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From: djw@imsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.politics,net.legal
Subject: Re: religion and public life: texas
Message-ID: <216@imsvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 2-Aug-84 09:27:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: imsvax.216
Posted: Thu Aug  2 09:27:36 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 5-Aug-84 00:27:10 EDT
Organization: IMS Inc, Rockville MD
Lines: 33

From: hawk@oliven.UUCP:

*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

The requirement to profess belief in a Supreme Being could indeed be
Constitutional, iff the manner in which this expression is made is left to the
individual.  This would not grant recognition to or constitute establishment of
a religion.

*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	*

True, no religion is being established by this, nor is the individual required
to attend a particular church, or churches of a particular sect.  But it de-
pends on how you define "religion": If religion is the philosophy of the indi-
vidual regarding the formation, purpose, and organizational entity of the uni-
verse, and the resulting preferred set of actions and attutudes to attend this
philosophy, then a belief that there is no supreme being (atheism), or even a
belief that there can be no certainty (agnosticism), can be considered a re-
ligion.

Now, if it is a requirement that a person believe in a Supreme Being (or
Beings), such as God, Vishnu, Satan, or whatever, regardless of which one,
then the individual is disallowed to not believe in their existence -- in
other words, [s]he is prevented from pursuing the religions of atheism or
agnosticism.  Is this not an impairment of religious freedom?

PLEASE, no flames about "supporting" atheism or agnosticism.  After all, those
of you who are out to evangelize must realize that imposing a god on someone
is a very good way to get that person to hate said god, which should be con-
sidered somewhat counterproductive...

					Don Whytock
				...allegra!umcp-cs!eneevax!imsvax!djw