Religion and State

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Recommended: Spread of Christianity in the Roman Empire

Thomas Jefferson in his letter to Nehemiah Dodge said “The legislative powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions ... thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.”(Jefferson) The concept of the separation of religion from state has been battle that has endured through the furnace of time. While some may argue that religion and state should not be merged, a presumable equal population will agree that religion and state should not be separated. This paper will reflect on the history of religion and the State using the church as its point of reference. It will briefly discuss the existence of the Church before it merged with state, the church as it became one with the state, and subsequent its separation through the 16th century to the modern day 21st century. Focus on the separation of Church will be observed will relevant historical ground breaking discoveries in the field of natural law, technology, medicine among other disciplines. Thereby establishing the opinion that Church and State should be separated in order for both spheres of humanity will be fully optimized.

The early church was witness after the death and subsequent ascension of Jesus Christ. It was instituted and maintained by his apostles. The early Church experienced gross persecution and trials. One of its persecutor turned apostle Paul was responsible for church planting throughout the Roman Empire. Christianity was gradually spreading like fire set to a bush. Roman gods were perceived under threat then causing the prosecution of Christians and even execution. This continued until the Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as his faith and subsequently turning it to be the State Religion. Constantine then allowed an edict called ...

... middle of paper ...

...with. Now considering a multi-religious society or state, how will the nation fare if one religion is guiding the law and affairs of the state? It will certainly cause discontent among other religious followers.

Works Cited

BBC News Science & Environment. 21 September 2010. 13th November 2010 . Web

Creation Stories From Around The World. 13th November 2010 . Web

The Holy Bible: Containing the Old and New Testaments. Dallas, Texas: International Bible Society. Print. King James Version

Matthews, Roy T., and F. DeWitt. Platt. Readings in the Western Humanities. 4th ed. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Pub., 1998. Print.

Noble, Thomas F. X. Western Civilization: the Continuing Experiment. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Print.

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