Quote:
Originally Posted by KayakerNC
The separation of church and state is a legal and political principle derived from the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which reads, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof . . ." The phrase "separation of church and state" is generally traced to an 1802 letter by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists, where Jefferson spoke of the combined effect of the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment. It has since been quoted in several opinions handed down by the United States Supreme Court.[1]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Separat..._United_States |
And in no case did the U.S. Supreme Court ever state that any reference to God shall be devoid from all governmental matters. Neither has the U.S. Supreme Court ever interpreted the First Amendment to say that atheism trumps religion.
With regards to Mr. Jefferson's commentary on "separation of church and state," today's religious antogonists routinely fail to report that Mr. Jefferson, as most of the signatories of the Constitution, was raised as an Anglican - The Church of England. Mr. Jefferson and his colleagues appeared to want to insure their national creation did not mimic the English duality where Head of State and Emissary of the Creator were lawfully endowed as one and the same.
Had these fine and articulate men intended a further separation than that, these wise persons would never have referred in the ratification section of the Constitution that their signing as occurring
"in the year of our Lord (emphasis added) one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth".