Agora Podcasts

  • Welcome
  • Current Podcasts
    • Education for Democracy >
      • 1. Reason in Science and the Humanities
      • 2. Laboratories of the Soul
      • 3. THE ART OF DIALECTIC
    • Current Podcast Scripts >
      • Podcast #1: Reason in Science and the Humanities
      • Podcast #2: Laboratories of the Soul
      • Podcast #3: The Art of Dialectic
      • Podcast #4: Reason and the Art of Life
  • Podcast Archives
    • Ethics in a Democracy >
      • 1. Ethics in a Democracy (30 minutes)
      • 2. Ethics and Religion, Part 1 (27 minutes)
      • 3. Ethics and Religion, Part 2 (22 minutes)
      • 4. Democracy vs. Oligarchy (26 minutes)
      • 5. Morality (26 minutes)
      • 6. Universal Moral Law (26 minutes)
      • 7. The Enlightenment (24 minutes)
      • 8. Rethinking Immanuel Kant (29 minutes)
      • 9. Minimal Morality (30 minutes)
    • World Community >
      • 1. Roots of Community (33 minutes)
      • 2. The Rise of Nationalism (32 minutes)
      • 3. Truth, Reality, and the Growth of Empire (30 minutes)
      • 4. The Future of the American Empire (30 minutes)
      • 5. Ethical and Political Foundations of Community (33 minutes)
      • 6. The Dilemma of Nationalism (30 minutes)
      • 7. Postmodern Politics (31 minutes)
      • 8. Universal Values for a World Community (29 minutes)
      • 9. The Cosmopolitan Idea (32 minutes)
      • 10. Using the Cosmopolitan Idea (25 minutes)
      • 11. Swords and Plowshares (44 minutes)
    • Human Nature >
      • 1. Evolution and Genetics (24 minutes)
      • 2. Artificial Intelligence (23 minutes): Minds and Machines
      • 3: Artificial Intelligence
      • 4. Human Values (22 minutes)
      • 5. Managing Happiness (28 minutes)
      • 6. The Meaning of Life ((28 minutes)
      • 7. Recycling Souls (29 minutes)
      • 8. Manifesting Mind (31 minutes)
      • 9. Mind and Matter (28 minutes)
      • 10. Ideas and Human Nature (37 minutes)
    • Podcast Scripts >
      • ETHICS IN A DEMOCRACY >
        • Podcast #1: What is Democracy?
        • Podcast #2: Ethics and Religion, Part 1
        • Podcast #3: Ethics and Religion, Part 2
        • Podcast #4: Democracy vs. Oligarchy
        • Podcast #5: Morality
        • Podcast #6: Universal Moral Law
        • Podcast #7: The Enlightenment
        • Podcast #8: Rethinking Immanuel Kant
        • Podcast #9: Minimal Morality
      • HUMAN NATURE >
        • Podcast #1: Evolution and Genetics
        • Podcast #2: Minds and Machines
        • Podcast #3: Human Values
        • Podcast #4: Artificial Intelligence
        • Podcast #5: Managing Happiness
        • Podcast #6: The Meaning of Life
        • Podcast #7: Recycling Souls
        • Podcast #8: Manifesting Mind
        • Podcast #9: Mind and Matter
        • Podcast #10: Ideas and Human Nature
      • WORLD COMMUNITY >
        • Podcast #1: The Roots of Community
        • Podcast #2: The Rise of Nationalism in the Modern World
        • Podcast #3: Truth, Reality, and the Growth of Empire
        • Podcast #4: The Future of the American Empire
        • Podcast #5: Ethical and Political Foundations of Community
        • Podcast #6: The Dilemma of Nationalism in the Modern World
        • Podcast #7: Postmodern Politics
        • Podcast #8: Universal Values for a World Community
        • Podcast #9: The Cosmopolitan Idea
        • Podcast #10: Using the Cosmopolitan Idea
        • Podcast #11: Swords and Plowshares: A Bold Proposal
    • TEXTS AND DOCUMENTS >
      • Why Dialogue?
      • Logical Reasoning
      • Declarations of Freedom and Human Dignity >
        • Declaration of Independence
        • Bill of Rights
        • Rights of Man and Citizens
        • Statute of Religious Freedom
        • Declaration of Sentiments
        • Universal Declaration of Human Rights
        • Rights of the Child
        • Rio Declaration on Environment
  • About Agora
    • Contact Agora
  • Link Page
