Every Generation away from those that went to Church and read the bible, become less moral than the one before. Without Religion there is no evil one man will not do against another. Religion is the link to the past that help s us keep our morality. This is a result of over 60 years of the attack on Christianity.
My wife asked our 16 year old son if he thought that going to church and being involved with his youth group two days out of the week had an impact on who he was.
He looked at her like she had two heads. “Well, yeah!”
I thought it was a dumb question too - but I know what she meant. And glad he could see the reason why he behaves the way he does.
>>Without Religion there is no evil
Au contraire mon FRere.
"I KNOW BUT ONE CODE OF MORALITY FOR MEN WHETHER ACTING SINGLY OR COLLECTIVELY"
Jefferson was not talking about Religion - which he loathed, and for good reason.
Seems to me Jefferson was talking about self-evident Truth rendered by the relationship manifested between the Individual and their Creator -- in minds which Almighty God hath created FREE.
Likewise...
...who, being themselves but fallible and uninspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time;...
... he evidently observed that religion, historically, is most usually a product of the coercive State. Typically manifesting itself in a tyrannical state of affairs that is referred to in the Old Testament as Ba'al.
Ba'al being the subjugated worship of the State by religious mandate -- against which Jefferson declared:
"I HAVE SWORN UPON THE ALTAR OF GOD ETERNAL HOSTILITY
TO EVERY FORM OF TYRANNY OVER THE MIND OF MAN"
And yet there are those who say Religion or as they call it "Churchianity" is the problem.