Rynar wrote:
Arathain:
Yet I think you'll agree that religious values shouldn't be codified into Law, as that would indicate the establishment of a state religion.
Almost anything a religious person considers important can be in some way called a "religious value". I oppose stealing and murder in part because they are prohibited by God. These are religious values for me. They're values for other reasons too, but they are religious. I favor private charity, because Jesus called on us to give of ourselves. Me calling for more private charity and less government handouts could be a "religious value".
I'm sure you have perfectly good reasons why all of the above would still be acceptable. The problem is that vague terms like "religious values" are used by certain people because they want to be able to designate anything they don't like as a religious value.
The fact is that we don't inquire into people's motivations for their votes, and we have freedom of speech, as well as free exercise, in addition to protection against establishment. People can vote any way they like for any reason they like, and they can attempt to sway people using religious arguments.
The only thing that shouldn't be codified into law are religious
practices; i.e. things actually involving worship, demonstration of belief, etc. Other things that have religious overtones, such as a day of public rest, do not constitute establishment. They may be inadvisable as policy, and they may be outside the powers of government for reasons other than establishment of religion (for example, the Federal government cannot ban the eating of pork because it can't regulate what you eat, not because it's a Jewish dietary law), but extending beyond actual religious practices inevitably leads to people claiming something is "establishment of religion" just because religious people favor it.
This is especially dangerous when you consider that atheists refuse to acknowledge that atheism is a religion. All too many would be all to happy to have government of, by, and for the atheists, and to establish atheism because "it's not a religion."
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