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The lesson that really needs to be taken from this incident is not that this man is a complete blithering idiot. That's a given. The lesson that needs to be taken from this is that for so long as science is treated as opinion and not fact, for so long will people like Mr. Akin feel free to believe whichever Dr. Doofus comes along and makes some totally ignorant statement, no matter how egregious it may be.
Every religion in history has its own creationist theory. And every religion is entitled to teach and believe that theory in its own setting. But they are not entitled to have it taught in public schools. They are not entitled to "agree to disagree" when the issue at hand is fact versus articles of religious faith. That just confuses kids about whether or not there are actual facts in life. It also means that we are becoming the laughing stock of the world for turning out students for whom science is a smorgasbord of alternative theories derived from ancient texts written at a time when people thought the sun revolved around the earth.
Facts describe what are in this universe. Science is a method of determining facts from wishful thinking. Ignorance of some facts can get you killed. Faith in a deity is in your mind and can be as real as facts but, like all delusions, does not have to be bound or connected with reality. Sometimes excess faith can get you killed.
Organized religions are mostly highly organized protection rackets guaranteeing salvation in exchange for doing what you are told, not thinking hard enough to figure out the absurdities and paying cold hard cash. Please note the salvation is only offered after you have died. There are very few testimonials that anyone has actually wound up sitting at the foot of God's throne, boffing the 47 virgins or any of the things promised after death. Or, for that matter of anyone being fried or frozen in Hell.
religous myth...dont kill..................................science fact ...killing happens
religous myth...dont steal...............................science fact ...people steal things
religous myth...care about your parents............science fact ...todays liberals care about nobody
religous myth...pay taxes of about 10%............liberal science fact ...pay , then pay more..we want it all
There are religious truths but these truths do not have to be proven scientific facts. Most religions postulate the existence of a Heaven and a Hell. Neither of these has been proven to exist.
Religions say "thall shalt not Murder" and then go on to exempt millions of nonbelievers from the protction.
I simply separate individual Faith from the group coercion called religion.
Which one of the 20,000 plus on this site posted by athiest liberals would you like us to quote?
If religious people were content to keep their lifestyle choice to themselves, rather than making it the basis for every policy decision ever, or using it as a justification for oppressing others, they WOULDN'T be attacked.
When was the last time people "lashed out against" the Amish? Or the Quakers?
No, the specialness that is the American conservative Christian (or really, any other religion) is a brand of ignorance that wants to spread its tentacles across all fields of academia and personal life in this country. It NEEDS to be confronted before it continues to drive this country into a hole of intellectual backwater that resembles the middle east. Just can't seem to figure out "live and let live."
In other words: Don't want to be attacked, don't start the war. American religious folks, however, are quite adept at tossing molotav cocktails, and then run around screaming that THEY'RE being oppressed and attacked when people try to protect their freedoms from religion's control creep.
Every religion in history has its own creationist theory. And every religion is entitled to teach and believe that theory in its own setting. But they are not entitled to have it taught in public schools. They are not entitled to "agree to disagree" when the issue at hand is fact versus articles of religious faith. That just confuses kids about whether or not there are actual facts in life.
Actually, I think it would behoove us to teach ALL of our religious beliefs in school, and allow each student participating in that belief to have a project illustrating their faith. Our tolerance of diversity certainly needs to be strengthened, and just because our religious myths are not based in scientific facts doesn't mean we cannot benefit from examining them.
I love the scientific method and believe it is stronger than any other simply because it opens all theories to peer examination. Perhaps if we opened our religious beliefs to the same examination, we would not have the turmoil we have, now.
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