Unreasonable Argument: Sometimes What Everyone Knows Just Isn't So
Rob Boston printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Mon Jun 06, 2016 at 10:21:09 AM EST

Over the weekend, a group of atheists, humanists, agnostics and others held a "Reason Rally" in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.


Thousands of people attended the event, which was designed in part to express support for secular government and separation of church and state. This is an audience we want to reach, so Americans United had an informational table at the rally.

I was there for a few hours on Saturday morning and enjoyed chatting with the many people who came by AU's booth to pick up literature, sign up for our action alerts and ask questions. It was a typical D.C. early June day - hot and humid, but spirits were high and I felt the energy of the crowd.


One fellow who stopped by, however, wasn't enthusiastic about the event.


After explaining that he wasn't with "these people," the man asked me how I could be for separation of church and state when it's so clear that our country is based on "biblical principles."


I politely explained to him that the United States is not founded on biblical principles. I told him that the Constitution is a secular document with no references to Christianity, Jesus Christ or even God.


He dismissed all of this by saying, "But everyone knows it was."


So this was his argument in a nutshell: Nothing in the text of the Constitution supports my point of view, but everybody knows I'm right anyway!


A lot of people may indeed believe that the Constitution is based on biblical principles, but that doesn't make it so. Let's consider governance, for example. The Old Testament speaks of powerful kings and despots. In the New Testament, we read accounts of Jesus' conflict with the Roman government - an autocratic state run by a powerful emperor.


Nowhere in the Bible do we find representative democracy, divided government with a system of checks and balances or a Bill of Rights that protects the civil liberties of the people - all features of our modern government. This is not surprising, as the Bible was not written to be a manual for governing.


When I pressed the man to name one of the biblical principles that "everyone knows" is the basis of our government, he replied that it's illegal to commit murder. I explained to him that the prohibition against murder was around long before there was a Bible, but he wasn't persuaded. He thanked me for my time and moved on. (Unfortunately, he declined a copy of this pamphlet, which I offered him.)


I've encountered folks like this before. They are so certain that the U.S. government is based on biblical principles because they heard a TV preacher or a politician say it. They haven't thought much beyond that - and the proof of this is in the fact that they can't answer the next question: "OK, so what exactly are those principles? Can you name even one?"


People obviously feel strongly about these issues, but feelings aren't evidence. If you want to convince me that separation of church and state is a mistake because our country was founded on biblical principles, it would be a good idea to be able to cite chapter and verse not from the Bible but from the Constitution, our actual governance document.


Unfortunately for my friend at the Reason Rally and those who think like him, that is an impossible task because the evidence just isn't there. The text of the document they so claim to revere, the Constitution, doesn't back them up.


Everyone should know that.





Display:
This is another vivid example of people relying on mass media and listening to some authority rejecting to think on their own. Maybe for this reason we have so many essays like daylight savings synthesis essay to complete at college: to learn to think. Unfortunately, as for me such an approach outdated already.

by paulgraham on Thu Jun 09, 2016 at 08:36:34 AM EST

Might recall that it was Southern Baptists who provided the office space to get Americans United for Separation State started.

by wilkyjr on Thu Jun 09, 2016 at 11:20:12 AM EST
That had to have been before the dominionists steeplejacked almost the entire denomination.

Local Southern Baptists (as a general rule) go ballistic when you mention separation of Church and State.  They insist that we are taking away their freedom of religion... and some insist that they have every right to force their religion on the rest of us (but at the same time insist that there is "no such thing as Freedom FROM Religion").  We not only have heard that, but encountered that mindset one time while going to a state park a few years ago.  Rather than having a nice, quiet time in a peaceful setting, we got treated to hate-filled preaching and Bible-thumping music from a powerful boom-box (a group from a SB church local to the park was having a group picnic there).  When we complained to the rangers about their disturbing the peace of the park (you could clearly hear it a LONG way off - hundreds of yards), the group insisted we were trying to violate their freedom of religion... and that if we didn't like Christianity, we could just leave the park.  (The ranger finally convinced them to turn it down, but we rushed through our lunch because it was still loud enough to make us uncomfortable in the picnic area.)

There is little difference between the AoG and the Southern Baptists these days... some of the Local SB churches, well, except for their name, you can't tell the difference.  I think a lot of folks have forgotten their own history.


by ArchaeoBob on Sun Jun 12, 2016 at 02:13:00 PM EST
Parent



They already "know" the "facts" and are closed minded to all other possibilities. They are Authoritarian Followers looking for a Holy Leader to direct them.

by Nightgaunt on Mon Jun 13, 2016 at 09:32:37 PM EST

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by Kaitlyn John on Wed May 22, 2019 at 06:37:15 AM EST

I appreciate the insightful and well-reasoned article. It's disheartening to encounter individuals who hold firm beliefs without considering the evidence or questioning their sources.  Lab grown diamonds The author effectively highlights the absence of biblical principles in the Constitution, emphasizing the importance of relying on facts and the actual text of our governance document. Well done!

by isabelladom on Wed Jun 07, 2023 at 12:05:54 AM EST


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