The Law vs. Separation of Church and State

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Dialogue, Science, Reason, Michaelshermer, Natural Sciences, Skeptic

4.4 • 921 Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2023

⏱️ 120 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Shermer and Tabash discuss: the history of the relationship between church and state • the founding framers of the U.S. Constitution and their arguments for separating church and state • Madison and Jefferson • how most of the 13 colonies had government-sanctioned religions and religious tests for office • the Constitutional Convention and the First Amendment • the push by some Republicans to hold a new Constitutional Convention and redesign the entire U.S. Constitution • the religious beliefs and attitudes of the current SCOTUS.

Eddie Tabash is a constitutional lawyer in Los Angeles. He graduated magna cum laude from UCLA in 1973. He graduated from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 1976. He is known for his expertise in demonstrating how the religion clauses of the First Amendment require the separation of church and state, which includes equality before the law for nonbelievers. He is an atheist who endeavors to secure a society in which no branch of government can treat people differently because of either accepting or rejecting any tenet of religious belief.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to the Michael Sherman Show everyone. Hello everyone it's Michael Schurmer and it's time for another episode of the
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0:35.6	here is a recent issue on nationalism and Christian nationalism which is
0:41.6	relevant to our topic today.
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1:06.6	You can give us some love there.
1:08.0	Okay.
1:09.1	All right, my guest today is Eddie Tabash, who is a constitutional lawyer in Los Angeles.
1:15.0	Eddie graduated Magna Cum La in 1973 and he graduated from Loyola Law School of Los Angeles in 1976.
1:24.8	He is known for his expertise in demonstrating how the religion clauses of the First
1:29.9	Amendment require the separation of church and state, which includes equality
1:34.8	before the law for non-believers. He is an atheist who endeavors to secure a society
1:40.5	in which no branch of government can treat people differently because of either accepting or rejecting any tenant of religious belief.
1:49.0	So today our goal is to discuss how the current religious right-wing supermajority of the Supreme
1:55.3	Court is drastically eroding the separation of church and state and how modern secular government
2:01.5	is being weakened.
	...

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