Ain’t no court going to rule in your favor while the US military is engaged in combat operations in a foreign country. I believe this to be true whether the military got there legally or in blatant violation of laws and constitutions.
Can not find it now, but there was a very long discussion here about this before, and I arrived to the conclussion that Soft Atheism is just the same as Agnosticism.
Her site is not there anymore, but Judith Hayes had this to say on Agnostisism-Atheism:
Well, on that thread I found people that indeed showed themselves to be hard Atheists, such infinite knowledge was interesting to behold, :dubious:
But after that discussion, I do think Soft Atheism=Agnosticism.
Yes, we know this is true because societies which do not have the 10 commandments as part of their history allow murder, robbery, nudity, and perjury. This was a real problem for me when I was in Japan and attacked by a naked man who stole my wallet, tried to kill me, and then lied about it. The police wouldn’t do anything about it.
Yes, I feel the same way about people who just know there are no Leprechauns. As though all those ancient Irish people just made it up. Until someone can prove there are no Leprechauns we are all just agnostics (even though we won’t admit it).
Re: the constitutionality issue. It seems to me that more than anything the constitution tends to protect Bush’s religious beliefs no matter how loony
That’s the only reference to religion in the constitution itself (excluding the Bill of Rights which has the establishment clause). And it makes me think that the constitution would strongly protect Bush even if he believed he were Christ returned.
As far as other viable legal action against Bush are concerned, fwiw (and completely offhand) the trees I’d be barking up would be:
Perjury. If the president’s actual motivation was primarily religious, I think it’s arguable that any statements to the contrary that he either made, or directed anyone to make under oath (to congress) constitute perjury.
Violations of International Law. Many people have made the case that the U.S. violated the U.N. charter by invading a member state without sufficient cause or a U.N. resolution (whether the U.N. ever enacted a resolution that allowed the U.S. to invade can be disputed by reasonable people). Of course nothing stops you from having a religious cause and a legally recognized justification, but statements like “god told me to” might tend to discredit the veracity of more secular justifications.
Of course these arguments are feeble to begin with, and given the nature of the evidence I don’t think you’d have a shot in hell of any kind of successful prosecution in any venue.
Moreover my personal opinion is that the president’s belief in divine mission is unfortunately not terribly divergent from the typical “shining city on a hill” rhetoric that’s always infested U.S. politics. Bush tends to crazy it up a bit when he gets in front of the religious right, so my cynical WAG is he figured Muslims would respond to that as well.
OK, I read up on the Lemon test, so can we take a hypothetical as it applies to the actions of the President? Let’s say a president decides God has told him it’s the manifest destiny of the United States to start building a worldwide empire, and he should start with Muslim countries which he believes to be a bunch of heretics anyway. Would this fail the lemon test? Assuming he argued there was a secular purpose (empire - or establishing bases or whatever) and the primary effect was not advancing religion (but was building empire).
If I say he doesn’t exist,I must prove he doesn’t exist,
or
You believe in him, and you got to prove he’s real?
I have a magic Easter egg (Jesus touched it, REALLY, I saw him) if it gets broken, the universe AWKI will be destroyed, and be replaced with something far worse!
Prove my Jesus egg aint real!
Can I stop taking these pills, And listen to the voices in MY head like he does?
You are basing a whole society on one crime? There is more crime for person in the US than Japan, Japan has less crime then any other country according to the last poll I read.
In tribal places where there is nudity,as a matter of dress,and never heard of the 10 commandments there is little crime.
The 10 commandments have done little if anything, to curb crime in this country,and if you go back to the 5,000 or so years, the Commandments did little to curb crime any where. a lot of people who were taught the 10 commandments still break them, look at the clergy,sunday school teachers etc, who are now in prison for their crimes.
"President Bush said to all of us : 'I’m driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan. And I did, and then God would tell me, George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq… And I did.
“‘And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East. And by God I’m gonna do it.’”
"Ohhh incoming from God, I can, feel, words, "George tell the I want you to melt the North Pole, so (God trying not to laugh) the penguins have more room to swim (God hangs up, and is ROTFLHFAO) George, George, George, ask em if they’ve got Prince Albert in a can (God ROTFLHFAO, God "Me damn me for making him that dumb)
Next on God’s funniest phoney fone calls;
God "here’s the setup, bird flu, Vietnam, and poultry terrorists, Ya think I can get him to invade? POULTRY TERRORISTS, Duck Foo, and Swine Foo, hey Jesus, you remember when I got Ford with the Swine Foo?
Except it’s probably true.