On Tuesday, March 31, 2015 at 12:09:37 PM UTC-6, Uncarollo2 wrote:
Religious belief is meant to be strictly personal,

Meant by whom?

While I agree in general with the sentiments expressed in your post, you are
missing some nuances.

The First Amendment embodies a basic principle required for people who have
different religious beliefs to live alongside one another in peace. They need
to acknowledge the right of other people to have different beliefs, and people
of all faiths must be equal under the law.

So far, so good.

But what the First Amendment does _not_ do is permit one to impose a
reasonableness test for religious beliefs. You can't have equal rights for
mainstream churches, and a law against Fundamentalism.

The right to make up your own mind about things... means that the government
can't prevent you from making mistakes and coming to wrong conclusions. It is
dismaying that there are people in this day and age who deny evolution by
natural selection, but the solution is not to wage war on them.

John Savard