Separation of Church and State - Ayn Rand

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Political freedom requires a separation of church and state. This principle is often advocated, but seldom fully understood. Properly, this separation is rooted in the principle of intellectual freedom. It means that every individual should be free to think about and accept any idea he chooses.
To say that church is separate from state means that the state makes no evaluation of its citizens’ ideas, religious or otherwise. The state’s concern is only with men’s actions, specifically actions that trespass on individual rights. It neither persecutes nor tolerates nor promotes ideas—because it is unconcerned with ideas per se.

From the other direction, to say that state is separate from church, means that a citizen—including any faction of them, such as a church—is incapable of using the state’s coercive power to penalize or support ideas, religious or otherwise. If a citizen wants to hinder or support an idea, he must argue his case with others, not enact a law.

In a free society, government has no power to persecute or establish religious ideas because it has no power to police ideas as such. No one, including those in government, may force their ideas on anyone.

Principles of a Free Society

Pragmatist - Ayn Rand

The Pragmatists declared that  

philosophy must be practical 

and that practicality consists of 

dispensing with all 
absolute principles and standards

that there is  

no such thing as 

objective reality or permanent truth

that  
truth is 
that which works, 

and its validity can be judged only by its consequences—

that no facts can be known with certainty in advance, 

and anything may be tried by rule-of-thumb

that reality is not firm, but fluid and “indeterminate,” 

that there is no such thing as a distinction between an external world and a consciousness

(between the perceived and the perceiver), 

there is only an undifferentiated package-deal labeled “experience,”

and whatever one wishes to be true, is true, 

whatever one wishes to exist, does exist, 

provided it works or makes one feel better.

A later school of more Kantian Pragmatists amended this philosophy as follows. If there is no such thing as an objective reality, men’s metaphysical choice is whether the selfish, dictatorial whims of an individual or the democratic whims of a collective are to shape that plastic goo which the ignorant call “reality,”  

therefore this school decided that  

objectivity 

consists of  

collective subjectivism—

that  

knowledge 

is to be 
gained by means of  

public polls 

among 

special elites 

of “competent investigators”  

who can “predict and control” reality 

that  

whatever people wish to be true, is true,  

whatever people wish to exist, does exist, 

and  

anyone who holds any firm convictions of his own 

is an arbitrary, mystic dogmatist, 

since 

reality is indeterminate 

and 

people determine its actual nature.

  
From Ayn Rand : For the New Intellectual

You won't find THIS 19 year-olds comment from Saguenay in the mainstream press!

I want you to read this from my friend Yan Brassard :

I'm a young 19 year-old man from Saguenay Lac-Saint-Jean. I study in the Cégep de Jonquière. I live in the most unilingual and sovereignist region of the Quebec province. I know how it is to live in a place where bilinguism is devalued. My friends don't speaks English, my parents don't either. I wasn't raised in a bilingual family.

However, I know that English is the international language of business. I know that I'm living in a bilingual country with a majority of native English speakers. I know that Quebec's southern neighboring country is the United States of America, world's third biggest country, the number one economic superpower, but also the richest country in the world.

I don't think that isolationist policies promoting unilinguism and hatred of the English language will encourage Quebec industries to be successful around the world. I'm a huge fan of the French language. This is a truely beautiful language with a old history. I don't think there's any contradiction in appreciating our language and use the English language in a daily basis in our professionnal life. No, I wasn't raised in a bilingual area. That's why I have to put more energy in learning English than people who have the chance to live in a bilingual environment.

Le débat sur la langue au Québec - un faux débat.- par Martin Hamel

Tout le débat émotif entourant le débat sur la langue au Québec et entretenu par notre élite politique et journalistique de gauche n’est à mon avis qu’un prétexte pour camoufler quelque chose de plus grave. Toute cette poudre aux yeux cache une des nombreuses tendances totalitaristes de la société Québécoise et une atteinte flagrante à nos libertés fondamentales au nom de la protection de notre langue. Pour voir cette atteinte, il faut comprendre ce qui semble être le véritable motif derrière les lois astreignantes qui régissent l’univers linguistique de notre province. Certains verront dans ce texte une paranoïa ou une théorie du complot voire même de la fabulation mais avant de rejeter cette théorie du revers de la main, prenez au moins la peine de réfléchir à ce qui suit et qui est tout de même basé sur certains faits troublants.