Those poor Founding Fathers! They must have thought they'd be dealing with reasonable human beings in the future, not a bunch of damn political lawyers with axes to grind.

What they clearly meant was that the state was not to pass any laws which interfered with people's religious lives and choices, which would be the private business of the people themselves to work out FOR themselves. Congress was not to legislate the conditions of people's religious life and practice.

Sounds like a good idea to me. It guarantees freedom of thought and freedom of religion and freedom of philosophical expression.