today there was a rulling in the supreme court saying that the 10 commandments r not 2 b displayed in a court room but are still allowed 2 b displayed in other public buildings as long as they are irrelevant i am an athesist but isn't this kind of messed up

Really? You're an athesist, what's that?

As long as the buildings recieve no government funding, or in other words, our tax dollars don't pay for it, then it's fine.

.....................................Court-Rooms.

I agree with you on this, but just to say - the main argument is that this country was built on Christian values, therefore the Ten Commandments are symbolic and that's why they're there.

Cheers,

Lost

quote:Originally posted by LostCause:

the main argument is that this country was built on Christian values, therefore the Ten Commandments are symbolic and that's why they're there.

Cheers,

Lost

I know you're probably not supporting this but i'll voice my opinion anyway.

This government may or may not have been founded upon Christian values, I think the founding fathers were Christian but they had no intention of forcing their beliefs unto everyone else.

That's not what matters. What matters is that something pertaining to a certain religion, this being the Ten Commandments and Christianity, is in a goverment building. A government building funded by tax dollars even from people who aren't Christian.

There is nothing that says there is a "seperation of religion and state."

I've read the constitution and didn't find it.

quote:Originally posted by Beholder:

There is nothing that says there is a "seperation of religion and state."

I've read the constitution and didn't find it.



The First Amendment is commonly interpreted as meaning "separation of church and state":

"The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution simply states that the government may make no laws regarding religious establishments in the United States. Traditionally, this has been interpreted as the prohibition of the establishment of a national religion by Congress or the preference of one religion over another. Prior to the enactment of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Supreme Court generally took the position that the substantive protections of the Bill of Rights did not apply to actions by state governments. Subsequently, under the "incorporation doctrine", certain selected provisions were applied to states. It was not, however, until the middle and later years of the twentieth century that the Supreme Court began to interpret the establishment and free exercise clauses in such a manner as to reduce substantially the promotion of religion by state governments (For example, in the Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet, Justice David Souter concluded that "government should not prefer one religion to another, or religion to irreligion.")."

Few people seem to realize that the constitution is just a framework and to really understand it they must read a lot more than just the constitution. To understand how the constitution effects us today, you need to read about the court rullings and other decisions that have fleshed it out over the years.

Take sep of church and state, there are quite a few rulings that flesh out and explain the establishment clause.