Secular Government

I would like to keep this short and uncomplicated. Firstly, thank you for putting up the idea for such a debate which people in their right minds would not accept, as suggested in one of the comments. Good luck to you too, may the best man win. I-Rebuttal of your argument (1) You mentioned that the number of progressives and size of the unaffiliated spectrum has seen a rise in the previous 10 years or so. Are we trying to make the world secular, or religion free?? A world where we do not believe in someone but ourselves, where nobody is accountable to none. At least the fear of God in people puts leash on their behaviour. Imagine the unprecedented rise in crimes of all sorts when religion is absent from our lives. (2) I appreciate the writeup about the functioning of the small scale businesses and society as a whole. May I remind you what the topic of the debate was?? It specifies the functioning of a secular government and not a secular society. Government administration and law enforcement is to be debated upon, not beliefs. Moreover, ideologies of an individual will and definitely will be implemented by him/her on a daily basis, be it a theocratic government or a secular one, be it permitted or not, and that's the stark truth my friend.I reside in India, the biggest secular, democratic nation of the world, and trust me when I tell you, the world is not black and white, it resides in the shades of grey, meaning that people will do what they want to do, nothing can stop them. So secular nation or not, stopping people from following their beliefs would spell disaster for you. (3) Coming to the topic of Texas, or, a "theocratic oppression" as you say it, is just limited to a state and not the country. Exposure to the world has created awareness in people which has instilled a quality of religious tolerance and hence the oppression you talked about is on the decline as I type out this sentence. Alarmingly the United States of America has a bigger issue to resolve and that is Inter Racial Discrimination. It's more widespread than one can imagine. https://www.dosomething.org... (4) Discrimination against Islam followers is purely an individual's lunacy and IS NOT professed by Texas, or any nation for that matter. You cannot blame a person's sociopathic apathy on the Government which rules there. These are solely the faults and responsibilities of the society. (5) Have you heard that the next world war is going to happen over water?? Similarly, someone who wants to fight, does not need a justifiable reason to do so. Israel-Palestinian conflict is NOT due to any kind of theocratic reasons, it was due to the empiristic intentions. The remaining key issues are: mutual recognition, borders, security, water rights, control of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian freedom of movement, and resolving Palestinian claims of a right of return for their refugees. Do we see any religious issues over here, I think NO.I would politely ask you to get the information correct http://en.wikipedia.org... II) My stance Today's Democratic Party is anything but secular. Instead of standing up for our secular democracy, many have adopted a path of pandering to the religious. There are some very fundamental flaws in secularism and democracy. And this is the issue of right and wrong itself. The issue of fairness and justice. Who decides what? How do we decide? Each group in the state will have their own notions of right and wrong. For example, staunch christians wont want to legalize prostitution. But liberals would. So who's right? In the secular system, we all have to agree to suspend our own (groups') notion of right and wrong and debate these issues together to come up with the laws that we will use to govern ourselves.To decide on laws governing humans, you will need tremendous knowledge about the human condition, mentality, human interactions and interdependence between each other as well as the environment and the nature of Man itself. Can we claim this? Even the best minds in all the related fields agree that our knowledge of those fields can only barely scratch the surface and never will really get the whole picture. So we try our best? Is this a fair and just course of action? Obviously not. III) Standing for theocracy The word theocracy of course indicates "religion" and brings to the minds of many, the Afgan Taliban, or at minimum, the Muslim religion resembling something like what exists in Saudi Arabia, or one of the other Middle Eastern countries. Religious rule, according to views of those who worship at the altar of democracy like multitudes of Americans, is uncivilized, backwards, stone age, and neanderthal. They who hold such views, are themselves also religious in their defense of democracy, and are fanatical in fighting and defending it, having no compunction in lying, subterfuge and hypocracy while doing so. Democracy is the peoples right to corrupt, pornify, and defile ones own nation/country, under the guise of "freedom" or "freedom of expression", while simultaneously being protected by the government from any consequences of their actions. The advantage of a theocracy is that all members of the society theoretically share a set of common values and traditions and are compelled to obey the chief ruler, who is considered immortal and infallible. This helps ensure a cohesive society. Historically, theocracies have often succeeded in creating vast empires. The Egyptian, Mayan and Aztec empires all had theocratic governments.