A millennium ago, life was not surprisingly very different from today. People associated themselves with a religion not a nation state and lived under the doctrine that God had set out for them, which aided a simplistic view of the life. However with natural evolution the world, namely Europe founded governments and as a result nationalism replaced the allegiance of faith, which had formerly enabled its societies to cohere. These countries found it necessary to separate religion and politics in order to free government and science and technology from the constraints of religion. Thus as Christianity and the West colonized the world they brought their political ideals with them promoting democracy and capitalism which were to survive to become the predominant ideology in the modern world. But what did this mean for the other monotheistic religions, Judaism and Islam in the modern era? Jewish people had suffered through persecution since Abraham spoke to God and hence the creation of the state of Israel meant a fulfillment of God's promise to return them to their holy land, albeit not how they expected.
Gods and sodas
A Ten Commandments monument which includes the com...
Official Portrait of President Ronald ReaganWhilst Muslims had the modern world thrust upon them by the West, meaning they also had to accept their political systems. So with so much change, is it possible for a religious state to exist in the modern world? Western democracies are underwritten by the separation of powers doctrine, and have constitutions that explicitly grant freedom of religion. Therefore the United States could not possibly be a modern Christian state. However it is also universally understood that Israel is a Jewish state, and Israel also has separation of powers. Whilst for Islam politics have been the 'theatre of their religious quest' and thus no separation is necessary. So the question is whether or not a modern country can be...