by Zach Bigalke

Created on: December 03, 2007

The United States Constitution protects the freedom of religion and the separation of church and state. But there are more ways to live in this world than under the American model. I stared at this question for a long time, pondering which way I really felt on the issue. I recognize that freedom of religion - and the ability to be FREE from religious pomp or dogma - is near and dear to my heart. I respect the right of another person to further their spiritual development whenever and however they so desire. I looked long and hard, trying to crack this nut from every angle. Then it all came swarming to me...

I needed to look at this like a debater, travel back into my high-school brain to really KNOW how I felt on the issue. And the dictionary would be the right place to start...

What is religion? Merriam-Webster defines religion as "commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance", and religious intones "relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality or deity". So, basically, for the sake of argument, religion is represented by anything displaying a commitment to a shared spiritual belief structure. People are religious, by design or by nature; all the artifacts and structures and voyages and every other physical representation of this devotion can be classed into the broad idea that is religion.

What is a public place? Are we to define a public place much like we would public lands, any space owned by the government? Or should a public place be viewed further as any place accessible or visible to the populace at large? If we go by the first definition, then we effectively have a moot argument. Most religious artifice is privately owned - the church is not the government, and the two shall never meet. So I figured I would view this from a legal standpoint... for example, if I were to expose myself to a crowd walking down the street, I would get arrested as long as I was not on residential property. Commercial and industrial zones are public territory. I don't have to be standing in the courthouse to get arrested for public crimes...

But what, in the end, is the jurisdiction on this issue? Where, in the end, should we limit our argument on the topic? Is this an American issue? Is this a global issue? And this is where my opinion formulated fully on the topic...

Banning religion in all public places, to me, would indicate that all churches would have to be discretely tucked back, unrecognizable from the rest of a homogenized world... sanitized for your protection, eh? We would never have the beauty and the wonderment of some of the world's greatest architecture. The free-standing dome was conceived because Florence wanted one on its Duomo... and Brunelleschi obliged, advancing architectural science forever. The Taj Mahal, the Hagia Sophia, the Cathedral de Notre Dame, the Basilica San Marco, even the Acropolis would fail to exist if we lived by such standards. There is no crime in seeing the trappings of other religions. In fact, the commingling of cultures that is indicative through this architecture is representative of all that is good in humanity. The fear and repression of religious expression only tends to sway a society into a one-track herd mentality... and we all suffer for the utilitarian when we let that happen.

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