The judiciary is responsible for ensuring that civil laws conform to boundaries set by the Constitution, not to laws allegedly handed down by a god. It is responsible for ensuring that justice is done in criminal and civil cases and the standards of justice are determined by the Constitution and by civil laws, not by any allegedly divine laws and not by some groups interpretations of their holy scriptures. Some believe in laws handed down by a god, but they are irrelevant in the courts.
Godless Social Services:
The government provides numerous social services, like health care, job training, addiction counseling, and so forth. All of these services must be administered and delivered according to standards of effectiveness and justice; religious standards believed by some to come from a god are irrelevant. All the social services should be civil and secular in nature; government has no authority to deliver religious services of any sort.
Americas military has the job of defending the nation against attack; decisions to use the military must be based on legitimate national interests, not beliefs about the wishes or commands of someones god. The military itself should be structured and run according to what is necessary to carry out its mission, which means that the alleged demands or desires of any gods are irrelevant. Members of the military may believe in gods, but those gods are irrelevant to the military as a whole.
One of the preeminent battlegrounds for the Christian Rights war on modernity is Americas secular public school system. The Christian Right cannot stand the fact that instead of infusing the entire curriculum with their brand of conservative Christian principles, the government maintains a neutral stance on religion with a secular system. The godlessness the public schools is an advantage, not a defect. Public schools should be secular, not extensions of religious institutions.
Godless, Secular Government is Best for a Pluralistic Society:
Its common to hear laments about the absence of God in government institutions, programs, and offices. The truth, however, is that the absence of any official and explicit inclusion of gods is ultimately beneficial to everyone: its good for the government, its good for government employees, and its good for all the citizens. This is especially true in an increasingly religiously pluralistic society like modern America.
People may complain that god and religion are necessary for government to have values, but they always mean just their god and just their religion. Its impossible to incorporate gods or religion into government in any general, non-specific way. It must be some particular interpretation of some particular god from some particular religious tradition. This necessarily requires favoring one group from one religion over all other religions and all other groups from that same religion. Americas government doesnt have the authority to do this, and doing it anyway would cause the government to become more of a theocracy than a liberal democracy.
The current situation is best for the people because the absence of gods in their government means that they should be treated equally regardless of their religious or theistic beliefs. Its good for government employees because they dont have to worry about serving the goals of a religion other than their own, or even mis-serving the goals of their own religion as interpreted by government bureaucrats. Finally, its good for the government because the coercive power of the state should not be brought to bear on voluntary religious issues. This would ultimately corrupt government as much as religion.
A godless, secular government is thus crucial to maintaining liberty generally and religious liberty in particular. A godless, secular government is the basis of a neutral and fair government which treats all people with equal dignity and equal justice.
Barack Obama supporting a Secular Government
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