text: if  there is a separation between church and state...? why does it seem like most laws are directly tied with the church. take the 10 commandments for instance. if they didn't exist, would we be punished for murder,for stealing, for being a bigamist...and so on?what's your opinion. i don't think most laws are tied to the church.  however, our legal system is based on our judaic/christian heritage.    the notion of separation of church and state is not in the bible nor is it in our constitution, bill of rights, or any of the founding documents.  the phrase comes from thomas jefferson but has been taken out of context and twisted around so bad it is not funny.  go to the 1st link below and you will see what i mean.  then read the amendments to the constitution at the 2nd link.  note the first section of the 3rd amendment: "congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;"  this means that congress is not allowed to make laws establishing a national religion nor interfering with the freedom of worship.  that was one of the great abuses in england.  some of the states did have official religions for a while and this was not prohibited by the national government.  the prohibition was only on the federal government.   the constitution that requires a separation of church and state is from the old soviet union.   as to whether we would still have some of the same laws if we had not had the ten commandments--i think so because god created us in his spiritual image.  he has placed within each of us a sense of what is right and what is wrong.  granted many people work hard at ignoring that sense but i still believe it is there.