The Religion of Democracy

"In America it is religion which leads to enlightenment and the observance of divine laws which leads men to liberty." (Tocqueville 45)

Here Tocqueville has touched on a number of "dense facts" so to speak: religion, enlightenment, divine laws, liberty.... What do these mean? and What is he referring to? Firstly; religion. America is known as the cultural melting pot. That is one of the greatest aspects of our democracy is that everyone is permitted to participate regardless of their background, one aspect of which being religion, but the point is not everyone follows the same religion. Does that matter? Maybe the "divine laws" of religion agree enough to guide people towards "enlightenment." I think by this Tocqueville means a general sense of morals. I wrote earlier in commenting on Whitman's, Democratic Vistas, that a communal sense of morality is essential to making democracy work because it is based on equality of all participants. You need a sense of what is moral in order to achieve equality because equality is based on what is fair. This common sense of morality, Tocqueville says will lead people to liberty. I believe the liberty he is referring to is the ability to participate in government freely.

After deciphering Tocqueville's passage I want to now question it. I don't believe that there is a religion of America. I do not believe that religion is a point on which we are necessarily unified because America is a melting pot. So many practices exist here including atheism, but there is a guiding sense of morality and conservatism. If there is no real religion of America, how can our morality come from religion of the citizens alone? I believe that morality can come from other sources. For example, people who are atheists have a sense of morality too, but theirs isn't derived from any religion. These people function just as effectively in society as do those who are religious, thus I disagree that religion is what holds democracy together.