Thread: President's Speech

Originally Posted by Bruno

And your country's founders took great care to make a separation between church and state.
I am not afraid of people mentioning God, but I am convinced religious leader are extremely unqualified to be political leaders. They also tend to be bad at actual practical problems.

The words "separation of church and state" does not appear in the US Constitution. What it does say is that the US shall establish no religion. People use the words "separation of church and state" as a club against Christians here.

The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion, NOT freedom FROM religion. I'm getting sick of the anti-religion movement. It doesn't seem to apply to Muslims.

Originally Posted by razorjoe

[B]It looked like only ABC carried the President's speech. To bad considering it was a very important subject.

Why watch a speech when you can simply get the summary and the talking points from your favorite pundits? And then you can simply say you've thought it yourself!

Originally Posted by Johnus

Seems that we've learned to pick and choose as we want.

Isn't that the whole point of religion? But then I don't see why can't one tell what a man really is by the bits and pieces they pick and chose..

I think i have heard that same tone with the Islamic brotherhood... Good luck,with that...

Originally Posted by razorjoe

[B]It looked like only ABC carried the President's speech. To bad considering it was a very important subject. Although I can't find "global economy" in the USA consitution. I guess gradually going back to FDR, our government has been forcing us to accept a one world government or a one world leader. All he did durning the speech was state the question agian after it was asked and then really said nothing. Avoided qquestions and more or less just stumbled through the speech. Willard(Mitt) Romney doesn't look much better.

Shoulda hit stop right there...

See I am a Right Wing conservative and ya just lost me after that.. imagine what the Liberals (Progressives as they like again now) on here think of yer opinion now...

Government <--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> Religion


They should be as far apart as possible

Keep in mind that all religions are equal in the US therefore when you say "Back to our Lord Jesus Christ", you open the same door for Praise be to Allah and Sharia Law, or Harm no One and the Wiccans, so unless you are prepared to embrace other's religion I suggest that you keep Religion out of Government...

American politics seem like they are from outer space sometimes.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Shoulda hit stop right there...

See I am a Right Wing conservative and ya just lost me after that.. imagine what the Liberals (Progressives as they like again now) on here think of yer opinion now...

Government <--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------> Religion


They should be as far apart as possible

Keep in mind that all religions are equal in the US therefore when you say "Back to our Lord Jesus Christ", you open the same door for Praise be to Allah and Sharia Law, or Harm no One and the Wiccans, so unless you are prepared to embrace other's religion I suggest that you keep Religion out of Government...

OMG,, I would have never guessed that !

I am a Christian, and I would get very nervous if we had a government made up from religious leaders. You never know when the nutters would cart out Leviticus again. Let's not kid ourselves, we've all seen what happens if the Christian church gets real power. And today we still see what happens if the imams wield real power. It always seems to end badly when religious leaders get to make the calls.

Society is a series of practical problems: the actual issues depend a bit on your type of government, but generally the issues have to do with roads, sewers, electrical and other infrastructure, taxes, policing, public transportation and a whole range of other things like that. I think it is best to let that sort of stuff be run by people who are qualified at administering stuff and making the wheel go round.

What's in order along with the separation of Church and State is the separation of Money and State. Politicians refuse to discuss real issues for fear that some corporation of action fund will target them. It's getting so that Hair Cut and what type of car your wife drives is more important than the Present and the Future.

Originally Posted by fpessanha

...Religious people tend to be rather intolerant of difference. They tend to see themselves as right and the ones that do not follow their own opinions and ideas to be wrong. ...bible bashing redneck ...

Maybe you should work on your tolerance of others…

Originally Posted by HNSB

Maybe you should work on your tolerance of others…

I'm sorry, HNSB. I didn't mean to offend... I just wanted to make a point. I am a tolerant man, I asure you.
I know the expression I used is rather strong. I could have avoided that. But this little cunnundrum here is a perfect case in point. Now transpose this to the scale of political leadership of a nation... this is why religion and politics should be separated as much as possible. We simply cannot afford to have the particular religious views of a political leader taint his political guideance.
When I said that religious people tend to be this and that I was just expressing my views and experiences, having had many conversations on this topic. This is what I conclude from my contact with more radical religious folk. They have the intolerance that certainty of being right grants them... On the other hand, I've had more points of divergence with fellow atheists on grounds of their own radical intolerance of religious people and their beliefs...
So, to conclude, this is what I trully feel: you can be a man of intense religiosity and you can be a man of radical anti-clericalism. But if you are a politician... keep it to yourself.