Religious Freedom

Are the American notions of liberty of conscience and freedom of religion genuine Jewish values?

I guess its too late to write a 1500 word essay, so I figured I'd jot down my thoughts here, for the zero followers of mine to read and give me $3000. Oh, wait, I can't put a shiny yellow donate button on my blog until I'm eighteen. Oh well.

When I first read the question, I thought it was asking a general question about American notions of liberty.
I immediately thought of conservatives who believe that American liberty means complete capitalism and laissez-faire economics, to which I would respond that they are NOT genuine Jewish values. I would base my answer on this post. In that post, Rabbi Eliyahu Fink of the Pacific Jewish Center quotes Rabbi Isidore Epstein's introduction to the Talmud, who quotes many examples of Rabbinical Socialism. EPIC WIN.
Either way, that isn't what the question is asking. MEH.
What it actually is asking about is whether the American notion of freedom of religion is a genuine Jewish value.
That is harder to answer.
My first thought is that since this country is not governed by Jews, there is no obligation upon the gentiles to obey the seven Noahide laws. It is not a commandment upon them. It is our obligation that those around us in our area of jurisdiction follow those seven laws. Unlike regular mitzvos, which are a Jew's personal obligation, the sheva mitzvos bnei noach are the governments responsibility. Seeing as our government isn't Jewish, it has every right to allow whatever religious freedom it wishes (including gay marriage <----LOL).

Nonetheless, a more genuine Jewish perspective would tell you that all mitzvos have a purpose, and the seven Noahide laws are meant to be a moral structure for society. Therefore any gentile who performs those commandments would receive merit in the world to come. Furthermore, because we believe that mitzvos are inherently valuable, converting is a form of elevation.This would mean that Judaism does not truly inherently value religious freedom, although it permits it. It would, however, prefer if everyone kept its moral standards.

That being said, even in a land under Jewish rule, no one would be forced to convert. For the majority of history, Judaism was the only religion which allowed any freedom of religion whatsoever. Most other religions, for the majority of history, believed that only someone who embraced their religion could merit reward. Judaism believes that anyone can achieve greatness, as long as they follow basic morals. (To see what my basis for calling them, "morals," is, see here.)

However, those basic tenets of morality must be kept. Some of them are open clauses. Who is to decide what is considered sexual immorality? It can't be based on Jewish laws of sex, because there is no chalos kiddushin (actual recognized marriage) between two non Jews. They definitely don't have the laws of niddah. Also, who is to decide what is considered a court? Is a monarch tyrant considered a government. Is an American justice system which searches not for the truth a establishment of a court? What is considered idolatry? Is a trinity monotheistic? Is Islam idolatry? Is the commandment not to be pagan, or to believe in one God? If the former, then atheism would be permitted. The rest are pretty clear cut, but all of those seem to not contradict any American values of religious freedom. The only two which may cause a problem are idolatry and sexual immorality, but those prohibitions are subject to introspection, or tzarich iyun.

In conclusion, there are two reasons why Judaism values religious freedom, despite the fact that it may inherently wish for something better. Firstly, because this isn't a country under Jewish jurisdiction. Secondly, because even those things which we may expect  gentile society to keep, are already, arguably, being kept.

Do You Believe In Miracles?

Here's a patch I started writing around Pesach, but its fine for any time of year, really.
This year, a I felt a new pre-pesach fear. After only recently becoming a navoch stooped in patchionalism, I was worried about how badly tainted my view of the miracles of Egypt would be. Patchionalists claim to minimize the quality and quantity of miracles. They happen less often, and when they do, they are less than supernatural.
So I began to think about how my opinion of yetzias mitrayim would be affected.
I contemplated my own view of miracles.
I recently read the view of R' E. E. Dessler on this issue, and the following are my thoughts about it.
He says that while God generally runs the world according to tevah (nature), miracles are completely removed from nature. He says this in contradistinction to the opinion that miracles are just nature stretched.
While this was satisfactory at first glance, a closer look into the term tevah can show that it doesn't really answer my dilemma.
Nature simply means the way the world naturally goes about its course. An thing that happens that isn't usual, is miraculous.
Science, however, is entirely another thing. Science is the explanation for anything that happens in the universe. Miracles have to have a scientific explanation. Perhaps that science isn't physics. I don't know. Maybe its, "miracology," but the way to gain scientific knowledge of something is to study it repeatedly in a lab. That would undo them being miracles. Any thoughts?

OR

One could argue that miracles ARE within laws of saying, despite the fact that they are unnatural. One would then have to research if they break any laws of science. (Much of modern physics nowadays is only theory, educated guessing though it may be, which is much more easily discarded. But most of all science we have is empirically proven fact.)
If they do, no respected intellectual, or even a simple patchionalist  for that matter, of our time, would accept it. Firstly because we believe that science is God's creation just as much as the Torah is, and they can both teach us things. Secondly, because that would make the world of our forefathers similar to that in Lord of the Rings. Not that that is impossible, but I disagree with it theologically.

If they don't, great, but you've just made the miracle that much less cool. Oh, and now let me guess, there's a moral that we can appreciate better now that we know that that is what the Torah/Midrash/Gemara is actually trying to tell us in the first place (and not a historical accounting). and let me guess, I'm supposed to apply that moral to my life to make myself a better Jew and a better person? Lame, I hate making myself a better person. (Not that this is the only reason yeshivists don't like patchionalism, especially because very often yeshivists do stress the morals that can be learned from these stories, even if they at the same time believe them in the technical sense. It's just that its emphasized, and very often coupled with the expectation that never picking your head up from a gemara will grant you these superpowers.)

Meh, what do I know. I guess I'll wait until I die, or Mashiach comes.