h/t: Planet Atheism
h/t: PZ Myers
MILITARY EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN PROSELYTIZATION: U.S. Military being used as Government-Paid Missionaries
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MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX: Dusty Smith / “Fuck Israel!”
RELIGIOUS SATIRE: This Week’s Sermon . . .
h/t: Planet Atheism
CHRISTIAN CHILD ABUSE (INTELLECTUAL STERILIZATION): Teaching Ignorance: The Continuing Infiltration of Creationism is Dumbing Down our Youth
[…]
Mental Abuse…
I happen to agree with Dr. Richard Dawkin’s statement that teaching creationism to children is akin to child abuse. Lying to a child by teaching them that creationism in any of its forms is based on facts is pathetically inadequate because it is not just anti-science, but blatant scientific fraud.
Graduating classes are being sent into the world without a proper education, and countless students are being lied to and the core of the problem is ignorance on a national level. A recent survey by Gallup revealed that acceptance of creationism is on the rise and a majority of Americans are against evolution being taught in school, or at least in favor of providing ”specific evidence“ that supports creationism, creation science, intelligent design, etc. Apparently, the development of critical thinking skills is not important.
[…]
Creationism in any of its forms is not science but a religious doctrine that says “God did it.” The impact of teaching it in our classes results in the dumbing down of our kids, and is a direct insult to our educational system which should advance according to cumulative knowledge.
Truly, a new age is dawning. A very old new age. We seem to have moved, in many areas, from the twentieth century and about to embark upon the eighth.
Related articles
- Creationism harms America: Religion breeds ignorance (examiner.com)
- Tennessee Senate rejects science, promotes creationism in public schools (examiner.com)
CORPORATE CAPITALISM: Bill Moyers / Jamie Dimon’s ‘Family Reunion’ With the Senate Banking Committee
In a preview of this weekend’s Moyers & Company, I talk with What’s the Matter With Kansas? author Thomas Frank about the friendly faces greeting Jamie Dimon when he appeared before the Senate Banking Committee this morning. Seven members of the committee were big recipients of money from the megabank.
Frank describes the revolving door of employment between government and corporate America, especially when it comes to Congressional staffers-turned-lobbyists.
“Staffers know they could drop what they’re doing and go work for a lobby firm and make fantastic money… They want to please these companies — even when they don’t work for those companies – because that’s their future employer and everybody knows it.”
Related articles
MARRIAGE EQUALITY: Marriage Became A Basic Civil Right 45 Years Ago
h/t: MoveOn.org
POLITICAL SATIRE: Voter ID
h/t: Honjii’s Harangues
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: Louisiana Lunacy: Tens of Millions to be Spent on Faith-based Education
SCHOOLS run along faith guidelines have hit the jackpot big time following Louisiana’s decision to siphon tens of millions of tax dollars out public schools and into religious institutions where only creationism will be taught.
In what is described here as “the nation’s boldest experiment in privatizing public education”, the state will pay private industry, businesses owners and church pastors to educate children.
Starting this fall, thousands of poor and middle-class kids will get vouchers covering the full cost of tuition at more than 120 private schools across Louisiana, including small, Bible-based church schools.
Said Governor Bobby Jindal, a Republican who muscled the plan through the legislature this spring over fierce objections from Democrats and teachers unions:
“We are changing the way we deliver education. We are letting [some of the most notoriously uneducated] parents [in the country] decide what’s best for their children, not government.”
Jindal is a [converted] devout Catholic, and this is what he believes:
“As Christians, we’re secure in the knowledge that in the Book of Life, our God wins. He gets off that cross. He beats Satan. We’re not called to be despondent. We are called to be salt and light and to be planting the seeds of the gospel.”
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE: Zinnia Jones / “Governor Bryant, There Is No “Non-Denominational” School Prayer”
“Without school-sponsored prayer, students are still free to pray on their own while in school. But where school prayer is mandated, students from all walks of life have often been required to acknowledge an “Almighty God” or “Heavenly Father”, whether through regulation or just social pressure. Such an arrangement is clearly antithetical to genuine religious freedom in schools.”
Video transcript: http://freethoughtblogs.com/zinniajones/2012/06/governor-bryant-there-is-no-n…
Related articles
- Mississippi Governor on school prayer: “It is what we should continue to do” (secularnewsdaily.com)
- Mississippi Governor touts ‘non-denominational’ prayer in public schools (secularnewsdaily.com)
- Mississippi Governor Endorses School Prayer (msatheists.org)
- Zinnia Jones: Gov. Bryant, There Is No ‘Non-Denominational’ School Prayer (huffingtonpost.com)
- Congressional support for school prayer? (secularnewsdaily.com)
FORTHRIGHTNESS: You Are Not Special Commencement Speech from Wellesley High School
h/t: Crispy Sea
