Separation of church and state is the one seemingly odd thing about our constitution. A bunch of (mostly) religious men sat down in 1789 and wrote a document that established a government in which religion did not play a role. The mythologists have been denying it ever since, but it's true. Read it. Religion isn't even mentioned until the First Amendment and only then to state flatly that the Congress shall not establish one. I don't know why they did it, but it seems obvious that they did it on purpose. Maybe they looked to history and saw that nations proclaiming a single religion exist in a never-ending state of conflict. Or maybe they just saw an opportunity to establish true freedom as the law of the land and took it.

Read this CNN story and you'll see why separation of church and state is such a great idea. The shiny new democracy in Iraq has been completely subverted by 2 religious clerics. Neither of them is actually a part of the government, but both can shut it down simply by withdrawing their support of it. It looks like the US is attempting to get al-Sistani to turn against al Sadr. (It's like bad reality television over there - - Survivor: Iraq). That much power in the hands of single individuals shows why democracy and religion are antithetical. Democracy is about majority rules and open-minded compromise. Religion is first and foremost about power and control. Nietzsche said man created god so that he may better worship himself. I think man created gods in order to wield them as weapons.