Religion is poison to democracy

[Mister Agenda]

It would be more poisonous if religious people and service people weren't allowed to vote. I wouldn't consider a country that restricted voting on those critera to be a real democracy. It's not much of a democracy if people aren't allowed to vote based on ideology or religion; that is, on who they disagree with.

Yes, I agree with you.

If in fact it's true that "religion is poison to democracy" only and always, or that "religion poisons everything" as a general rule, then the logical conclusion is that religion should be excluded from democracy, and as many other things as possible.

But I think people who type such phrases aren't thinking about the ramifications of what they say. It's really phatic speech -- more like a grunt than a reasoned argument.

I think the issue is more that we should be careful about not letting the will of the people override our Bill of Rights. That's part of the point of having a Bill of Rights. Religous people are perfectly capable of voting within the guidelines of the Constitution but we have periods where a politically significant number of Christians, like today's Dominionists, try to get the government to endorse and support their religious positions. It's their right, but it has to be opposed. Just as if a significant number of voters tried to change our laws to get the government to discourage religion.