Theocrats depend on ignorance

During The Supreme Court session yesterday on the Ten Commandments Justice Antonin Scalia made a comment that is nothing short of an outrageous lie.

Because placing the Ten Commandments in front of the Capitol "conveys a powerful message" that the government "is endorsing religion," said Duke University law professor Erwin Chemerinsky on behalf of Thomas Van Orden, a homeless Texan who sued to have the monument removed. "This is a sacred and solemn text. These are God's words to God's followers."

To which Justice Antonin Scalia replied, in effect, what's wrong with that?

"It's a symbol that the government derives its authority from God" he said. "That's what this is about. Our laws are derived from God."

Anyone who has read the constitution and the wisdom of the founding fathers knows they had come to America to escape the "Divine Right of Kings" and the very last thing they intended to infer was that "the government derives its authority from God". They stated very clearly that the government derived it's authority from the governed not from God. It's not unlike the statement that the United States was founded as a "Christian Nation". Nothing could be further from the truth and in fact many of the framers of the constitution, like Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, Franklin and George Washington himself were not Christians.

Unfortunately a majority of the American People have so little knowledge of their own constitution and history that these lies can be told and believed. It is shocking that a man who is supposed to be defending the constitution will lie about it and sad that he can get away with it.