No official role for government

Yes, I couldn't agree more. Thank you, Mr.Gore.

Keep government out of religion and religion out of government.

Since we are the "melting pot," witch religion would we teach?

It's a fine line from teaching one religion to discouraging another. I think religion in politics is one of the biggest problems with our political system today.

people are religious. people should be allowed to articulate their beliefs in the public square. religious folks should advocate for laws that best support their convictions, as should all other folks. i dont see a prima facie reason to subject religious beliefs to harsher scrutiny than non-religious beliefs.

Thank you Mr. Gore for sharing your views on this important subject and for continuously speaking out to preserve the rights of the people of this nation. As you know, throughout history more atrocities, wars and genocides have been committed in the name of a religion or one group's belief systems than any other cause. Always so refreshing to hear your voice of reason.

children should be taught about being truthful,love and compassion,not about religion. people forget the fact that
these are the true principles of any religion. by preaching this, false identification with violance in the name of religion will dissapear,people will become tolerant.

Insted of talking about religion in school,why not ban bullying and other mean things happen in school which leads to lot of killing.

True, but all religions dictate the choices an individual makes. A man cannot make a decision without his religion weighing in heavily. A Christian by definition (biblically) has the goal of purifying all others and leading them to the one true faith. So if a politician, no matter how powerful, makes a decision contrary to this tennet, they are a heretic, an infidel. In this respect, it is impossible to seperate religion from politics, as religion influences all aspects of an individual. Fully secular government is the only way to achieve complete seperation of church and state. I want THAT for christmas!

It's impossible to seperate religion from politics because people form the polity, and surprise! people are religious. The intolerance of religious belief is alarming and undemocratic.

While the state should not endorse or promote a particular religion, it should provide for the safe and reasoned articulation of religious beliefs.

I agree with you Mr. Gore. The first amendment says that the government shall not establish a religion, or prohibit the practice of any type of religion.

check also Harris' LETTER TO A CHRISTIAN NATION

Then do you believe we should take "under God" out of the pledge of allegiance in schools? I do. It wasn't there when it was originally written... by a minister no less. I believe we should have freedom of religion, but also freedom from religion when it concerns matters of state. But if religion is to be taught in schools let us at least tell the truth about it and the fact that most of the ills of this world including wars are based on a belief in God that has done nothing but bring misery to this world in trying to stake claim as to which one is the chosen religion. Theocracy never ends well for any country that dares try it.

OF COURSE!!! I'm surprised they still say "under God" in schools. that's so last century.

BooksBrown, People aren't born religious. They are indoctrinated to be religious. The constitution gives us the freedom to be, or not to be religious. It has worked very well until Bush started supporting churches with our tax dollars effectively buying support and votes. How do you like 23 million of your tax dollars going to build his (Flagship) church school in Dallas County Texas? It made me livid. I still am.

Marilyn,
I'm not sure I agree with your claim that people aren't born religious. Even more so, I'm not sure what its suppossed to demonstrate.

First, there is good reason to think that people are born with a religious longing and a capacity for divine union that might not be realized until some point in that persons' development. The fact that most of the planet is religious prompts the question: why? You might think its external brainwashing from larger institutional forces, but I think looking internally will provide an answer.

On my view, religious capacity and impulse is internal much the same way a mathematical capacity and impulse is internal but might be actualized by external forces (e.g., teaching).

Again, I'm unclear how "not being born with it" bears on the debate? I'm born with potentialities that can be actualized in a proper environment.

As it relates to faith-based initiatives and government funding (and private school vouchers for that matter) you wrongly assume the GOVT has its own money-- it is the peoples' money and they should be allowed to advocate for programs that satisfy them. Now, you might not be them, but hey...abortions are federally funded, so count your blessings.

I agree with you 100%, Mr. Gore!

booksbrown, yes we all have divine capacity, etc, but
i think you're confusing spirit/spirituality with religion.
spirit is awareness. religion is an instruction manual on how to cope with your awareness. some of us dont need instruction manuals, we make it up as we go. the instruction manual is, in any case, corrupt and misleading.

Brooks, "On my view, religious capacity and impulse is internal." If that is so let it flower without government funding.

