[quote=@Heat]
*snip*

God or the divine is referenced in every state constitution.
[/quote]

Plenty to spin off on here -- most I could summarize by saying "We're a Christian-majority democracy, it's only natural." The laws about who can run for office should definitely go.... but this quote brings up this week's classic mdk rant.

I think the references to God and/or the divine are actually very important.

Not for religious reasons, but for legal ones. It's important, in my opinion, to codify in the highest law (in every law really) that [i]rights do not come from the government.[/i] One does not have the freedom of speech because the first amendment says so -- one has that right period, and drafts the constitution in order to forbid the government from interfering. That's a vital distinction. The thirteenth amendment did not grant former slaves the right to vote, it ended the government's ability to trample that right. That right was always there; that's why slavery (and segregation, and denying female suffrage, and so on) was wrong. 

Insofar as the references to God and/or the divine accomplish that purpose, they are crucial. Naturally, if we were writing the various constitutions today, we'd describe all these things as human rights, and 200 years from now the glip glops from Traflorkia would think we were xenophobic not to include them.

Anyway.