One does not need to be at all smart to realize the placement and role of religion in our society. Religion dictates the political vote of many people in our country, allowing for a government where the people's Congressional leadership is wholely religious. That is not to say all offlyicials are religious, but I can garantee that they act religious else they would loose their positions, a perfect example being president Obama. Recently I saw the new movie Lincoln, and although he was not a founding father, I thought back to the age of American glory, revolution, writing of the constitution, etc.
Now, I am opening this up to discussion and this is my opinion: I percieve the religious writing in the Constitution to completely prohibit the Machiavellian ideology that religion is today. What I am seeing today is, what I believe, not exactly what the founding fathers intended, I will give you some examples.
Gay marriage, I do not dout anyone would disagree when I say that this is a purely religious view. For a moment, if we think back to the writing of the Constition and for another moment we agree that my perception is correct, would these laws around gay marriage be unconstitutional? Would it not violate the seperation of church and state?
Another example would be abortion, now this is debatable but many religious people vote purely on the legality of abortion. Would this also not violate our constitution? If you think even harder and delve into the world of democracy you will, most likely, think about a state with a government run by the people. This is the part that is VERY debatable. When I think of the creation of demcocracy, I imagine people thinking up a government form where everybody had thier own opinions, and the whole point was to have a state that was all about the diversity of humans and to not dictate one belief on anyone. A government for personal thought and growth. Now if you think of religion, yes they are allowed to have a belief, but, when most of the country is religious doesn't that undermine democracy? When everybody is religious, for the most part, they will vote on the same thing. Why? Because someone else told them what was correct or not correct, moral or imoral I.E. God. When everybody, or most, vote on their belief, which they all share, then what does the democracy become? Think about this hypothetically, if everybody voted from one standpoint, if everybody voted on thier religious views, then would the government not be a democracy? Because, everybody got their views from ONE GUY- God. So now, even if it is a democracy, isn't it a state dictated by god? Now this is just coming up of the top of my head and I am fully open to criticism or agreement.