvious from the context. As it happens I feel certain Brad merely mispelled 'Polkinghorne', as in 'Sir John Polkinghorne', a professor of mathematical physics and Anglican priest at Cambridge University.