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Daily Logs for Sep 5, 2025

Tags: letters

Author
Written by: Tushar Sharma

Dear Vishi, dear logs for today.

Snapshot

Activity Streak Count Logging

Opinion

Secularism

X post of US Department of State

Our nation was founded on the recognition that moral virtue and a steadfast faith in God are necessary preconditions of freedom. Yet under the Biden Administration, U.S. foreign policy belittled Christianity and weaponized government against faith… That era has ended…Under POTUS’s leadership, the State Department will eradicate practices that devalue and demean the Christian faith.

Secularism is the separation of church and state. In practice, every U.S. president has been Christian and has taken the oath of office on a Bible. Many southern states are socially conservative and strongly religious.

In Alabama, part of the Bible Belt, public schools had banned yoga for decades due to its associations with Hinduism. In 2021 the state lifted the ban with conditions: only stretches and poses in English are allowed. Chanting, the sound “om,” the word “namaste,” and references to Eastern philosophy or religion remain prohibited1.

In contrast, France follows the principle of laïcité (secularism), which establishes a stricter separation between religion and the state than in the U.S. French presidents do not swear an oath on a Bible during inauguration, and the state is prohibited from officially endorsing or opposing any particular religion.

Secularism in India is however peculiar. The Constitution of India explicitly includes secularism in its Preamble. However, the country does not have a uniform civil code — personal matters such as marriage, divorce, and inheritance, etc are different for different religion. Also, blasphemy laws exist in the Indian Penal Code, which make it an offense to deliberately insult or hurt religious beliefs. Criminal law in India, however, are uniform. Secularism in India often means "Sarva Dharma Samabhava" which means "equal respect for all religion". This was coined by Gandhi since religion is prominent part of Indian society.

Personally I prefer laïcité since I am agnostic. However every country ultimately has the government (or the system) it deserves.

ICE

ICE released video of Korean workers in Georgia’s Hyundai/ LG plant

Refernces

  1. bbc ↩

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