Religion as relates to US Constitution: was it directly confirmed or ruled not within the scope of the laws and government?

It is hard to answer this question in an objective way as the Constitution does not explicitly do either of these things. There is a great deal of controversy about what, exactly, the Constitution (or, to be more precise, the First Amendment) says about religion.

On the one hand, we can clearly say that the Constitution does not ever “directly confirm” religion.  The Constitution says very little on the subject of religion.  In the Constitution...

It is hard to answer this question in an objective way as the Constitution does not explicitly do either of these things. There is a great deal of controversy about what, exactly, the Constitution (or, to be more precise, the First Amendment) says about religion.

On the one hand, we can clearly say that the Constitution does not ever “directly confirm” religion.  The Constitution says very little on the subject of religion.  In the Constitution proper, there is only one mention, which comes in Article VI.  This passage states that

no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

In the amendments to the Constitution, religion is only mentioned twice, both times in the First Amendment.  There are two important clauses in this amendment that have to do with religion.  First, the establishment clause says that  

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

What this literally means is that the government cannot create an official state religion.  Many people think that this clause means that religion is “ruled not within the scope of the laws and government.”  They think that it means that the government cannot prefer one religion over another and that it cannot prefer religion over a lack of religion (atheism or secularism).  However, there are people who think this is wrong.  In this link, we can see that Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia recently said that the government should be free to promote religion so long as it does not favor one religion over another.

Second, the free exercise clause says that

Congress shall make no law … prohibiting the free exercise thereof (of religion).

This means that the government cannot make laws that infringe on people’s rights to practice religion.  You could say that this means that religion is “ruled not within the scope of the laws and government” because it says that the government cannot make laws reducing religious freedom.

Clearly, then, the Constitution does not “directly confirm” religion.  However, it is not possible to say objectively whether the Constitution rules that religions is “not within the scope of the laws and government.”