Atheists Holy Day

[mnealtx 0]

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Nice job of totally missing the point.

Nice job of totally missing the

Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

[Skwrl 56]

Let me give one (very simple) example of why the Constitution requires "interpretation". We've been focusing on the Establishment Clause, so let's use an example from another part of the First Amendment, the Speech Clause: "Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of speech."

Read this clause slowly. Now, imagine that the Department of Homeland Security (or any other agency) promulgates a regulation that says "No one can say anything unflattering about the President in any media."

Read the clause slowly again.

Regulations aren't laws. Regulations are adopted after notice to the public and the opportunity for public comment. They are adopted by agencies (Article II of the Constitution) not Congress (Article I).

Using your method of reading the Constitution (which I've never heard any legal scholar think actually, you know, makes sense), my hypothetical law is OK, at least with respect to the First Amendment. It's not a law and its not made by Congress.

Now stop and think about how utterly goofy that interpretation is.

It would be wonderful if all laws were self-contained systems, complete with all interpretations (although, for what it's worth, Kurt Godel would like a word with me about that assertion).

You would probably be happier (though still not happy) with the legal systems of continental Europe. See, as part of our English heritage, we have inherited a "common law" system, which basically means that statutes are promulgated and courts interpret what the statutes mean (these are called "findings of law") as well as what the facts are (these are called "findings of fact"). In continental Europe, which uses a "civil law" system, the drafters of the laws attempt (with varying degrees of success) to define all of the key terms, meanings, etc., so that less interpretation is needed. However, at the end of the day, there are situations where interpretation is still necessary (any experienced drafter will tell you you simply can't draft for all possibilities). In those cases, depending on the jurisdiction and/or situation, the interpretation is either made by the legislature or the courts.

So you're battling against 200 years of US history, as well as about 800 to 1000 years (depending on how you measure) of European (specifically English) history.

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[The111 1]

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Nice job of totally missing the point.

Nice job of totally missing the

Even sarcasm has an underlying message. If he misunderstood yours, then what was it?

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[Laszloimage 0]

DNA, Computers, sciense... Are you seriously trying to link those the Bible??? ...as far as I know that book doesn't mention anything like that. If every body was believing in the Bible's teaching we were still in Europe and using "dark age" technologie.
Religious mind is just like a computer infected with a bunch of virus and spy-ware. All its performance controlled by the infection, the system is usless and sometimes dangerous.

...by the way Jesus wasn't the first to die for humanity!!! Prometheus did his sacrifice way before Jesus. Also he has been punished lot worse than Jesus!!! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometheus so which story is more true??? the Bible or the Greek one?