I know Lieberman is a deeply religious guy, but this statement from Sunday's
Meet the Press, which focused on the role of religion in America, struck me as a bit extreme:
We are a country based on a vision, a belief in creationism. And part of that is not only the humans, who were created on the sixth day, but the but the natural Earth.
Bush has taken his share of criticism from certain quarters for saying the "jury is out" on evolution. Lieberman appears to taking a stronger stand than that.
Something else he said also annoyed me:
our Constitution says we don't establish a religion
He inserted (as many others do) the critical word "a" where it simply doesn't exist. Here is the establishment clause from the First Amendment:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion
This may seem nitpicky, but I truly believe this is an important distinction.The founders could have easily phrased it to forbid establishing "a religion" or "any particular religion" but they didn't. To me, that makes it clear that government should not only refrain from endorsing any single religion, but also from endorsing religion in general.
Might have been nice if Russert had found room in his roundtable panel for a representative of those who are not religious. This group constitues 10% or more of the American public, according to most estimates, which is certainly higher than the percentage of Muslims or Jews, both of whom were represented.