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Of course not, the founding fathers had their own beliefs, not all were Deist, though Jefferson definitely was. But they believed strongly in the seperation of Church and State because the country was settled by people whose own religious freedoms were restricted in England and in other European countries where they came from. That there is a view that our nation has any "national religion" at all is a sad tribute to the hope of those who drafted the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The idea that all people have the right to worship as they choose, so long as it does not infringe on the rights of others, is fundemental.
Secondly, the idea of God as a the clockmaker works like this:
God sets in motion the laws of nature just as a clockmaker sets in motion the mechanisms that make his clock keep time.
The laws of physics, genetics and biology, and other things are the mechanisms of that great universal clock. Does this go against the Bible? I don't know. But then we aren't still keeping slaves, the Bible advocates that. We don't stone adulterers, the Bible advocates that, etc., etc. In fact, if one were to follow the Bible's laws explicitly, even the New Testatment says "Ye who are without sin cast the first stone."
I have yet to see one bigot or homophobe without sin. I'm also pretty certain there's a lot in the New Testatment about tolerance. After all, Jesus was treated pretty badly in his time by those who did not understand or even like him. Imagine how he would feel to know that people were being persecuted, harrassed, threatened, and ostracized in his name.
Many scientists today are coming to believe that, at least in some males, homosexuality has a biological impetus. In nature, it can be found. I've even seen it argued that it is a part of nature's way of maintaining population. Of course, those have yet to be proven, and it is so much easier to be hateful, nasty, and bigoted to our neighbors who are different than we are, than to utilize tolerance, a civilized trait.
Whether you believe that Homosexuality is a choice or a biological imperative, if you believe that in the U.S. (anyway) that all people have the right to live freely as they choose, without persecution, harrassment, or discrimination (as long as they do not infringe on the rights of others) and if you believe that Jesus really meant what he said when he said "love they neighbor" "turn the other cheek" and "tolerance" then this entire topic is mute.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion on the subject. Most people do have one. But no one is entitled to hinder the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of another person because their lifestyle doesn't suit.
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