When I was a Christian (childhood to young adulthood), the concept of

"separation between church and state" always confused me.

My beliefs are what I use to make decisions. So I figured that if I truly believed in Christianity, then everything I said or did would ultimately stem from, or at least be colored by, my belief in Christianity. And so, it seemed to me, that I couldn't really be expected to participate in politics without bringing along my beliefs in some manner.

Now that I'm no longer a Christian, I still think that's true. When people have fundamental beliefs, like their religion, it tends to show up in their decision making.

And for that reason, it does still worry me when people follow a faith-based religion. It makes me uncomfortable that many people believe in things that don't have present-day evidence, and that we therefore can't build consensus around.

I wrote this article a couple weeks ago to try to demonstrate my point: https://nebulasaurus.medium.com/faith-non-belief-and-the-parable-of-the-many-moons-c1fa5851e29d