One Nation, Under The Great Architect of the Universe

The political climate in America is one of bitter tension and strife. Of the many issues out there inspiring Americans to wage war against each other lately, the one I think about most often is the divide between scientific materialism and fundamentalist Christianity. In my opinion this is the central set of ideas underlying the structure of our nation—i.e., freedom of rational thought, with supreme faith and dependence on God. What’s most perplexing, perhaps, is that both views seem to have a valid argument for laying claim to ideological ownership of this country, but only when taken separately, rather than as a unity. The United States of America is a two-sided enigma—on the one hand we have the powerful separation between church and state, and on the other, the idea of America’s divine providence, that we are “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”