«Reason Embattled: Secularism in Peril»

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In January 2002, Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonin Scalia made a major speech so sweeping and extreme in its contempt for democracy, and so willfully oblivious to the Constitution’s grounding in human rather than divine authority, that it might well, in an era when American secularists were less intimidated by the forces of religion, have elicited calls for impeachment.

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As evidence of the religious faith upon which the nation was supposedly founded, Scalia cited the inscription “In God We Trust” on coins; the phrase “one nation, under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance; and the “constant invocations of divine support in the speeches of our political leaders that often conclude, ‘God Bless America.’” Scalia failed, however, to mention the relatively recent and opportunistic origins of these supposedly sacred symbols and practices. It is fair to say that the first six presidents of the United States did not invoke the blessings of the deity as frequently in their entire public careers as President George W. Bush does each month. And somehow, the republic survived.

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Religion is so much a part of the public square that a majority of Americans say they would refuse to vote for an atheist for president, even though they would consider voting for an African-American, a woman, a Jew, or a homosexual. Americans are probably not telling the truth on this issue to pollsters; it is difficult to credit the assertion that a majority of citizens, in the privacy of the voting booth, would cast their ballots for a gay or a black presidential candidate, and I also have my doubts that a Jew or a woman could be elected.

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For secularists to mount an effective challenge to the basic premises of religious correctness, they must first stop pussyfooting around the issue of the harm that religion is capable of doing.

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Nor is it enough for secularists to speak up in defense of the godless constitution; they must also defend the Enlightenment values that produced the legal structure crafted by the framers. Important as separation of church and state is to American secularists, their case must be made on a broader plane that includes the defense of rational thought itself.

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(Susan Jacoby)