blueguyinaredstate

The question of the separation of church and state is an issue that brings great frustration’s too many people in the United States in regards to the position religion should occupy in a given society. Both the conservative religious right and the liberal secular left have different ideas in respects to what principles society should govern by, and the role religion should play in governance. I personally agree with the idea that society should rule separately from the powers of the church, but I must say that the lack of understanding on the side of the left frustrates me, especially since I fall on their side of the arguments so often. They argue that when a ruling goes against the principles of a free society, and embraces a religious stance that we are not enforcing the constitutional right to the separation of church and state.

A good example of such an instance would be the recent ruling on proposition eight in
California in which the citizens of the state ruled against gay marriage, opponents of this decision argued the church has too much power in this country. They also say that here in the United States we are far behind the secularist policies embraced in
Europe. My frustrations stand from the idea that people are so naïve to think that we can actually separate ourselves from something that is such an integral part of who we are. The Only reason why so many people in Europe and
Canada have such secular views is that religion plays a minor role in their lives in comparison to Americans. Studies indicate that 90 percent of Americans believe in God and roughly half of Americans go to church on a relatively regular basis where as in
Europe respectively only 50 percent believe in god and a measly 10 percent go to church regularly.

The point I am trying to make is simple we can only separate our societies from certain institutions and ideas only to the extent in which individuals exist outside of these ideas. Therefore, secularism can only exist truly in a society in which the citizens yield little faith in God. Secularism and freedom from the ideology of church guiding government can only exist when the people of the society free themselves from religion.