Quote Originally Posted by Louis VI the Fat View Post
Rhy, I understand America has its own traditions. There's no point in projecting a different history on it.

Still America's history is not one of Protestant fundamentalism. Even if one understands that the religious element is a constant in American history, one can still see that religious fundamentalism has encroached upon the state and the public sphere in the past century. America's political and constitutional history are being rewritten by fundamentalist blogs, scientists, lawyers. It is all quite dismaying. Political and legal science are under attack from fundamentalists just as much as biology.
As I said I don't deny it, America is not a theocracy, and never had been. Indeed, there are some of a fundamentalist persuasion that seem to think being a theocracy is an American value, and they are wrong.

But... to exlude religion from the political sphere completely (a la laicite) is not, and never has been, the American way of doing things. Certainly, religious institutions/values are in no way institutionalised into the political system. That would make the US a theocracy. But for the ordinary voter to allow his religious beliefs to influence his political views does not mean he is a theocrat. To deny him the right to do this is to deny his liberty of conscience. And yet this is what laicite and the New Atheists demand - that people keep their political and religious views seperate.

Of course, fundamentally, the very idea of singling out religious beliefs, based on the fact that they are rooted in a belief in a deity, is pretty arbitrary. So if I want to ban abortion because of my secular humanist values, thats OK. But if I want to do it because of my religious values... no, laicite!