Want a taste of theocracy? Visit Kentucky, the only state magically protected by God from terrorist attacks.

That’s fantastic! At work we E-Vault all our system backups to Kentucky in case of regional disaster (we’re on the east coast). Now that I know God magically protects Kentucky, I’m glad I chose that location over the Tennessee E-Vault (our only other choice sufficiently far away from us).

Though, seriously, if something should happen to Kentucky, they would say that folk just didn’t believe strongly enough.

That being said, Kentuckians might bring it on themselves because they’re not demonstrating quite enough faith in god. They still have police and fire departments, don’t they? And emergency services, hospitals, and courthouses? Why not really give god the credit (not to mention cutting the state budget down to zero) by doing away with all those services? Let God sort it out.

Isn’t that how it always is?

OtherRob–I agree it’s unfortunate, but I understand where the sentiment comes from.

It describes very general principles of rights and specific instances of how the government violated them. In that sense it could be considered part of the common law of the United States.

IANAL, but my understand is that, unlike England, there is no such thing as “common law” in the U.S. While the DoI is, IMHO, one of the most important things ever written, it has zero force of law in the U.S.

I am, though, a little apprehensive being here because it seems that the general consensus here is that anyone who believes in God is an unintelligent, bigoted, second-rate citizen.

Unfortunately this is an attitude I’ve seen a bit of in the skeptical community. I’ve got more to say on this subject, but I keep erasing and trying to start over. I’ll have to organize my thoughts better…

Thanks for your comment. I’m glad I’m not scaring all of the religious folk away.

My main beef is with the fundamentalists and people who behave like them (e.g., Bill Donohue, Ben Stein, etc.). My objection is entirely with their behavior, not their beliefs. You can believe the craziest stuff for all I care, just don’t try to impose your beliefs onto others.

I do take generalized pokes (hopefully not too hard) at all religion from time to time, but it’s usually just to point out that I disagree with the whole idea of supernatural entities and miracles and just accepting things on faith. I try to reserve the savage beatings for the fundies.

I do think the human race would be better off without religion, but I accept the reality that it seems to be wired into the brain somehow. Since we seem to be stuck with it, we need to find a way to live with it without letting it get out of control. Sometimes I get frustrated at all religion, because I feel like we’re losing the battle to keep it contained.

I don’t expect (or even want) my readers to agree with everything I write. I’m gratified to see that I have some readers who feel that the stuff they agree with is good enough that they’ll overlook the stuff I write that they disagree with.

Also as originally drafted, the status of women was at best left unclear. Which is admittedly somewhat better than the Bible’s treatment of women in quite a number of places.

Troy, while you’re right that the Declaration of Independence is not a legally binding document, it is also not without significance insofar as it provides an insight into the understanding of what the Founders thought their rights as Englishmen were; it gives us a glimpse into the ancient rights that the Founders believed transcended and informed their work in drafting the Constitution and its early Amendments. It describes very general principles of rights and specific instances of how the government violated them. In that sense it could be considered part of the common law of the United States.