<p>For the moment, at least. It was born a Christian nation and continues to this day. You may not agree with it, nor with its influence on our nation's law, but that is the way it is.</p>
<p>"Believers feel things are wrong because the bible and God says so."</p>
<p>As opposed to you, you mean? You're seeming to imply that you personally can develop your own moral codes based on non-religiously-connected compassion and reason, but that Christians ONLY feel a certain way about morality because they have been told so. Are you so sure about that? </p>
<p>You're treating Christians like automatons. You don't think that most of them, like most of any other religion, have working minds and hearts that can recognize morally correct behavior on their own? </p>
<p>Many Christians are like you in that they have reasoned and understood why stealing, murder and lying etc are wrong. They just happen to also feel connected to a certain faith because the same teachings and beliefs are preached and shared.</p>
<p>Don't generalize Christians and don't dare suggest that all of them are mindless and only follow and agree with moral behavior because you believe it's been drilled into them from the Bible. </p>
<p>Because if you say that, you're implying that more than a billion people in the world do not have their own conscience and their own sense of moral justice, like you say you do. It's never safe to generalize, let alone with over a billion people.</p>
<p>"Because the founding fathers were religious isn't a strong argument for why our country should have a religious foundation today"</p>
<p>Having a religious foundation is INEVITABLE, because the foundation-- the base of the law-- has ALREADY been set, centuries ago. That's why it's the "foundation" and base, after all. It is difficult and takes time to actually attempt to change the (Christian) foundation of the moral code of the country. </p>
<p>One could argue that attempting to change the foundation would only make the building upon its base begin to errode. </p>
<p>It is so hard to imagine an America without any religious ties. The coins say it "In God We Trust." Many senators and representative publically pray and attend church. Even John Kerry called himself a Catholic and attempted to participate in a Eucharistic ceremony. Even Bill Clinton, many a liberals' favorite, prayed and used the name of God favorably in public. </p>
<p>It might drastically change, but at the moment, America, as a whole-- Democratic or Republican-- IS a religious nation with a very religious foundation. Even when the founding fathers insisted that church and state be separated, many Americans did and still do consider Christianity the utmost authority. Only very recently have Christian-based laws been challenged and put down (like prayer in schools). </p>
<p>"The founding fathers didn't deal with homosexuality, divorce, or the prospect of human cloning, just a few of the modern concerns of today's world."</p>
<p>Human cloning is excusable in this argument because that technology wasn't avaliable during that time. But homosexuality? Divorce? Homosexuality and divorce weren't dealt with because they weren't concerning-- Christian belief and law, which the first Europeans in America adhered to, were against both so much that considering something like the legalization of homosexuality was unthinkable. It wasn't until our soceital "evolution", as you call it, in more recent decades, that these issues have become so problematic. </p>
<p>"We've evolved much since then, yet the concept of separation of church and state seems to have escaped us."</p>
<p>Well, I guess you'll just have to consider yourself an enlightened, agnostic individual and let the majority of Americans-- Christians-- follow their right to freedom of religion all the way to the polls and vote the way they want to, even though some don't like it. </p>
<p>You may think it's wrong for Americans to so closely connect a nation's laws with it's dominant religious beliefs, but for the moment that's the way it is.</p>