Separation of Church and State: Religion's Quiet Euthanasia?

Link to the first interview:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IPzsL_eIOA

Professor Strehle, he is the author of "the New Virginia Statue for Religious Freedom" and is also the Author of the book "Strehle, Stephen, The Egalitarian Sprit of Christianity: The Sacred Roots of American and British Government."

Interview questions:
1. You seem to equate secularism and atheism. why is this? (0:29)
2. You said earlier that Christianity gives you a sense of meaning and purpose. Can atheists have similar values? (2:10)
3. Can't atheist accept or reject something like abortion based on their own secular or scientific reasoning? (3:20)
4. Do you reject the concept of church/state separation? (3:59)
5. You made the controversial claim that Hitler and the Nazis believed in separation of church and state. Can you explain this position? (5:43)
6. What were Hitler's religious beliefs? (7:05)
7. Jefferson famously spoke about a wall of separation between church and state, what do you make of this? (8:07)
8. Isn't James Madison the father of the constitution and doesn't he support separation of church and state? (10:13)
9. Can the state favor a certain religion? (11:30)
10. As it currently stands, do you think Christians are being repressed? (12:31)
11. If this statute is passed, what are a few examples of what people will be allowed to do that they aren't currently doing? (14:23)
12. What would the direct impact of this statute be for groups like atheists or Muslims? (15:53)
13. Many of the viewers think it is ridiculous to say that Puritans played a major role in the foundation of the country. Could you explain your understanding of their role? (17:12)
14. Didn't Puritans believe in a theocracy? Do you believe in a theocracy? (18:56)

Category:

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• epydemic2020
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[13deathKISS]

He's my philosophy prof. right now. O_O

[Epydemic2020]

@13deathKISS

lol, is that how you found this video?

[OskyATL]

dislike.

the video assumes that the bill of rights version of separation of church and state will lead to the restriction of belief. when infact it limits the government from assisting or restricting any religion. restricting things such as a government sanctioned day of prayer. but protecting the rights of victims of 9/11 to grieve in their own way. the establishment is whats to be restricted and the rights of the individual protected.

[Epydemic2020]

@OskyATL

How does the video assume anything? I am merely asking questions and getting one person's opinion.

[ProfMTH]

Is Professor Strehle not familiar with the way Christian societies consistently treated Jews, e.g., forced conversions, Inquisition, taking Jewish children from their parents? The seeds of anti-Semitism--particularly, but not exclusively, European anti-Semitism are found in the New Testament and the Christian church.

BTW, the wall of separation metaphor originated with Baptist Roger Williams, who spoke of a "wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world."

[ProfMTH]

(con't) Even on this point, after Professor Strehle has had a chance to refresh his recollection by looking at the book and, therefore, is no longer speaking "off the top of [his] head," he is still not being accurate in his presentation. That casts a pall over everything else he said in the video.

It would be nice to see Professor Strehle correct all of this. More importantly, Epydemic, *you* should know that you were not getting accurate information here. Thanks a lot.

[13deathKISS]

@Epydemic2020 He assigned it because we would be quizzed on it.

[ericpao81]

WOW this guy has No grasp on philosophy at all. Sickening. Bertrand Russel , Agnostic?! lol

[OskyATL]

perhaps I should say "he"(Professor Strehle) and possibly a bad title...if anything i kept watching to hear any good examples of how it would lead to(or if there is already) some oppression of religion in the states...but the only thing that even came close was the examples used by other countries. but I haven't read anything about hitler using separation of church and state. All I've read is he's made treaty's with them because he wanted to minimize opposing forces.

[OskyATL]

also, somewhere this video goes off on a tangent discussing abortion and morality and what impact atheism has on it...these are issues to be voted on and decided. considering that I don't know of one outspoken atheist in government(and there would probably just be one if that) it's impact is not that great. "non-religious" people make up less that 15% of the US population it's impact. the video also doesn't give any good examples of how the US's version of BoR is bad or how it could be better.

[Epydemic2020]

@Venaloid

I would argue that morality is just a description of what we should or shouldn't do regardless of what we personally want. For example, if Ted Bundy should not commit rape, even if he personally really wants to.

[Epydemic2020]

@Venaloid

If we turn it into a "I want X, and I must do Y in order to achieve it" we aren't talking about anything that should be called "morality". Then the abortion debate becomes statements of preferences. "I like babies more than a womans choice, and abortion is inconsistent with those goals" vs "I like a woman's choice more than killing babies and abortion is consistent with that". Ted Bundy can even chime in and say "i want to rape people, therefore I should rape people".

continued