On separation of church and state

‎"Politics, like science, depends on our ability to persuade each other of common aims based on a common reality. Moreover, politics, unlike science, involves compromise, the art of the possible. Religion does not allow for compromise. It insists on the impossible. To base one's life on such uncompromising commitments may be sublime; to base our policy making on such commitments would be a dangerous thing." --Barack Obama, "The Audacity of Hope," 2006