(February 21, 2014 at 8:25 pm)rasetsu Wrote:(February 21, 2014 at 12:11 pm)Crossless1 Wrote: Right, because the Bible demonstrates nothing so much as Yahweh's deep love of the principles behind the 1st Amendment. Do these idiots ever listen to themselves?
Not to nitpick, but the first amendment lagged behind the original constitution by about a decade, and was explicitly excluded to ease passage of the original constitution. I think, like Christians and the bible, many people have this idea of what's in the constitution which is wholly inaccurate. It's a relatively short document, so I urge all interested parties to actually read it. It's primarily a document with two apparent goals, a) to set up governmental procedure, and b) to put explicit bounds on state and federal powers. The "granting of rights" part came later; there are almost no individual rights actually specified in the constitution itself.
You're absolutely correct. The original document had the more limited goals you stated above. Of course, "The Constitution" is whatever it is at any given time, and I rather doubt that the Tom Delays of the world think their god authored the original, more strictly procedural version of the Constitution and not the part prohibiting the federal government from establishing a religion or sect to the exclusion of others or interfering in the individual's free exercise of religion.
In any case, I see little cause to link the original Constitution with Biblical sources, David Barton notwithstanding. The framers were much more interested in the ancient Roman republic, ancient Greek thought on constitutions, the experiences of the Renaissance city-states of what is now Italy, and of course English law and practice. Yahweh's anointed kings and priestly caste played no part in it. (Not that you're arguing otherwise; just saying.)
