In my previous diary, I stated that "Christians couldn't have written the Constitution" and put forth (imperfectly, it seems) the concept that true believers in revealed morality would not have seriously considered the idea of legislated morality drawn from voting by the masses, because the "Morality comes from God" group would have gone for a more top-down sort of government, where the masses didn't vote for rules made by essentially polling the populace.
Of course, it's a vague and probably unprovable concept, but it is encouraging, because it outlines what I believe to be the general advance of social science over religion in governance. A slow advance, fought by troglodytes of morality, but a steady one.
We are now engaged in a world-wide running war about revealed morality, pitting the Christians, led by the Pope, against the Muslims, led by I suppose well-meaning clerics.
I don't know if God exists, but I haven't seen a bit of clear evidence in my entire life that She does, so I won't debate that subject here (unless someone comes up with new/any evidence, of the sort scientists accept.)
But I have been very encouraged by recent research in neuroscience that indicates that someone entering this field of political science and morality and governance can be more certain that laws can be made by reference to actual observed and documented human universals, so that when we are
spreading Democracy
we are at least doing it on a scientific basis. I always feel better cornering my motorcycle when I have faith in science, not in prayer.
Of course, at this point, I expect someone will mention Hitler, so I'll preempt that, solely on the basis of better science, because I'm not talking about accommodating a Master Race, but the real human race, as evidenced by observation.
Now the nature of humans, like the prediction of global climate, is somewhat inexact, but it gets better every day, and as the Global Warming advocates have their IPCC, the human nature advocates have their United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is based on an actual vote of essentially all nations, which ought to damp some of the jingoistic tendencies of our America Based Readership.
And although we are here to elect Democrats, it is necessary to make sure those Democrats are aware of the existence of the other six billion humans in the world, and their needs and desires.
So we want Democrats who are not America Firsters, or Christian Dominionists, or End Times maniacs. So we should always be on the lookout, asking question designed to reveal the breadth of human wisdom, the openness of mind, and the humanity of our Chosen.
A hat tip to the excellent debate on the religious leanings of the Founders of the Constitution in the previous diary. I always hope to provoke this sort of deep and wide discussion.
Hope for the future, fellow advocates of separation of church and state. We're getting there, bit by bit.
UPDATE: This is strongly recommended. H/T to dov12348!!