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As you can likely imagine I'm not overly concerned with what people deem correct in a 'democratic,' mob rule style society.
You already presuppose divine law, "for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)"
Democracy is not mob rule. I thought this was settled in 1776. We are a Democratic Republic.
Christianity has a legacy, but never a monopoly on morality. There are many moral systems completely unaware or Christianity--many Eastern. They understand murder and theft are wrong because we are a social species, not because the Christian god initiated a mandate. I know you believe your claim, I just don't see any evidence for it.
While I pointed out in post #38 a view that I think is also the majority view among American believers, and though there are Christians of many varieties here, still there is also a flavor CF has according to the people it attracted that gather at it, a flavor which is particular to CF, and I wonder if many in the thread suggested they would want a religious laws enforced by the secular government, in your view? If so, let me encourage you to know that isn't what most Christians think (precisely, exactly), but it can be unclear what many are thinking, because of ambiguity in what is meant.
Of course law are an attempt to control behavior. That doesn't mean they are always effective. When cars were becoming more popular and wealth began spreading to the middle class, the increasing number of cars on the road caused a lot of accidents. There were no dividing lines down the middle of the street and no stop signs. In order to control (you could use another word: direct, ameliorate, fix) for the negative behavior of auto accidents, laws were passed and enforced to ensure people followed certain behaviors. When I use the word control, I am not doing so in some seedy dictatorial way, but in a way which shapes the behavior of people to get a particular result. The state does control for behavior. Thats the whole point of the state. We would need the state or laws if people all instinctively knew to stop at a four way intersection without a light or a sign. The law is the control mechanism on unwanted behavior.
That secular law often follows biblical law in the case, for instance, of murder, thievery, false witness, etc. is generally taken for granted. What you have to do is examine the reasons that 23% want the Bible to have more influence on secular law than it does. Consider their position on "hot button" issues, all of which they claim to be justified by the Bible:
This is an interesting finding from Pew. Thanks for posting this. But, I find the results rather horrifying. That is a lot of people who want to dictate the way I live according to their personal belief. A quarter of the population is not a small number--that's approximately 82 million people in the U.S.
No, I already told you that isn't how I'm using the term. You can continue making a straw man out of my argument, but I will just dismiss it.
Ideas are never truly removed; but they can evolve into insignificance. The idea that Odin is God has not been removed, it just morphed into the mythical. Almost every recorded religion has experienced this; there are a handful now that haven't yet.
What if someone private belief is racist and they claim they should have personal freedom to operate a business that will not cater to minorities? You would probable not support that--but why?
