Church-State Separation

Democracy Versus Theocracy

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei.ir, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

This article is one of a series of articles introduced by Flawed Reasons to Believe in God. If you’re new to the series, you should read the Introduction before (or after) reading the material below.

Theocratic governments place their God or gods at the head of state. Since all known gods refuse to speak audibly, preferring to remain in hiding, human beings who claim to hear the inaudible must interpret the desires of the deitie/s heading a theocracy.

Religious sects or denominations routinely advocate theocracy whenever they can amass the political power to institute such governance. When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity, he presented Christians outside the Holy Land with the political clout to request such consideration. By the early Middle Ages, the power vacuum left by the collapse of the Roman Empire allowed European sovereigns to establish theocratic monarchies in most European Nations.

The sectarianism of the underlying religions led to religious wars, inquisitions, witch hunts, and torture to death for heresy. In other words, religious rule led Europe into the Dark Ages.

Islamic States

When Islam becomes the majority religion in a nation-state, Muslims will push to control the government, favor Islam…