"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." These are the famous first words of the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America – the first amendment in the Bill of Rights. I expect that if you asked most Americans how they felt about this amendment, they would probably tell you that it was very important, and that fortunately we seemed to be doing a good job of following it so far. They would be half right – the freedom of religion is one of the ideas that have always been central to this country. Unfortunately, over the past few decades, this law has gradually been infringed upon. Today, we live in a nation with a firmly established state religion.
Our government asserts the truth claims of this religion against all others. Many of our laws have their foundation in its dogma. Its adherents submit our children to constant indoctrination in the public schools. Yet most Americans are completely blind to this colossal violation of our civil rights. How can this be? It is because this religion has refused to accept the label "religion," and because for some reason, we accepted that. This is as if the government circumvented the Third Amendment by claiming that the military personnel it was forcing citizens to house were not actually "soldiers." It is an absurd bit of verbal and ideological trickery, and it does nothing to change the fact of the matter – the First Amendment has been trampled into the dust.
So what is this religion that has so insidiously established itself in authority over all others? Perhaps you have already guessed – it is naturalism, specifically Darwinism. It has become the state religion by claiming that it is not a religion at all, but a science – science itself, as a matter of fact. This disguise is so thin, so flimsy, that it is astounding that so few seem to see through it. Naturalism claims to be an established fact – science has proved that nothing supernatural can exist. This is a bizarre line of reasoning. How in the world could science ever prove such a thing? Science only studies the natural world, and thus cannot say anything whatsoever about the supernatural. It is as if I were to claim that the stars do not exist, and to offer as evidence my careful study of the ground. Naturalism, at least, cannot be proved by science – it, like any religion, is based on faith in a few broad assumptions about the world.
"Still," the naturalists say, "Darwinism, at the very least, is not based on faith. There we have good, solid science on our side." It is irrelevant to my current topic to discuss whether Darwinian evolution is a viable model of the world. It is more relevant to prove that it requires as much faith as any other creation account. It's commonplace to say that there are astronomical odds against life, specifically intelligent life, ever evolving by chance. For obvious reasons, it is hard to know exactly how astronomical those odds are, but it is clear that it was extremely unlikely. And the most favorable estimates make the phrase "extremely unlikely" sound about as appropriate as the phrase "a good step" would be for the distance from earth to Alpha Centauri. Does this, by itself, mean that Darwinists are illogical? Not necessarily – it just means that Darwinism, like all other religions, has to deal with topics that science can't address, so it relies on faith.
Now let's look at the signs that naturalism is indeed the state religion. Consider our laws about abortion. It is hardly surprising that naturalism has led to the mass murder of innocent children. If there really exists nothing that science cannot explore, if humans are truly no different from the other animals, and if animals are ultimately no different from the next clump of atoms and molecules, why should we "respect human life?" Why does it matter whether one clump of atoms causes another one to dissipate and join other clumps? And don't argue that it is only legal to kill unborn infants since they are not actually human – aren't old people that we euthanize human? Wasn't Terri Schiavo? Naturalism is, unsurprisingly, destroying our respect for human life.
Then there is our schooling – all of our education is based on the principles of naturalism. The government practically forces us to teach Darwinism to our children and won't even allow public schools to teach other religions in any sympathetic way. Remember that it is irrelevant whether naturalism is true – the governmental establishment of any religion is unconstitutional. In fact, it is illegal for teachers to lead their students in prayer in school, since prayer is incompatible with the state religion, though it is legal for teachers to ridicule other religions during class time.
It is deeply ironic the way in which the First Amendment has been used to support the establishment of our state religion. Those who believe in naturalism tore the amendment to shreds and then used those shreds to kindle the support of their followers. Have not all of these grievances been done under that magical phrase, "Separation of church and state?" Another irony is the fact that the vast majority of people in this country, even the majority of people in government, are not naturalists themselves. Somehow this religion, though it is completely hostile to every other religion, convinced us that it was neutral ground that could be agreed upon by all.
I love America. I believe it is the greatest and most free country in the world, where the majority of people, including most in government, still believe in freedom of religion. But we have allowed ourselves to be easily deceived by proponents of naturalism who claimed that they were not religious. We must open our eyes and repeal the laws which oppress those of other religions. We must act so that America can remain free for another two hundred years.
