However you attained money, some families don't have the resources to pick schools they want their kids to goto. In the last reply, I was ribbing your hypocrisy for being an overreactive nancy with the insults. I don't mind keeping it civil, but it can also be fun with the dish and take. Let's not spoil it by taking some fake high ground when blood's already spilled. Atheists wouldn't use their kids as religiosity props. Wouldn't make any logical sense. Perhaps a Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Taoist, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, Paganist, B'hai, Rastafarian, Mormon, or Scientologist parent would. And so would non-Christians, but laughing might be the most harmless thing that could possibly happen. And yes, this discussion is that high brow.
See... The question you should be asking is "Why in the hell is this guy still posting in this thread and others, he's been doing it all day long?" I would have NO decent answer for that. I had a 4 day weekend and I completely wasted an entire day on this.... My wife is pissed at me, I think. G'night.
And you're wrong. Again. Bend your knee. The title is enough? Interesting. I find this funny since most of the mockery in this thread has been by...you! Hypocrite much? Again, you're being obtuse. You know better. Kids pray in school all the time and it's no big deal, as long as it's not led by school officials. Nobody is trying to steal your prayz. Do we need to set aside time for this? No, we do not. Why do I have to keep repeating this point? Are you trying to convince yourself? It's truly bizarre, this behavior. Ah, let's make up absurd (glad you at least recognized it and called it by name) examples and pass them off as actual things! I love it. Good old reductio ad absurdum. Are any of the people in your asinine story employed by the government? Were their actions or items bought and paid with tax dollars? No? Then why are you bringing it up? Are you that desperate to win an argument? Interesting. Now if a giant cross (or buddha or cartoon portrait of mohammad) were erected on school grounds or a court house using tax dollars, then yeah...we have problems. Again, have you even read your replies in this thread? Hypocrite. Not damnation, let's go with something better - you have to root for the Jazz for all eternity.
Okay, so what if another religion requests the class to be halted every hour for a 5 minute silent prayer. Is that okay? I believe in the Unicorn Gods, and I want my children to believe in them too. My religion demands a 5 minute prayer every 30 minutes. Should the school fit my demands?
Now you are just being petty, or should I say Butthurt in the parlance of D&D.. Again you miss the point of the whole argument. I never said Christmas wasn't a Christian holiday just that it is important to our culture for more reasons than Christianity. It is like why Labor Day is important even though most of us aren't union members. You seem unable to counter that point.
This is true. Christmas is pretty big in officially atheist PRC. I suppose then that makes the PRC actually a Christian country.
It's what keeps me entertained... Not that the **** jokes would make a conclusion any more irrelevant than it already is. This cuts into the obtuse line (which doesn't have to mean stupid because if I thought you were being stupid, I would've said it outright) because the next line afterwards goes into other religions, which is a point I've consistently made. Sure you claim to be open to giving other religions equal allowance but outside an agreement on principle, I don't see any further thought about how that would influence your kid. That lack of thought is why I label you short sighted or obtuse. It's not some snide prickish hipster word that I chose to passive aggressively call you stupid. For that, I use wet fart jokes. C'mon. Glad that's settled. Some people in here get real nasty and overboard. I think it's a fitting topic because kids can't choose their parents. You made the sacrifice to spend a decent amount of money on your kids education. My parents did something similar when they had enough foresight to check out neighborhoods. We're lucky, but that doesn't mean people who don't have the luxury of that choice get to sit in their own stew. I also wonder why you have such a strong interest in allowing prayer in public schools when presumably the private school you enrolled your kids do include prayer... And as we can't choose our parents, most kids can not choose their religion and when they reach of age to be able to make that decision, some will undoubtedly have a lot of deconditioning and deprogramming to go through should they make that change in course. As the public school system is the default bar for many parents who might not have made an active decision for their kids to go there, I believe the considerations for equality and respect for every student should be stronger than in a private school where the families involved do have a choice to go elsewhere should they disagree with how the school is run. Furthermore, it's not like the majority of kids are enrolled in private schools. You are the minority here, but your response that people have choices when it comes to education might not apply to the majority's circumstances. In other words, is that a fair charge to throw that those parents aren't entirely committed to their kids' education should the school system their house is in a **** system? The irony is that I agree with you that personal sacrifices should be made to advance children's education. Maybe I'm too nice in giving other people byes or benefit of the doubt. Or maybe that'd give my future kid the edge over future dummies.
