If ALL laws in our country stem from the 10 commandments can you rectify the incongruency of freedom of religion in the Bill of Rights and the commandments expressly forbidding religious freedom?
Actually, the reason freedom of religion was included had more to do with fear of one Christian sect having more power than another. That was the whole point behind Jefferson's "wall." He did not want to see a state church. His own beliefs aside, he did recognize that the Creator his countrymen referred to in their churches was the same God as the Christian God, which in turn, is the same God of the Jews. That God said that we should have no other gods before him, referring to pagan idolatry. In Christianity, Christ is accepted or not, at one's own risk, and has to do with personal salvation. One is free to choose that or not. The Jews, with the exception of the Messianic Jews, do not accept Christ as the Messenger and they have the freedom to make that choice. But the fact remains that Jews and Christians believe in the same God. This is the same God/Creator referred to in all of the documents and speeches of the Founding Fathers of this country. According to Jefferson and Adams, on the other hand, Musselmen and their god were bizarre and dangerous.
Gunslinger...I see you have stopped discussing this matter. I would like to offer a couple points and a suggestion for reading. First off, please get your hands on a book called "The Myth of Seperation"....WONDERFUL book...In it you'll see that teaching a Judeo-Christian religion was REQUIRED of states when they applied for state-hood!
Secondly, the Declaration of Independence says that we were "endowed by our Creator with certain unalienable right..." "Unalienable" means non-transferable: people can't surrender these rights, even voluntarily. Or Natural rights - rights from birth. If the government "GIVES" us those rights, then the government can TAKE those rights away. It is the fact that those rights were GIVEN TO US BY OUR CREATOR, that MAN CAN NOT TAKE THEM AWAY!
THAT is the difference between the US and every other government up to that point. The King gave rights, and thus took them away when he wanted. Our founders believed that GOD gave us those rights.... . Thanks....