Seeing religion as a tool of capitalist oppression, Soviet communists had no compunction in destroying churches, mosques, and temples, turning them into museums of atheism, and even summarily executing clergymen and other believers by the thousands. The communists, led by the Soviet Union, begrudgingly accepted the declaration, perhaps with the cynical attitude that it was only as powerful as the paper it was written on. The advent of Soviet communism presented a new threat to religious freedom, as Marxism-Leninism took a militantly materialistic and atheistic stand. Here I stand. I can do no other. Not only would the state reject the establishment of any particular religion, it would take a vigilant stand against religion involving itself in the political arena. Unlike the American model, however, many European and colonial governments supported a state church, while minority religious and new sects still faced disadvantages and sometimes persecution. In France, although peace was made between Protestants and Catholics at the Treaty of Saint Germain in 1570, persecution continued, most notably in the Saint Bartholomew’s Day Massacre on August 24, 1572, in which many Protestants throughout France were killed.

Targets of the Inquisition included the Cathars of southern France, the Waldensians, the Hussites, the Knights Templar, Spiritual Franciscans, witches (the most famous being Joan of Arc), Jews, Muslims, freethinkers, and Protestants. I am somewhat spiritual. A succession of Christian kings expelled Jews from their lands. Of these that of the priests is the more weighty, since they have to render an account for even the kings of men in the divine judgment. One must, on the contrary, render to other creeds the honor befitting them. One must not exalt one’s creed discrediting all others, nor must one degrade these others without legitimate reasons. Several notable exceptions arose in relation to the Jews, as a result of their insistence that they must acknowledge their own God alone. The issue of the relation between religion and the state took clearer form in the West as Christianity came to the fore. The state changed sides several times in the Arian controversy before Theodosius I took power and declared orthodox (Catholic) Christianity to be the official state religion in 392 C.E. Peter Brueghel, the 16th-century Dutch artist, took the monstrous iconography of emblem books to the next level in his nightmare-inducing series of seven engravings on the deadly sins.

Demons didn’t need to read books to know things. And Allah heareth and knoweth all things. You are also aware, dear son, that while you are permitted honorably to rule over humankind, yet in things divine you bow your head humbly before the leaders of the clergy and await from their hands the means of your salvation. Over the next two hundred years Christians experienced repression when certain emperors insisted on their adherence to Roman state religious traditions, which many Christians suffered martyrdom to avoid. Over the next few centuries, the papacy would emerge as a bastion of orthodox resistance to state theological error. Ambrose declared that the Christian church cannot be forced by the state to support the religion of non-Christians. The state would now be the final arbiter in distinguishing proper doctrine from heresy, and factions within Christianity would vie for imperial support. Christians then began using the power of the state to persecute other Christians, as well as to pressure pagans to convert to Christianity. In the West, Alexander the Great and subsequent Greek and Roman rulers generally followed a policy of religious toleration, allowing local religions to flourish as long as they also paid homage to the state religion as well.

Whosoever, therefore, refuses to obey the laws of the emperors which are enacted against the truth of God, wins for himself a great reward; but whosoever refuses to obey the laws of the emperors which are enacted in behalf of truth, wins for himself great condemnation. Both Bible reading and prayer that are directed by the school have been banned from public schools since the early 1960s. Despite ongoing efforts to appeal these laws (and most recently to replace prayer time with a “moment of silence”), the courts have not changed their stance. 125.09 GeV despite the fact only a few hundred photons were produced in trials at the old LHC energy, and only a few tens of decays into leptons, out of billions of data points. Despite this, until the modern era, Islam was ahead of its time on the question of religious freedom. Through the course of human history, there have been hundreds of notable prophets, but in the wake of modern tragedies, one name seems to pop up more than any other: Nostradamus. But interestingly, each of the early modern scientists believed that what they were studying was in some fashion made possible by the whole of the natural world (terrestrial and celestial) being created and sustained in existence by a Divine Mind, an all good, necessarily existing Creator.