I was having dinner with my parents a few days ago, and we began to discuss how San Diego schools were trying to give special times for prayer and teaching different religions to those who are not that specific religion, which they must have heard from this. My parents discussed how they did not feel it was fair for any religion to get special treatment over the other in the United States. However, I brought up a point on how they are biased, which is that the US is very centered on Christianity as well. I pointed out how many towns in the US still close on Sundays, and many different perspectives and such are influenced by Christian values, and how people judge things morally and such. The US is entirely centered on Christianity from holidays, to saying merry Christmas. These values are so imbued in the US culture and ideals and how the US is governed that some people completely miss them. However, these biases toward Christianity, despite some not being the same religion, is the fact that these values had set up a framework for the morals and expectations of the country today, or in also my own words “…politics and religion have a common object among us, but that in the beginning stages of nations the one serves as an instrument of the other.” as I discussed in pg 183 in my The Basic Political Writings. As this country had Christian and similar religious laws before we had a government, and as such these religious values co-align with today’s government.
Your reasoning is indeed a very inspiring one, and I would like to highlight certain ideas and perspective related. First of all, for religion-related traditions such as “US still close on Sundays”, to what extend do they reflect public sentiment towards the religion sourced? Are they vestigial left over of the past, habits transformed to reflect different ideas, or still-active rituals enhancing the prominent position or a religion? Different interpretation of the nature of these traditions could led to diverge conclusions on analyzing the current relation between religion, culture, and politics. Secondly, if you are to be convinced by Hume’s account on the absent of a rational basis for religious belief, specifically believing in a God the all-powerful creator, then what sustain continued existence of current religions? How should we treat religions? And if you are not convinced, what is your reason of disapproval?