“We can indeed take prayer out of public schools,” commented Dan Barker, FFRF co-president. “Religion in our schools is divisive, usurps parental authority and interferes in students’ rights of conscience. It is also unlawful according to decades of consistent Supreme Court rulings. Read more . . .
The Religious Right has a worldview anchored in the 13th century when church and state were one. Activists in this movement continue to be at war with religious diversity, secular government, church-state separation, religious freedom, intellectual thought and much of modern life. Read more . . .
The book forms a bridge between the two parallel enterprises of culture and politics. It reveals how politics justifies itself by culture, and how the latter prompts the former. Read more . . .
On basic questions of morality and human decency — issues such as governmental use of torture, the death penalty, punitive hitting of children, racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, environmental degradation or human rights — the irreligious tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious . . . They tend to raise their children to solve problems rationally, to make up their own minds when it comes to existential questions and to obey the golden rule. They are more likely to practice safe sex than the strongly religious are, and are less likely to be nationalistic or ethnocentric. They value freedom of thought. Read more . . .
There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office . . . In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job. Read more . . .
CATHOLICS have some pretty cock-eyed ideas, especially in regard to the bits and pieces of departed “holy” characters. These, they believe, possess “miraculous” properties . . . a vial containing the late pope John Paul II’s blood will soon be winging its way to Mexico in a bid to help bring down crimes rates in the largely Catholic country.
Conservative intellectuals don’t have a candidate in the 2012 GOP primary, and they’re making their worry more and more public. “To many conservative elites, Rick Perry is a dope, Michele Bachmann is a joke, and Mitt Romney is a fraud.”
Always Question Authority 