Blog 4 Carter: The Separation of Church and State

Carter is basically speaking about how and why the separation of the church and state came about. The separation of the church and state was originated in the First Amendment to protect religion from the state, and to secure religious liberty. Carter named few religious cases were the state and church were in quarrel. One of which was the Lemon vs. Kurtzman which is often referred to. Carter states that according to surveys the removal of prayer in public schools is the most unpopular within the controversial rulings between church and state. Prayer being removed from public schools was extremely justifiable according to Carter, and I totally agree. We don’t all pray to the same god so praying in favor of just Christianity or one other choice religion would have been unfair to those of different religions. Although I agree with the fact that our government can never be fully rid of religion, I fully believe that our religion should be protected from government interference.

Blog 3: Arendt

Arendt gives insight to the horror of concentration camps, and shows how it dehumanitizes its inmates. From my understanding she spoke on how it was impossible to evaluate the psyche of a former inmate, because all their moral values and beliefs, have and will continue to disintegrate because, they have been hidden from the world, and considered as non existent. Arendt also spoke on how the true horrors of a concentration camp would never be revealed, even if there was a survivor, because they had been made not to have existed which, would create confusion and cause a distraction from what is essential. I think she is trying to say that it would become such amazement that the person or persons were alive that the nation would less focus on the cruelty and crime that has been committed and more on his/her story of what took place in the camp. Arendt describes the inmates moving back into the human world as Lazarus being resurrected which, to me, could actually prove to be an accurate description of how life could be for a survivor. Because they will have lived under some ones rule for far too long, leaving them in fear and unable to think for themselves. In captivity someone will have told them when to eat, sleep, and drink. So unfortunately the fear of doing something out of order will stay installed in them, and I don’t think that they would any longer be capable of surviving in the real world.