What the hell, might as well post this bit of insightful hilarity. And this train wreck of a thread is as good a place as any.
At least that guy had better luck than Pastafarians in Russia. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/26/russia-pastafarian-_n_3816805.html Russia Pastafarian Rally Of Church Of The Flying Spaghetti Monster Attacked By Police The Pastafarian rally in Russia on August 17th began in a light-hearted manner, as members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster took to the streets of Moscow wearing strainers on their heads and carrying various types of pasta to celebrate the tenets of their faith. However, the day quickly took a dark turn, as members of a Russian Orthodox group as well as the police physically attacked the group, knocking some to the ground and verbally harassing them. Eight Pastafarians were detained and charged with organizing an unsanctioned rally. Russia's recent anti-gay laws have criminalized behavior that "disrespects religion," penalizing violators with prison sentences of up to three years. These laws don't just affect the gay community, but pave the way for police harassment of many other groups that may fall foul of the vague language of the law. The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is a religion which was founded in in 2005 in the U.S.A., by atheists opposed to the teaching of intelligent design and creationism in public schools. Since then it's become an international movement largely considered as a satire of organized religion, though some followers of the Church claim that it is in fact a real religion, and the dogma they follow is the rejection of dogma. There are a reported 15,000 members of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster in Russia. The rally and march was planned to celebrate the recent submission of an appeal to be recognized as a legitimate religion in Russia. The invitation on the group's website said: To celebrate the creation of the first religious group of the Pastafarian Church of Russia, the bishops, lay people and followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster are invited to walk through the main streets and squares of the cities and villages of joyful praise for spaghetti and meatballs. However, not everyone feels so joyful about the recognition of the Pastafarian Church, particularly members of the Orthodox group God's Will, who told Utro that "glorification of the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster offends their religious feelings.” Dmitry Enteo, the founder of God's Will, posted on Twitter that "Pastafarianism is a blasphemous smear against Christianity," according to NBC. The ensuing video shows members of the police chasing Pastafarians through the streets, who can be recognized by the strainers on their heads.
What do people think about this quote from Bertrand Russell? [rquoter]I ought to call myself an agnostic; but, for all practical purposes, I am an atheist. I do not think the existence of the Christian God any more probable than the existence of the Gods of Olympus or Valhalla. To take another illustration: nobody can prove that there is not between the Earth and Mars a china teapot revolving in an elliptical orbit, but nobody thinks this sufficiently likely to be taken into account in practice. I think the Christian God just as unlikely.[/rquoter] When he said "atheist", it appears he meant that he is atheistic in reference to the Chrisitian God. If we define God as a more general concept (a "Creator" of some sort), then maybe he'd have more readily referred to himself as as agnostic.
Nice. And I see the New Jersey let the head of American atheists get his ATHE1ST plate after first denying it because it was "offensive."
Richard Dawkins extended interview on the Daily Show from this past week. Jon Stewart represents the more "religion-friendly" agnostic/atheist in this discussion, it seems. <embed style="display:block" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:429256" width="288" height="247" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" allowFullscreen="true" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" bgcolor="#000000"></embed> <embed style="display:block" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:429257" width="288" height="247" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" allowFullscreen="true" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" bgcolor="#000000"></embed> <embed style="display:block" src="http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:video:thedailyshow.com:429258" width="288" height="247" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="window" allowFullscreen="true" flashvars="autoPlay=false" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" bgcolor="#000000"></embed>
