I am absolutely sick of this issue. I have seen all kinds of debates on the subject, but is it really that difficult to find the truth? I did some research and found things that would outrage the fundamentalists: undeniable proof that this country was, in fact, not founded on Christianity.

So in my research I ran into the Treaty of Tripoli. Though not very interesting as a whole I discovered something that made me ecstatic. Article 11 of the treaty begins:

"As the government of the United States is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;.........."

It goes on to state that we will remain peaceful because we do not discriminate against religion and therefore will not go to a war over religious beliefs.

And I know this is not quite iron clad enough for people but what about this: the treaty was written by President John Adams' administration. He was considered one of the most influential of our founding fathers. And to make it even more obvious that this was the intent of our country this treaty had to be passed by congress. In fact, it was only the third document to ever be ratified unanimously at the time.

And with the belief that we are a Christian country comes the argument over Separation of Church and State.

Even before that, separation of church and state was an issue. Though not named exactly, the first amendment of the constitution lays out certain requirements of our country and states that ultimately make it impossible to mingle government and religion. It reads:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

Then to make it even less likely, congress included the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which has generally been interpreted to prohibit 1) the establishment of a national religion by Congress, or 2) the preference of one religion over another or the support of a religious idea with no identifiable secular purpose and they included the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment .

I know that the First Amendment is one of the most referenced items in most debates about the Separation of Church and State. It does not state it directly but many of our founding fathers viewed it necessary to separate government and religion in order to avoid religious persecution and discrimination. Actually, the phrase "separation of church and state" came from a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to a group calling themselves the Danbury Baptists. He wrote:

"Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, and not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State."

In conclusion, with the first amendment in place our Founding Fathers made sure that we could not be a theocracy. They knew that being a theocracy would take away many of our rights. They eliminated religious persecution and discrimination and helped make it possible for us to be the well diversified country that we are today.It is clear that they did not found this country on any single religion or belief.