# Scientific Effect of Repealing the Establishment Clause.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientific-effect-of-repealing-the-establishment-clause/765989>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 15, 2016, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientific-effect-of-repealing-the-establishment-clause/765989 "2016-09-15T06:46:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientific-effect-of-repealing-the-establishment-clause/765989/21 "2016-09-15T18:37:00Z")

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It won’t happen, but if it does one side effect would be that the government hating whack jobs will all turn atheist.

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**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientific-effect-of-repealing-the-establishment-clause/765989/22 "2016-09-15T19:40:56Z")

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> [@Jinx](#):
>
> I tried to find where the “separation of church and state” is written, and I failed to do so. At best, I found it was the philosophy of Jefferson. So, other than the Preamble, where is this “Establishment clause” found? What I’ve Googled does quote the 1st Amendment “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” but, it does not **explicitly** say “separation of church and state”.

“Separation of church and state” is how Thomas Jefferson described what the First Amendment says - it is a paraphrasing of it. We could instead say “the combined establishment clause and free exercise clause,” but that’s more clumsy and gives less of an intuitive feel of the real intent of those clauses.

And if anyone complains that Jefferson didn’t write the First Amendment and therefore can’t speak authoritatively on its intent, we should point out that the freedom of religion parts of the First Amendment were based on Jefferson’s religious statute that he put into effect in Virginia, so yes, he should know its intent.

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**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2016, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scientific-effect-of-repealing-the-establishment-clause/765989/23 "2016-09-15T20:08:30Z")

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The same thing that happened when the SCOTUS “reinterpreted” parts of the Voting Rights Act. The same people will probably go all in to force their version of their religion onto people.

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