Secular Purpose

[George Dent]

  To underscore a point made by Gene Volokh, the Darwinian evolution example
doesn't even pass Kent Greenawalt's test: "A liberal society ... has no
business dictating matters of religious belief and worship to its citizens."
If a child has been told on Sunday that God created the universe and mankind
in six days, the school that teaches him evolution on Monday is "dictating
matters of religious belief" by telling him that his religion is wrong. At
the least the school would have to grant a request that this child be
excused from this class. But such a right was denied in *Mozert* et al.
  Mark Graber says that the only way to tell whether a purpose is secular or
religious is to look at history. Won't it depend in most cases on how hard we
look? E.g., the anti-slavery movement originated in Christianity. Now we
(pretend to?) forget this. Thus judges can arbitrarily choose which reli-
giously motivated laws to strike down and which to uphold.
            George Dent,  Case Western Reserve Law school