So if they keep their filthy evil perversions behind closed doors you might tolerate their existance?? Is that how you look at it?
Funny, Tim. I don't know if you read the other thread, but there was this interesting article over the weekend.
Confessions of a Lonely Atheist nytimes.com
Who would want to be the low man on the voter poll? When asked in
1999 whether they would consider voting for a woman for president, 92
percent of Americans said yes, up from 76 percent in 1978; 95 percent
of respondents would vote for a black, a gain of 22 points since 1978;
Jews were up to 92 percent from 82 in the votability index; even
homosexuals have soared in popularity, acceptable presidential fodder to
59 percent of Americans today, compared with 26 percent in 1978. But
atheists, well, there's no saving them. Of all the categories in this
particular Gallup poll, they scraped bottom, considered worthy
candidates by only 49 percent of Americans, a gain of a mere 9 percent
since 1978. "Throughout American history, there's been this belief that
our country has a covenant with God and that a deity watches over
America," says Michael Cromartie, vice president of the Ethics and
Public Policy Center in Washington. Atheism, in other words, is
practically unpatriotic.
It's enough to make one tell a nosy pollster, oh, yes, I believe in God. It's
enough to make one not want to discuss belief in the first place, or to
reach for palatable terms like "secular humanist," or "freethinker," or
"agnostic," which sound so much less dogmatic than "atheist," so much
less cocksure.
And so on. A long article, but I can't help seeing whining about "intolerance" of religion in the US as somewhat in contrast to certain obvious tendencies . I would also point out in passing that "One Nation under God" is a cold war relic, and while "In God We Trust" goes back to the Civil war; neither is based on "original intent" or anything like that. Though people are always willing to work at fudging "original intent", as show here.
The Real Jefferson on Religion by Robert S. Alley secularhumanism.org
If you don't see school prayer as somewhat more coercive than what usually gets protected under "free speech", well, that's your right. But in general, people don't get to say whatever they want whenever and wherever they want. Particularly in school. Oddly, growing up as a Catholic, I was taught to be suspicious of public school prayer, because it obviously wasn't the right prayer for us. Who's to say what is the right form of school prayer, either then or now?
Cheers, Dan. |
