So God will forsake Kentucky to terrorists now?

You know, we atheists (and reasonable, unindoctrinated folks in general) keep telling people that American politics are filled with Christian religious bullshit, but no-one ever seems to believe us. Here's just another example: Kentucky has a law that requires the state Department of Homeland Security to thank God for protecting the state from terrorism. Seriously. Sure, it's Homeland itself that keeps the state safe, but thank God anyway, right?

Well, wrong, as I actually mean Kentucky had such a law – it's just been struck down as unconstitutional. Hooray for reason!

A judge on Wednesday struck down a 2006 state law that required the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security to stress “dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the commonwealth.”

Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate ruled that the law violated the First Amendment’s protection against the establishment of a state religion. Homeland Security officials have been required for three years to credit “Almighty God” in their official reports and post a plaque with similar language at the state’s Emergency Operations Center in Frankfort.

What will Kentucky do now that it's violated its praise in the flying sky fairy? Rely on its own people and safety personnel to keep them safe instead of a fictional deity? That's ... so unfair!

It's not all sensible, however:

Attorney General Jack Conway defended the law in court, arguing that striking down such laws risked creating a secular society that is wholly separated from religion.

Tell me how that would be a bad thing in any imaginable way?

(via Pharyngula)

Technorati tags: politics · religion · kentucky · laws · god · homeland security