XPost: soc.culture.russian, soc.culture.scottish, soc.culture.welsh   
   XPost: talk.politics.european-union   
   From: mr.alistair.sim@gmail.com   
      
   The Faith-Based Attack on Rational Government   
   Monday, June 27, 2005   
   By: Thomas A. Bowden   
      
   As "people of faith" step up their crusade to inject religion into   
   judicial decision-making, people of reason must understand why America   
   should be a wholly secular state.   
      
   They call themselves "people of faith," and they are waging war   
   against a basic principle of American government: the separation of   
   church and state. Complaining that our secular culture has improperly   
   banished God from government, religious conservatives are working   
   tirelessly to inject faith-based decision-making into America's legal   
   system.   
      
   This conservative onslaught requires a bold defense of the secular   
   state--by people of reason.   
      
   Although that defense must encompass all branches of government,   
   today's battleground is the courtroom, where judges find themselves   
   under relentless pressure to legitimize religious dogmas such as the   
   sanctity of the God-given soul (the Terri Schiavo case, anti-abortion   
   laws, stem cell research), the literal truth of holy scripture (laws   
   against homosexuality, displays of the Ten Commandments in   
   courthouses), and the recognition of God as master of the universe   
   (creationism, prayer in public schools). The First Amendment,   
   conservatives declare, guarantees only freedom "of" religion, not   
   freedom "from" religion.   
      
   To their credit, secular judges have valiantly resisted the religious   
   right's persistent advances. In response, frustrated conservatives are   
   leveraging their newfound dominance over Congress and the presidency   
   in a crusade to emasculate the judiciary. Whether it's senators   
   limiting filibusters, or Congress threatening to reorganize the court   
   system, or President Bush decrying "judicial activism" while   
   nominating compliant federal judges, conservatives are targeting   
   secular judges as enemies.   
      
   No, the "people of faith" are not calling for a Christian   
   theocracy--yet. For now, they simply want to establish religious faith   
   on an equal footing with reason as a legitimate method of governmental   
   decision-making. But if they succeed in this, the eventual emergence   
   of government by clergy is all but assured.   
      
   A proper defense of the secular state must penetrate to fundamentals.   
   It is insufficient, for example, to criticize Christian evangelicals   
   for imposing their own narrow creed on a diversely religious   
   citizenry. Such superficial criticism implies that faith-based   
   governmental action is permissible if representative of all beliefs,   
   when in fact our Constitution forbids it.   
      
   America was established for a secular purpose: the protection of   
   individual rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The   
   Constitution neither mentions God (except to forbid religious tests   
   for public office) nor imbues government with any religious purposes.   
      
   Individual rights can be protected only by a secular state whose every   
   action is grounded in objective fact and guided by reason, not blind   
   faith. By way of illustration, consider the importance of rational   
   methodology in the field of criminal justice.   
      
   To justify an arrest in a proper legal system, the police must have   
   probable cause, and to win a conviction, a prosecutor must establish   
   guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, based on objective evidence. If   
   justice is to prevail, each governmental decision must be taken   
   without regard to anyone's religious faith.   
      
   Any admixture of religious faith guarantees injustice. In the Dark   
   Ages, a prosecutor would submerge the defendant's arms in boiling   
   water, and if the scalded flesh became infected, that was taken as a   
   sign of God's disfavor, mandating a guilty verdict. Adopting that   
   benighted era's essential methodology, today's conservatives demand   
   that judges accept "God's will" as a legitimate basis for punishing   
   homosexuals, science teachers, stem cell researchers, and a host of   
   others. This is the collapse of criminal justice, as surely as if   
   Jewish judges were rejecting testimony from atheists, or Catholic   
   jurors were relying on scripture to convict Protestants.   
      
   Centuries of history demonstrate that faith-based governments spawn   
   persecution, torture, and endless bloody warfare. Today's religionists   
   may insist that this time will be different, but their evasions cannot   
   eradicate the inherent connection between faith and force. Since faith   
   entails overriding reason in favor of emotion, religious disputes are   
   necessarily unresolvable through rational persuasion, leaving force as   
   the only weapon against heretics and infidels. No wonder religionists   
   so often lust after government power.   
      
   If "people of faith" choose to act irrationally in their private   
   lives, they are free to do so. But if there is one institution that   
   must be held rationally accountable for every single action it takes,   
   it is the agency that can lawfully use guns, prisons, and lethal   
   injections against legally disarmed citizens.   
      
   Separating church from state does not guarantee victory for the   
   rational protection of individual rights--secular irrationality is   
   possible, indeed commonplace--but such separation is indispensable   
   nonetheless. This is why issues like abortion, gay rights, and   
   "Intelligent Design" creationism merit so much attention. Once judges   
   begin accepting religious feelings as valid decisional factors, the   
   secular principle cannot survive, and the disintegration of society   
   into sectarian strife must soon follow.   
      
   "People of faith" began this war, and so people of reason must now end   
   it--by zealously defending the secular state, and vowing never to   
   allow faith and force to be united under the American flag.   
      
   Thomas A. Bowden is an attorney and a writer for Ayn Rand Institute in   
   Irvine, Calif.  The Institute promotes the ideas of Ayn   
   Rand--best-selling author of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead and   
   originator of the philosophy she called "Objectivism."   
      
      
   --   
   Alistair Sim   
      
      
      
      
   "I am the Whistler, and I know many things, for I walk by night. I   
   know many strange tales, many secrets hidden in the hearts of men and   
   women who have stepped into the shadows. Yes, I know the nameless   
   terrors of which they dare not speak."   
      
      
      
      
   They seek him here   
   They seek him there.   
   Those Frenchies seek him everywhere.   
   Is he in heaven?   
   Or is he in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel!   
      
      
   "How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the   
   impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?"   
      
      
      
      
   The little things are infinitely more important."   
      
      
      
      
      
   "I am an omnivorous reader with a strangely retentive memory for   
   trifles."   
      
      
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