Would the average American know this? No. People want it, or dont' want it, because to them it screams "religion." This is exactly what I mean... a lack of ability to think out of the box.
This is representitive of our history, McCarthyism, and all.
The average American? It would depend on how educated they are, as well as how intelligent they are. If they're not educated well, or don't have the capacity to understand it - then no. I feel that most are both, but there are those who choose to ignore such things.
While I agree with this, it's not logical. Laws are based on morality, and the majority of our morals come from either religion directly, or are otherwise indirectly influenced by them. Laws about marriage, percentage of alcohol in beverages that can be sold in stores, etc. aren't laws that are based upon common sense, (for example, murder, or rape), they are based on the morals of the lawmakers/voters.
Perhaps...but morals, marriage, et al. are not exclusively a religious thing. They can be and are secular. A society or culture can come up with a set of morals (or code of conduct) without the religious pretext. So, morals are not exclusive to Christianity, or Judaism. To say that our law system is set up due to Christianity, is...well, not quite accurate. You can reasonably come to a conclusion that certain things should be law, without religion; I do. Do you come to conclusions on what is right and wrong from a religion?
Religion and politics mixing is a messy thing to begin to argue, but how can you have a completely secular country, when the majority of the country allines themself with a religion, and doesn't see why their morals can't be accepted by everyone. Yes, this is the perfect arguement for secularism, however it isn't logical that a religious people would have a secular country.
Not a secular country, but a secular government. The secular government was designed that way as to, in the end, uphold its citizens religious and other liberties/rights. If you have a Christian government, then that would be a bit of a damper for other religions.
Actually, more and more people are not calling themself religous. So, to a point, our so called Christian nation is getting less so. Additionally, back during the colonial era, most people were Deist, not theist. (Or so the stats said in my term paper during the winter term)
~Alderic