Government and Religion

The Supreme court ruled yesterday on a memorial cross in California that had been erected on public land.  I don't think the ruling was important, but I do think there are some important issues here that people don't seem to grasp.

Why are we wasting millions of my money to argue about whether a cross in the middle of the desert should be taken down or not?  Aren't there more important things to be worrying about?

I want to examine the role of government in respect to religion.  If we look at our caveman ancestors establishing government for the first time, why would they have anything to do with religion?  I would argue that religion was likely a form of government for these cave men.  What can you wear, how do you have to be to hunt with the men, how do we treat the women, who is a valid sacrifice, what is sacred.  The problems start as soon as you end up with a real government as well as a religious government.  How do they handle disagreements?  If there are multiple religions, which one is more important for the government to side with?  I think in matters where separation of church and state questions come up, the litmus test should be: are we trying to govern by religious principals?

For this particular case, the cross is a memorial for fallen soldiers of foreign war.  It was not commissioned by the government.  It does not play a part in actually governing the people.  It does not tell people that they must worship Jesus in order to remember these fallen soldiers.  If I'm in a foreign land and I see a shrine commemorating an ancient disaster, I don't have to understand, or agree with, the religious significance of the shrine in order to appreciate the memorial.

The next case I want to repeat here is the one involving gay marriage.  Again, the fact that so much money is being wasted by government on this issue is sickening.  I think the federal government needs to come to it's senses and provide leadership to the states on how to handle this so that we can move on.

The resolution:  Government's role in marriage is to enforce a contract between two people.  That's it.  If that contract is between two men, a man and a woman, a woman and three men, it doesn't matter.  As soon as government starts dictating what marriage is, they start governing by rules established by religion.  It doesn't make sense.  In my caveman days, a small government created to take care of community issues would be worried about clean water, protecting the land and food they depend on, and mediating and deciding conflicts amongst the people.  There's no reason my caveman community would need to declare that only certain people could live together.  There would be no point in that.