Religion/Democracy-Mutually Exclusive

[lips]

Are the fundamental tenants of religion contingent upon democratic evaluation? Does religion oppose democracy or versa visa?

Obviously I'm taking it as given that religion and theology deal with interpret and disburse various laws that are intended to govern human behavior. Obviously those behaviors it encourages/mandates are important enough to warrant entire systems of justice using them as their core, but what happens, for instance, if we replace 'government' with 'religion' in the phrase:

"A government by the people, for the people, and of the people."

Do you see a difference? Or should we remove the power from educated, powerful people to make laws and determine the behavior of people who aren't able to convey their thoughts with prudence and concision?

[DeSwiss]

1. Does religion oppose democracy or versa visa?

Yes.

There are no kings in a democracy. Even if he's purported to be the King of Kings™.

[varkam]

2. If you take religion in government out to it's logical extreme...

...you arrive at a hard line theocracy - which is pretty far from a democracy. In many ways, IMO, religion (insofar as government is concerned) is not conducive to ideals within a democracy. For example, one democratic ideal is that each individual should have equal say in how they are governed. This is not so within a religion, as there are clear power structures (such as priests being regarded as "more powerful" than a parishioner, men being regarded as "more powerful" than women, etcetera).

That is not to say that religion can not exist within a democratic state, only that religion cannot be the basis for a truly democratic state.

[trotsky]

3. Well, looking at the typical monotheistic model...

The entire universe is essentially a dictatorship. One entity makes and enforces the rules. No appeals, no debates. This is excused by the entity supposedly being vastly superior to us, despite every story about it showing the same raw human emotions we all have: joy, anger, sadness, jealousy, etc.