I was not born religious. I was born as a spiritual being with a soul and a good heart... but I don't need to go to church to know that or for any government to shove their beliefs down my throat.

stephen,
I think the spiritual/religious dichotomy is artificial. On your view, spiritual people shouldn't glean wisdom from the teachings of people that have come before them. Sound like a historically, theologically and philosophically malnourished spirituality.

And I'm not sure just how "independently" formed your beliefs about God are? I mean, how many of us really, independently form our beliefs? Isn't belief formation a complex myriad of external and internal influences?

Marilyn, again, the government should use my money that I give them in a way that I approve. If they don't, I need to participate in our democracy so as to get somebody elected that supports my positions (insofar as its not unconstitutional). Whether we like it or not, the government funds projects that embody some MORAL ETHIC, the question is WHICH? Is it a conventional ethic that might be someday overturned, or some transcendental ethic that secures our HUMAN RIGHTS?

And i have to say, I've alway found the critique of ORGANIZED religion as superficial? What is it about organization, authority and guidelines that turns people off? I think its the faulty assumption that people are somehow radically or essentially individualistic...and that strikes me as false.

Sorry Brown, You don't get to choose how your tax money is spent. The constitution guarantees me that it won't be spent religion.

Brown, I would rather have a malnourished spirituality than one stuffed like pig in a factory. Again, i think you have the wrong idea of spirit and spirituality. It is not something you read up on.

the fact is - GOVERNMENT CONTROLS, RELIGION KILLS.

As a global species now aware of itself, there is no place for multiple religions who at best are practiced too moderately to be legitimate, at worst too extremely to co-exist.

Organization, authority, and guidelines don't turn me off, but hypocrisy does... and organized religion is one of the biggest hypocracies in the world. The Pope just comes out now and blames atheists for the ills of this world, yet he dare not mention the molestation of little boys by priests, their mysogynist doctrines, and their wars fought over centuries for land, riches, and power all in the name of the "church" by using God as their shield. The Inquisition, the Crusades, the attacks on freethinking women labelling them as witches and burning them at the stake... Is that the kind of authority, organization, and guidelines you speak of? The biggest beef I have with organized religion is that it thinks it is above everything when it is not. Matter of fact, if we truly were to examine the wars fought over the centuries it would be the church that would be seen as being behind many of them. They seek to rule with emotion over reason, and that more than many times leads to nothing but disaster as we have seen in Iraq at the behest of the RW religious fanatics in charge of that. Which is why our Founding Fathers were Deists and swore off the priests having any part in matters of state, and they were right.

It's simply wrong to assume that religion is a matter of emotion and the enemy of reason. A little study into the history of philosophy and science (two exemplars of reasoned discourse) will demonstate that Christians played a major role in the development of both.

Even more, the biblical word for faith is PISTIS (as in epistemology) and connotes a propositional as well as emotive component to BELIEF. That is to say, belief is comprised of Belief that X (a propositonal claim--e.g., Jesus is a historical figure; the manuscripts are historically reliable, etc) and Belief in X (an emotive decision of the will). Faith consists of both.

Now you may caricature religious folks as being unthinking and irrational, but you'd be wrong. Surely, some are. But what does that prove? Not as much as you think.

Also, what is it about hypocricy that irks you? What is it about failing to meet your own high moral standards thats troublesome?

Stephen,
Why couldnt reading provide you spiritual wisdom?

btw, is your criticism of diminished religion taken from Dennett? Its the second time I've encounted it on the board and watched an online Dennett debate yesterday and he seemed to make the same argument.

I have been a Christian all my life, but during the past 7 years I have felt as though religion has been prostituted for political purposes. The same group that has circumvented the laws, have used religion to protect themselves from scrutiny. By claiming to be such good Christians they have portrayed any accountability as an act against religious individuals. They have hidden behind religion, instead of living it. America needs accountability, we don't need to wait for God. We have courts to pursue justice in America.

Jan, "our Founding Fathers were Deists and swore off the priests having any part in matters of state, and they were right." They were exactly right! They provided protection from religion, and Protection for Religion in the Constitution. Leave it be. Restore the Constitution.