Intolerant Christians here in the U.S.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Hey GC, some history for you. Secularism as normatively defined in the west was invented by your Protestant religious predecessors in the 17th century.

Freedom of and from religion is its central aim in the public sphere. It is by definition not anti-religious unless you're a person who wants to invent an imagined position against something he doesn't understand and doesn't care to. It seeks to ensure that the state is neutral towards religious beliefs, not against them.

Look up pillars of Westphalia, look up cuius regio eius religio, look up the 30 years war, then do some fucking research for once in your life and chart the evolution of secular structures implemented in western states (including the US).

Or continue to talk nonsense and be a laughing stock. Nobody is bothered either way.

Actually it was defined and used by the Ancient Greeks, (probably used much earlier however) though it was adopted by the 17th Century Protestants when it became politically expedient. Their claim to have invented it is... dishonest, though somewhat unsurprising...

The Westphalia variant was unique simply because of the religious demographics and conflicts that were occurring in the 17th century.

The secularism we see today is 100% a result of Westphalia and so it is still accurate I think to say the pillars of modern secularism were invented by the protestants of the day. Of course originally it was simply to remove papal authority over the state. It's since evolved towards the concept of neutrality.