  • Welcome
  • Current Podcasts
    • Education for Democracy >
      • 1. Reason in Science and the Humanities
      • 2. Laboratories of the Soul
      • 3. THE ART OF DIALECTIC
    • Current Podcast Scripts >
      • Podcast #1: Reason in Science and the Humanities
      • Podcast #2: Laboratories of the Soul
      • Podcast #3: The Art of Dialectic
      • Podcast #4: Reason and the Art of Life
  • Podcast Archives
    • Ethics in a Democracy >
      • 1. Ethics in a Democracy (30 minutes)
      • 2. Ethics and Religion, Part 1 (27 minutes)
      • 3. Ethics and Religion, Part 2 (22 minutes)
      • 4. Democracy vs. Oligarchy (26 minutes)
      • 5. Morality (26 minutes)
      • 6. Universal Moral Law (26 minutes)
      • 7. The Enlightenment (24 minutes)
      • 8. Rethinking Immanuel Kant (29 minutes)
      • 9. Minimal Morality (30 minutes)
    • World Community >
      • 1. Roots of Community (33 minutes)
      • 2. The Rise of Nationalism (32 minutes)
      • 3. Truth, Reality, and the Growth of Empire (30 minutes)
      • 4. The Future of the American Empire (30 minutes)
      • 5. Ethical and Political Foundations of Community (33 minutes)
      • 6. The Dilemma of Nationalism (30 minutes)
      • 7. Postmodern Politics (31 minutes)
      • 8. Universal Values for a World Community (29 minutes)
      • 9. The Cosmopolitan Idea (32 minutes)
      • 10. Using the Cosmopolitan Idea (25 minutes)
      • 11. Swords and Plowshares (44 minutes)
    • Human Nature >
      • 1. Evolution and Genetics (24 minutes)
      • 2. Artificial Intelligence (23 minutes): Minds and Machines
      • 3: Artificial Intelligence
      • 4. Human Values (22 minutes)
      • 5. Managing Happiness (28 minutes)
      • 6. The Meaning of Life ((28 minutes)
      • 7. Recycling Souls (29 minutes)
      • 8. Manifesting Mind (31 minutes)
      • 9. Mind and Matter (28 minutes)
      • 10. Ideas and Human Nature (37 minutes)
    • Podcast Scripts >
      • ETHICS IN A DEMOCRACY >
        • Podcast #1: What is Democracy?
        • Podcast #2: Ethics and Religion, Part 1
        • Podcast #3: Ethics and Religion, Part 2
        • Podcast #4: Democracy vs. Oligarchy
        • Podcast #5: Morality
        • Podcast #6: Universal Moral Law
        • Podcast #7: The Enlightenment
        • Podcast #8: Rethinking Immanuel Kant
        • Podcast #9: Minimal Morality
      • HUMAN NATURE >
        • Podcast #1: Evolution and Genetics
        • Podcast #2: Minds and Machines
        • Podcast #3: Human Values
        • Podcast #4: Artificial Intelligence
        • Podcast #5: Managing Happiness
        • Podcast #6: The Meaning of Life
        • Podcast #7: Recycling Souls
        • Podcast #8: Manifesting Mind
        • Podcast #9: Mind and Matter
        • Podcast #10: Ideas and Human Nature
      • WORLD COMMUNITY >
        • Podcast #1: The Roots of Community
        • Podcast #2: The Rise of Nationalism in the Modern World
        • Podcast #3: Truth, Reality, and the Growth of Empire
        • Podcast #4: The Future of the American Empire
        • Podcast #5: Ethical and Political Foundations of Community
        • Podcast #6: The Dilemma of Nationalism in the Modern World
        • Podcast #7: Postmodern Politics
        • Podcast #8: Universal Values for a World Community
        • Podcast #9: The Cosmopolitan Idea
        • Podcast #10: Using the Cosmopolitan Idea
        • Podcast #11: Swords and Plowshares: A Bold Proposal
    • TEXTS AND DOCUMENTS >
      • Why Dialogue?
      • Logical Reasoning
      • Declarations of Freedom and Human Dignity >
        • Declaration of Independence
        • Bill of Rights
        • Rights of Man and Citizens
        • Statute of Religious Freedom
        • Declaration of Sentiments
        • Universal Declaration of Human Rights
        • Rights of the Child
        • Rio Declaration on Environment
  • About Agora
    • Contact Agora
  • Link Page
STATUTE

