Someone show me a binding document that declares the separation of church and state. It isn’t that I disagree with the concept, but this is one of those little nuggets of bullshit that has been repeated so many times that most everybody believes it’s true.
The first amendment is clearly written to keep government from declaring a national religion. That’s it! Don’t believe me? Read it for yourself.
That's not really it. The First Amendment to the Constitution has two distinct clauses, referred to in common parlance as the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. While the Establishment Clause keeps the government from declaring a national religion, the Free Exercise Clause allows people to believe whatever they want to believe.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
So, while you are correct that it does not say in literal language that there is a separation of church and state, it does get there in an indirect way. The Founding Fathers were pretty clever in saying a lot in very few words.
