I smite thee! ...The Diary of Nod

I should have kept flipping channels.

I fucking hate "Christian" television. Liars and hypocrites.

So I was flipping stations last night, before the final Presidential debate of the season, and I stop on one of the "Christian" stations. Not sure why, but something he said caught my attention. It had the feel of a 60 Minutes news show, but it was obviously light on facts and overflowing with blatant hypocrisy.

The "anchor" was lamenting the "secular humanism" in U.S. culture. He stated that religion had been expelled from public schools; lie number one. To support this, he stated how evolutionary theory was taught in science class while the equally (or moreso) valid creationism was not; lie two. Further, kids were prohibited from praying in schools; lie three.

Religion is in public schools because religion is everywhere, even if it is not overt. However, religious beliefs are not taught in public school except from an objective analytical perspective with regard to science, history or any other school subject. Faith is not a school subject. But to say that religion has been banned from public schools is such an overt lie that it begs the question:

What fucktards actually believed this guy?

Evolution is a scientific theory supported by significant evidence; creationism is a religious belief supported by very little evidence. A scientific theory is not fact, but it is based upon such strong evidence that it is accepted as the best current explanation. That it is not complete is not a fault of the theory; that's why it's a theory. To compare a scientific theory to a religious belief is like comparing apples to squirrels--they're so far apart they're not even in the same kingdom. Though this is a common error, that does not make it less egregious.

Prayer is not prohibited in public school; it never was and it never will be, because such runs completely contrary to the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. But because individual students, or even groups of students, are free to pray as they wish, that does not make it permissible for a representative of the school, such as a teacher, coach or administrator, to lead students in prayer as part of their role as a representative of the school, e.g. a teacher asking children to pray during class or a coach asking students to pray before a game. The students are not prohibited from praying, the school is prohibited from any form of coercion to that end. To portray this as prohibition of prayer in school implies that prayer can only exist when led by an authority figure, that individual children cannot pray on their own. This is hypocrisy when one considers these same people claim children have such an ability to decline group prayer when led by an authority figure.

My four year old child should not be forced into a situation to stay silent while her class says "one nation under God"; my child is not in school to make a point, she is there to learn. One cannot expect a child to buck the crowd; one cannot expect a child who is told to obey the teacher at every instance to then disobey the teacher when that authority figure tells them to recite "under God", or to pray, or that creationism--a belief based completely upon some almighty being--is on the same scientific basis on evolution...

I hate people like this. I believe in God, I believe God created me and this world and I pray with my daughter every night. But I will teach my daughter about religion; I want her school to stay as far away from it as possible. They should focus on facts--there's plenty of those for them to cover.

posted by Lachlan @ 6:27 PM