Darren New wrote:
> I think atheists can probably get along 99% even in the worst areas if 
> they just STFU and let the majority have their way, instead of 
> complaining about prayer in school and "In God We Trust" on government 
> buildings and such.
> 
Ah, yes. Jews should do the same, and Pagans, and well.. pretty much any 
and all non-Christians that have been attacked, slandered, defamed, 
driven out of town, or otherwise harassed, for pointing out "exactly" 
the same things. The problem is, its a damn simplistic bit of advice, 
given that none of these things are being posted to show off how 
Christian the locals are, its being done to promote revisionist history, 
distort the playing field, so people are more likely to allow more 
extreme things, and, when successful, is pointed to as an example of our 
"Christian nation, which therefor means that gay marriage, real sex 
education, evolution, fact based medicines, secular programs, secular 
education, which doesn't have a specific religious agenda, and just 
about everything else, is the 'true way things should work'". Its real 
simple, if you can't conquer some place, then rewrite the history, just 
rewrite the history, and be as loud as possible, in hopes that you can 
win, before the ones that are not falling for it react to the problem.

You do know, BTW, that, "In God We Trust", was invented by "precisely" 
the sort of ignorant twit that we currently have trying to claim that 
the public education system, which is mandated in the constitution under 
the rights and requirements of a state, to enter the union, i.e., not 
even an amendment, but the original document, is unconstitutional? 
Seems, some overly pious guy working for the mint was unaware that "E 
Pluribus Unum" was **already** the national motto, so opted to make up 
his own, and some other equally clueless fool went, "Ah, OK, sounds 
good, lets start putting it on all the money!" Joked a while back on a 
blog, "So, when is it they are going to finally replace the original EPU 
motto, and replace it with, 'Yo Football!', again?", in response to some 
of this wonderful revisionism they love to do. They claim to be 
protecting the nation. Their real goal is to do everything possible to 
reinvent it, and its history, to create a defacto state religion, 
legally, without having to break the law, by declaring it directly.

If this wasn't their goal, and some of them where not stupid enough to 
actually admit it to their followers, because they know those followers 
want such a thing, no one would have a single problem with this sort of 
things. But.. its telling that they back down 90% of the time, when its 
suggested that "other" documents should stand beside the ten 
commandments, or someone suggests that a comparative religion course in 
a school would be OK, but not one slanted in favor of Christianity, or, 
anything else that would let them do these things, without implying, 
suggesting, or demanding acceptance, of the idea that Christianity *is* 
the national religion for some reason other than its unfortunate popularity.

And, your right, we spent 200 years "not" challenging such things. In 
that time we went from a nation with where 90% of the population 
couldn't read, but the ones that did *knew* their Bibles, and most of 
them where heavily invested in religion (accept for some of the ones 
that read it), to one where everyone can read, but 90% of the country 
doesn't bother to understand anything past what the preacher tells them, 
most don't read anything challenging, even the well educated people are 
dumb as bricks, too often, outside their own narrow expertise, and 
people are **actually** claiming that the facts taught in Civics classes 
for the last 200 years, about the founders, their ideals, the meaning of 
the constitution, and its intent, and even, sometimes, like the case of 
the moron in Texas claiming that public education isn't constitutional, 
confusing documents, or insisting that the ones they obviously 
***haven't even read***, say the complete opposite of what they do say.

We kept quiet, watched the march of progress, oohed and awed over all 
the discoveries and advances made in our technology and skill at making 
things, and spent a lot of time telling the few of our number that spoke 
up and said, "But... look at how stupid some of these people are!", to 
shut the hell up, because it would upset the magic Utopia that was just 
around the corner, where everyone had equal access to all information, 
and the time and means to get at it. Its not *almost* that universal. 
And the result... Instead of unlimited access to things that can tell 
people how the real world works, you get pure idiocy like timecube.com, 
conservapedia.com, and an **endless** collecting of religious sites, all 
babbling stuff that neither the founders, nor a half dead goat herder, 
sitting 5 miles away, during one of their Jesus' supposed speeches, 
would have believed.

We tried being nice. We are not the **worst education** people on the 
planet, outside of the Middle East, and even then, some of the places 
over there may be better off, our colleges can't admit 90% of the high 
school graduates without remedial courses, and even the ones that pass 
those, can't afford the rest, in most cases, or graduate *still* 
believing things that are completely *wrong* based on the courses they 
just took. You don't need to rent the movie Idiocracy, all you have to 
do is go to the nearest Bible thumper neighborhood, and listen to the 
gibberish they say about how everything around them works, including, in 
some cases, the nearly paranormal, and insane theories about how stuff 
they *buy* in stores work, or get made.

And, there are people, who have used the, "be nice, play friendly, and 
kiss ass at every opportunity, even if you have to lie 90% of the time 
to do it", crowd, who have gotten elected to 80% of the positions in one 
political party, and too many in the other as well, especially in 
*local* areas, who actually believe that the solution to every problem 
in the US is to get rid of more of the fact based 'atheist' education, 
programs and laws (everything that isn't theologically driven is atheist 
to them), and replace them with stuff that even liberal Christians know 
is total bullshit (but, of course, according to these same people, such 
Christians are not *real* Christians, so their opinion doesn't count, 
except when they need to kiss ass, to get reelected).

-- 
void main () {
   If Schrödingers_cat is alive or version > 98 {
     if version = "Vista" {
       call slow_by_half();
       call DRM_everything();
     }
     call functional_code();
   }
   else
     call crash_windows();
}

<A HREF='http://www.daz3d.com/index.php?refid=16130551'>Get 3D Models, 
3D Content, and 3D Software at DAZ3D!</A>

Post a reply to this message