On secularism...separation of church and state

If anybody reads my blog posts they will certainly come away thinking I have a bone to pick with (and a vehemence toward) organized religion. However I do understand and VEHEMENTLY uphold their right to believe what they want to believe as spelled out in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Government does and should have a hands off approach in regard to religion.

On a side note: my blog is MY blog. It's a place where I express my freedom of speech without abridgment.

It resides in the public sphere (though Google could at any point censure Ungodly Cynic if they so choose through the TOC).

It is absolutely not the responsibility of government to dictate religious faith to it's citizenry. Nor is it mandated in the constitution. If by chance anybody disagrees with this they had better get organized and petition the government that Congress amend the First Amendment to strike "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;" from the US constitution.

Can one be so sure that our Congress will indeed respect any one establishment of religion or the free exercise thereof if these words were stricken from our constitution? It would not be a win-win situation for the majority "faithful" who may find fault with this clause; which is what Jefferson referred to in his "letters". The first amendment is what MAKES the United States a secular society.

If by chance there are those individuals out there (I don't care if you are Christian, Muslim, Jewish or Pastafarian) who see fit to disregard the First Amendment, see fit to attempt to circumvent it or attempt to rationalize it or even seek to have it amended in order to discount those phrases I hold so dearly then you are mine enemy!

Enemy. Nemesis. Somebody I would invariably consider anathema to standing alongside the ideal of true freedom. Speech.

Within a theocratic society one is shuttered and barred from public discourse, unless of course such discourse falls in line with the State Religion at hand. Do we really want to live in a society that refuses to accept one religion over another? Do we want to live in a society that forces our children to pray to ONE particular god when their parents worship a different god?

One could argue that a secular society is disdainful or indeed a strangling of religious belief. I counter that it is just the opposite! Exactly the opposite! A hands off, secular, society espouses the freedom for individuals to believe and worship however they see fit with no repercussions (privately).

Publicly? It's fair game! You see, there is a vast difference in private belief and public opinion.
Once one throws out their private belief into the public sphere one is going to have every Tom, Dick and Harry scrutinizing it. Is this so wrong? Not in the least (as espoused within the First Amendment). It is quite healthy in my opinion to have ones privately held beliefs questioned and scrutinized (even my own; however impenetrable they may seem to be...and they are, I must attest).

So what would one want by battering down this wall of separation of church and state? An imposition of ONE particular ideal onto the rest of us. Is that freedom?

Here we go again...

Secularism is an ideal, right? It's been imposed onto the "rest of us"...

Damn straight!!! It sure has been imposed; by the United States Constitution (in the First Amendment)!!! Those who wish to erode this separation are living in Medieval times and absolutely do not respect this concept of our First Amendment! The great experiment that IS the United Stated of America.

Who's the fucking PATRIOT!?