The United States of America is a secular nation not founded upon the Christian religion

For my final argument I will review the primary arguments up to now and see where they stand. The Constitution. It is the primary founding document of our country, yet it never mentions God, Jesus or religion in any way except to limit their influence or allow us free exercise of them. Con keeps saying that all it does is forbid an official establishment of religion, but it does much more than that. It says that there can be no law respecting an establishment of religion. (1) That means it cannot hold one religion in higher regard than another one. That is something you would not see if they wanted Christianity held in higher esteem than any other religion. Founders. Some were religious, some were not, however we do know that they rarely mentioned Jesus. Belief in His divinity and salvation are the defining aspects of Christianity, as most religions have a creator God of some sort. As Con said, we will never know what was actually in their heads, but what can be said by looking at the government they created is that they understood the dangers of combing government and religion. State vs federal. Con has shown ample evidence that some state governments were based on Christianity, however this debate is on the federal government as a whole. One look at issues such as marijuana, gun control, and minimum wage will show you that state and federal governments are vastly different. He as shown very little evidence supporting his view that the federal government is based on Christianity. Treaty of Tripoli. This is self explanatory. It states in very plain wording that the government is not based on Christianity. Con claims this is invalidated due to an earlier version, but I disagree. You'd be hard pressed to find a writer who says that their first draft holds more precedence than their final one. The point is, the final version, the one that John Adams signed, added that for a reason. If that reason was just to pacify Muslims, they could have very easily said something else. They said what they said because it was what they believed. Secularism. Con seems to think that if a country is secular, then they prohibit religious belief. This is only true on the far end of the secular spectrum he mentioned. He gives China as an example of a secular country, yet China has Buddhists, Confucianists, Taoists, and Christians. (2) In the interest of full disclosure, the following is a paste, not my words: A secular state is a concept of secularism, whereby a state or country purports to be officially neutral in matters of religion, supporting neither religion nor irreligion. A secular state also claims to treat all its citizens equally regardless of religion, and claims to avoid preferential treatment for a citizen from a particular religion/nonreligion over other religions/nonreligion. Secular states do not have a state religion (established religion) or equivalent, although the absence of a state religion does not necessarily mean that a state is fully secular; however, a true secular state should steadfastly maintain national governance without influence from religious factions; i.e. Separation of church and state (3) Sounds like America to me. It does say that just because a country doesn't have an official religion doesn't automatically make it secular, but that's where my other arguments come in. It is for the reasons mentioned above that I feel I have shown conclusively that America was not founded on Christianity. Also, Con would do well to read my second round argument again before discrediting the entire argument. My wording was "In accordance with what Con said about considering the level of influence of the founders we quote, I would like to posit that few had more influence than the authors of the Constitution, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Paine." Even if they were not the direct authors, I stand by the argument on it's own, as "authors of the Constitution" was only a title, not what gave them the influence. The main focus of the argument stays the same, even if I had just said "i would like to posit that few had more influence than Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, and Thomas Paine." That remains true. As to bad sources, I used constitution.laws.com. Make of that what you will. 1. Establishment clause of the United States Constitution 2. http://www.travelchinaguide.com... 3. http://en.wikipedia.org...