Separation of church and state

Why did the puritans leave Britain to come to the United States?  To escape religious persecution.  People should be allowed to live their lives in a way that best suits them. Typically this is not a problem, but it becomes a problem when a person living their life impacts others in a way that the other people find undesireable.  This is where a separation of church and state becomes important.  If you believe that drawing a picture of your prophet is blasphemous, then it is up to you to not draw a picture of your prophet.  It is not, however, your responsibility to prevent me from drawing a picture of your prophet.  If I draw a picture of a person, does it affect you in any discernible way?  Of course, most reasonable people will say no.  But as soon as I say that the name of the person that I drew is the name of your prophet, suddenly it upsets some people, this is not a problem with the drawing, it is a problem with those people.

To the barely observant, you will notice that I'm poking at the Muslim faith at the moment.  With that having been said, my claim does not solely apply to the Muslim faith.  It also applies to all creeds, faiths and religions.  In the current political climate, this means that Christians in America should not be in the business of telling homosexuals that they are not allowed to be married because it offends their god.  Again, it is not the responsibility of anyone else to ensure that everyone else follows their belief structure.  I guarantee that any Christian would be very upset to be forced to live under sharia law as would any Muslim be upset to be forced to live under Christian religious law.  This is why separation of church and state is important.  To prevent such situations from arising.

The opposite side of this spectrum is a theocracy.  For those Christians that do believe that the world would be better if everyone followed their faith, you need look no further than the theocracies of the middle east.  And while these may be Muslim theocracies, they act as great examples of what happens when governments control their citizens through religious means.  It is quite arguable that theocracies based on Christianity hindered human civilization's advancement by centuries.  More than two thousand years ago, the Greeks had discovered many things and were even on the brink of discovering atomic theory, the theory of evolution, and even the steam engine.  Instead we were forced to wait another two millennia for these things that have thrust the human race into the 21st century.  These are the problems with government and religion intermingling too much.

" The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe in blood for centuries." -- James Madison.  One of the father's of our country.  Again, I will never be able to say what our founder's said in as few words or as eloquently.  This is the purpose of the separation of church and state.