Is the separation of state and church is our downfal?
The separation of church and state allows religious freedom, whereas religious freedom was not allowed in any large country anywhere else in the world. It allowed religions to diversify and adapt and evolve and compete for adherents. The most persuasive ideologies like Catholicism, evangelical Christianity and fundamentalist Christianity won, and the other competitors were the losers.
Go to a large church in the United States, and the services are like rock concerts with thousands singing and clapping and dancing.
Keeping religious symbols also feeds the monster, as well as the commercialism of Christmas and Easter which perpetuates Christianity.
We are a nation of religious hypocrites, alongside very vocal fundamentalist extremists. The majority seem to be cultural Christians who like the warm, fuzzy notions that come along with a god belief meanwhile ignoring whatever they don’t like. Sure, they’ll profess to be Christians because it’s traditional and more socially acceptable, and then rarely set foot inside a church, read a Bible, engage in whatever extramarital sex they prefer, and go to the bar to get loaded. But still, they are good “Christians” who consider themselves to be believers.
Then, of course, we see the guilt of this hypocrisy when this majority of cultural Christians enable the radical fundamentalists, who seem to thrive in our government, through notions like removing evolution/teaching creationism in schools or a gay marriage ban. It achieves a false sense of piety when they get to persecute minorities via what they claim is a religious morality that they themselves often disregard. And they seem to keep getting nuttier and nuttier; it’s depressing, especially in the face of the next election and Huckabee so likable and popular.