Replies

You, however, have one definition that you want to exclude, because it prevents you from promoting your religion in an unconstitutional manner.

I'm not twisting your words at all. You have yet to challenge my argument directly, so frankly you're the one treading water here. Allow me to explain my argument once again so you can either avoid the issue again or challenge it properly.

You posted the dictionary definition of "establish", highlighted one of the many definitions of the word, and then claimed that supported your case that recognition of religion constitutes establishment.

But that simply is not the way it works. Whenever a word appears in sentence it was selected because has one meaning. That's because the authors of the text, the ones that chose the word "establish", had only one meaning in mind. (OK, a poet might exploit ambugious meanings for artistic effect, but a framer of a descriptive government document?)

There are two ways we can learn, therefore, what "establish" means in this case. We can see how those same authors used the same word in other contexts, one. And two, we can infer meaning from other documents, statements, and actions that help us understand their intent.

In my opinion, when we perform this study, we have no choice but to conclude that the definition is not the one you chose. The framers, the very people who wrote the First Amendment, did not consider the simple recognition of God or the Creator as an unconstitutional establishment of religion. And thereore, we should not either.