Do you think that religion has any place in politics?

[Final-Fan]

PDF said:

Final-Fan said:
A man is free to argue for a law that fits his faith, but he has to justify the reasons for having it in a secular government. So "no abortions 'cuz the Bible says ___" is not acceptable.

So somone saying I think abortion should be allowed because what JFK said __________ is acceptable???

We are all influenced by somthing and it should not make anyone opinion less important. You are right that the man of faith would have to argue that he believes it is life and he thinks killing it is wrong but if he got to the decision on what his faith says is no different that what led the man who dissagrees with him to his decision.

You completely missed my point.  If someone said we should do something because JFK said so, I would ask why JFK said we should.  "Do this 'cuz JFK says so" is equally unacceptable. 

In fact, this is a general rule which you seem to be unfamiliar with.  "Do this because ___ said you should", with no other justification, is always a bad argument. 

If someone wants to use his religion to guide him to the correct laws we should have, that's fine, but he still needs to give us a better reason to go along with it than "my religion says it's a good idea". 

Here's an analogy, if you remember getting yelled at to "show your work" in math homework:  Religion may give him his answers, but he still needs to show his work on why we should follow its suggestion, and "because the Bible says so" is bad math. 

Don't you agree?