Straggler writes:
I am not a Christian but the teachings of Christ on tolerance and forgiveness seem pretty ahead of their time in this context.
So was Buddha's teachings.
Setup individual nation states for different religions and then let everyone fight over the land? Oh that one has been tried as well. Again not very successfully.
This is what I would suggest. We setup an honest to god real world Jesusland where christian fundamentalists can do whatever the hell they want. They can ban interracial marriage all they want. They can teach creation science all they want. Hell, they can burn witches all they want.
The religious right for years now have claimed that if they'd have their way society would be in a moral golden age. I'd like to see just how golden their society would be without us atheists holding them back on their intolerance, bigotry, and persecution of each other.
Communist USSR tried to ban religion and that failed.
Your examples are bad in that these regimes that tried to ban religion in the past were religious in themselves. Stalin's USSR was not a communist state. It resembled more of a theocracy than communism with Stalin himself acting as a demi-god. In fact, just about every oppressive society in history modeled itself after theocratic ideals of don't question just obey and have lots and lots and lots and lots of faith because Bush works in mysterious ways.
The general lesson would eem to be that these sorts of measures cause terrible trouble down the line and should be avoided at all costs.
Avoided? I am proposing that we let the religious right have their way. I say we divide this country into two and let the jesus freaks do what they want on their side of the border. I'd really love to see what kinds of technological and social advancements they'd have 10, 20, 30, 50 years after seperation. It ought to be interesting.
Edited by True Believer, : No reason given.