(September 20, 2013 at 9:26 pm)The Germans are coming Wrote: Still, this recent news got me thinking about alot of things, and one of them is the releationship that religions have with a countries legal text.
Can a state/Should a state, forbid a religious organisation and faith that defies the law and the constitution aswell as inflicts harm on society???
While the principle here is simple, its practical application is less so. The basic idea is that one person should not get to impose his religious ideology upon anyone else. And this goes beyond simply religious and applies to political ideology as well.
For example, if a group of people believe "all hard work is sin" and spread their ideology - which ultimately results in a lot of people choosing to remain unemployed and thus affecting the society's economy and inflicting overall harm on it - that is not something the government can or should shut down. These people aren't imposing their religious beliefs on anyone. Which is why the government should not forbid them. If it wants, it can pass a law against such behavior and prosecute these people on that basis - but that law would be in the wrong here.
On the other hand, if these people start forcing those still working to resign - then they are imposing their beliefs on others and then they should be shut down.
That is the relation the government and religion do - or rather should - have. We don't shut down religion because it is harmful to the society - well, I believe all religion is harmful to the society - we shut it down when it starts encroaching on someone else's beliefs.
