---In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, <curtisdeltablues@...> wrote :
"It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." Thomas Jefferson I loves me some Thomas Jefferson. But this quote is incomplete in itself. I don't know if he corrected it in context. He lived under (and helped create) a system of representative democracy with only land owner free men as voters. He could not anticipate a time when there would be such plurality that a foreign religious sect voting block was possible. Or even just a segment of Deists or Christians who had wacky religious agendas and a ton of cash to influence the legislative process. Tolerance as a virtue is much more simple when we use it as we do in our common everyday life. Once it hits the Mix-O-Matic of the voting, legislative, lobbying through campaign finances, it starts to pick our pockets again. We find religious ideology coming into public policy so that restrictive laws aimed at abortion clinics can impose a practical reversal of Roe V Wade, especially for the poor. And this is due to a religious ideology that intends to subvert the system of laws by using it against itself to impose a religious belief on the res of us. If the premise of your religion is that only practicers of it are rewarded with eternal reward, any lip service paid to tolerance is superficial window dressing. The role of government is to anticipate the intolerant core of religious beliefs and make it harder for certain religious groups to get their way legislatively. Campaign reform would be a start as well as taxing religions. We have to give up the concept of protected ideas (in the name of tolerance) and challenge bad religious ones held for poor reasons, like we do for every other human idea. And I am not talking about only scientific standards, just good thinking skills we use in a rigorous approach to history or the soft sciences. Mankind must be challenged on the idea that a human created book is speaking for an omnipotent God. This process is already happening in society although it is going to take a long time. But look how well we did in our opinions about witches. Remember when that was an occasion to break out the marshmallows? More of the quote from "Notes on the State of Virginia": "The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others. But it does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg."