OF RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

PASSED IN THE ASSEMBLY OF VIRGINIA

1786[1]

Well aware that Almighty God hath created the mind free; that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burdens, or by civil incapacitations, tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and are a departure from the plan of the Holy Author of our religion, who being Lord both of body and mind, yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was  in his Almighty power to do; that the impious presumption of legislators and rulers, civil as well as ecclesiastical, who, being themselves but fallible and un­inspired men, have assumed dominion over the faith of others, setting up their own opinions and modes of thinking as the only true and infallible, and as such endeavoring to impose them on others, hath established and maintained false religions over the greatest part of the world, and through all time; that to compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves, is sinful and tyrannical; that even the forcing him to support this or that teacher of his own religious persuasion, is depriving him of the comfortable liberty of   giving his contributions to the particular pastor whose morals he would make his pattern,           and whose powers he feels most persuasive to righteousness, and is withdrawing from the ministry those temporal rewards, which proceeding from an approbation of their personal conduct. are an additional incite­ment to earnest and unremitting labors for the instruction of mankind; that our civil rights have no dependence on our religious opinions, more than our opinions in physics or geometry; that, therefore, the proscribing [by] any citizen as unworthy [of] the public confidence by laying upon him an incapacity of being called to the officers of trust  and emolument, unless he profess or renounce this or that religious opinion, is depriving him injuriously of those privileges and advantages to which in common with his fellow citizens he has a natural right; that it tends also to corrupt the principles of that very religion it is meant to encourage, by bribing, with a monopoly of wordly honors and emoluments, those who will externally profess and conform to it; that though indeed these are criminal who do not withstand such temptation, yet neither are those innocent who lay the bait in their way; that to suffer the civil magistrate to intrude his powers into the field of opinion and     to restrain the profession or propagation of principles, on the supposition of their ill tendency, is a dangerous fallacy, which at once destroys all religious liberty, because he being of course judge of that tendency, will make his opinions the rule of judgment and approve or condemn the sentiments of others only as they shall square with or differ from his own; that it is time enough for the rightful purposes of civil government, for its offices to interfere when principles break out into overt acts against peace and good order; and finally, that truth is great and will prevail if left to herself, that she is the proper and sufficient antagonist to error, and has nothing to fear from the conflict, unless   by human interposition disarmed of her natural weapons, free argument and debate, errors ceasing to be dangerous when it is permitted freely to contradict them.



Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in    his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer       on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinions in matters of religion, and that the same shall in nowise diminish, enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.

And though we well know this Assembly, elected by the people for the ordinary purposes of legislation only, have no power to restrain       the acts of succeeding assemblies, constituted with the powers equal to our own, and that therefore to declare this act irrevocable, would be  of no effect in law, yet we are free to declare, and do declare, that the rights hereby asserted are  of the natural rights of mankind, and that if any act shall be hereafter passed to repeal the present or to narrow its operation, such act will be an infringement of natural right.

 



[1] An Act for establishing Religious Freedom [1779], written by Thomas Jefferson; passed in the Assembly of Virginia in the beginning of the year 1786.