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%RELIGIOUS FREEDOM 780824
The separation of church and state is designed to
prevent proponents of any exclusive view of reality from
dominating political decisions---and to prevent
any political power group from dominating the
perpetuation of any exclusive view of reality. It is
basically a policy of separation of powers: the power to
define what is most ultimately real, and the power to
make communal decisions regarding the allocation of
scarce resources---political decisions. The excessive
concentration of power anywhere tends to corrupt human
creatures---and is thus to be avoided in extreme cases.
The doctrine of separation of church and state has
traditionally been applied to only overt political parties
and agencies on the one hand, and to organizations which
concern themselves with the overt worship of a supreme
being. Both politics and religious activities can be
covert, however. Care needs to be taken lest there be a
covert concentration of power which is in violation of the
spirit of the separation of church and state. People with
exclusive/specialized orientations should not be granted
unrestrained/unbalanced power to: dominate social
conceptions of what is most important or to apply some
exclusive/specialized conception of what is most important
to the political process in a determinative way.
In an expanded view, religious freedom and the
separation of church and state have to do with affirming
the right of all citizens to explore alternative realities
and to criticize each other's exclusivities---while
operating politically in response to their diverse
chosen/created/discovered conceptions of reality.
Governmental support of any exclusive conception of
reality is in violation of this principle---for example,
in the case of massive governmental support of science
research and education to the exclusion of alternative
conceptions of reality. Governmental actions which define
reality to be exclusively objective, manipulable,
analyzable, programmable, etc. are tantamount to the
formation of a state religion---with persecution of
citizens who chose/create/discover alternative realities
as more appropriate to coping with the problems which are
most important to them. A state tax-supported religion of
scientism is in violation of the principle of separation
of church and state.
(c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in
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