Agree with a representative of the Thomas More Law Center (a Christian advocacy group).
I will do both, though.
The USA Today article talks about schools giving Muslim students preferential treatment:
The University of Michigan at Dearborn is planning to build foot baths for Muslim students who wash their feet before prayer. An elementary school in San Diego created an extra recess period for Muslim pupils to pray.
At George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., Muslim students using a “meditation space” laid out Muslim prayer rugs and separated men and women in accordance with their Islamic beliefs.
Here’s Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel at the Thomas More Law Center:
“What (school officials) are doing … is to give Muslim students religious benefits that they do not give any other religion right now.”
He’s right. But only in the sense that taxpayer money is being used to fund, for example, the foot baths at the University of Michigan.
The Los Angeles Times quotes Barry Lynn in response to the foot baths story:
Critics insist that such efforts are giving Islamic followers preferential treatment over other faiths.
“Plumbing? You must be kidding. That’s an after-the-fact justification for something that is being done for the purpose of meeting a religious demand,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a religious liberty watchdog group based in Washington.
“You start permanently changing your architecture for one religious group, you have to do it for all. After all, what’s the difference between a foot bath used as part of a ritual and a fountain that can be used for a baptism?” asked Lynn.
“Considering there are 2,000 different religious groups in America, that’s a very slippery slope.”
What’s to stop Catholics from demanding the installation of holy water fonts by every classroom door? If I was a member of the Church of Cognizance, which advocates the use of marijuana as a sacrament, would the school pay to build a special smoking room for my religious ritual?
Surprisingly, the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan is on the side of the school on this one. They say that the foot baths are being installed, not to kowtow to Muslim beliefs, but because of safety issues:
Some of the sinks have started to pull away from the wall, in part from years of use by others like him — who, according to their faith, must clean their feet before praying five times a day.
So when the school recently approved installing two foot baths in a pair of new unisex bathrooms to accommodate the needs of male and female Muslim students, the local Islamic community started planning ways to raise the estimated $25,000 cost.
…
“We have never encountered a situation where the motivation seems to be a response to a practical cleanliness and safety issue,” the ACLU of Michigan said in a statement. “Indeed, if the university refused to allow Muslim students to wash their feet in the sink without there being a viable alternative, we would have concerns about whether the university was unconstitutionally interfering with students’ right to practice their religion.”
With that rationale, though, I suspect it wouldn’t be long before other religious groups use “safety” as a reason to get taxpayer money to fund their own religious needs. If you can’t pray properly, Satan will win. It’s the ultimate safety issue, right?
I’ll admit I found some of the Motivational posters funny. Because we all know Christians who seem to embody those traits.
If you want to see a more accurate description of what the Emerging Church is, as told by someone who is part of the church, check out the rest of the response posters.
Atheist and agnostic doctors are as likely to provide care for the poor as religious physicians, according to a new study by researchers at the University of Chicago and Yale New Haven Hospital.
…
The study is based on a survey of 2,000 doctors with a 63 percent response rate. Thirty-five percent of non-religious doctors, compared with 31 percent of religious doctors, said they were likely to care for people with little or no health insurance.
Usually, studies show that religious people (in general) are more likely to care for the poor, but this is the first time the question was asked specifically to doctors.
I hope the intended meaning comes across in the brief quotation, but I was referring to Humanist principles of doing good because there’s no reincarnation or Heaven to look forward to. We have to help each other live the best life possible here and now.
One of the study’s authors seemed disappointed in his own results:
“We can say a lot of doctors are doing a lot of good, whether religious or not,” said Dr. Farr Curlin, one of the authors of the study, published in the Annals of Family Medicine.
…
Curlin, who attends a nondenominational church, said the findings disappointed him.
“Caring for the poor is an expression of faithfulness and commitment,” he said. “But many religious physicians don’t make the connection.”
“We have control over things we didn’t have control over before. That’s the progress of science,” [John] Hagelin said.
The progress of science! Yes! Good, right?
What’s he talking about?
Meditation.
More specifically, meditating for a rise in the Dow Jones, fewer hurricanes, and better relations with North Korea.
I should also mention that there’s no explanation as to how any of this is scientific. Hagelin just says it is.
I’m not sure whether I should be upset with the morons who do the meditating or Reuters for considering this a worthy news story.
Through group transcendental meditation the [Invincible America Assembly]– which has 1,800 people meditating daily in Iowa since it was formed in July 2006 — releases harmonious waves which benefit all aspects of U.S. life, spokesman Bob Roth told Reuters.
Here are some more wonderfully idiotic in-context excerpts from the article:
Asked what it would take to achieve world peace, Hagelin said such a utopia would need 8,000 meditators.
The group takes credit for, among other things: the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaching a record high of 14,022 last week, unemployment rates falling to a six-year low at 4.5 percent, and North Korea shutting down its nuclear reactor.
Oh, and if you read on, there’s also a comparison between “transcendental meditation” and the invention of electricity.
At least we’ll now have something to look forward to– the group’s backtracking– when North Korea does develop nukes.
Ok. I said there’s no science in the Reuters article. But if you look at Invincible America’s press releases, they do mention some unnamed peer-reviewed research publications without citations. That’s a step up, yes? Look at this quotation, for example:
“Extensive research published in leading, peer-reviewed scientific journals documents reduced negative trends, including reduced crime and violence, and improved economic and social trends—when as few as the square root of one percent of a population practice Yogic Flying together in a group,” Dr. Hagelin said.
“This is not wishful thinking,” Dr. Hagelin said. “This is hard science that has been field tested for over 50 years and documented through more than 600 studies conducted at over 250 independent universities and research institutes throughout the world.”
But there’s no link to the studies or a list of the universities.
By the way, the Invincible America Assembly exists because of a $12,000,000 grant from the Howard and Alice Settle Foundation for Invincible America.
(That day, by the way, is a Thursday, not a Sunday. No need to fear God’s wrath on a Thursday!)
So how does it work?
… just for a day–people will [act] as if there is no god; people will live as if there only exists the goodness of self and others to sustain healthy living!
…
Join individuals across the nation (and across the world!) who will celebrate a day marked by peace, love, kindness, strength and appreciation for all the beauties of the natural world.
It’s a lofty goal to get religious people to take her up on this challenge, but even the thought questions are at least worth asking:
1. Say there is no god, would you no longer love your family, friends, children, pets or significant others? Why or why not?
2. Say there is no god, would you stop hoping for a cure for cancer? Why or why not?
3. Say there is no god, would you stop caring about the health of the environment? Why or why not?
4. Say there is no god, would you want orphaned children to find loving homes? Why or why not?
5. Say there is no god, would you want auto-engineers to design a safe car that gets great gas mileage? Why or why not?
6. Say there is no god, would you want Osama Bin Laden to be captured? Why or why not?
7. Say there is no god, would you want child-abusers to be punished by law? Why or why not?
8. Say there is no god, would you teach children to be selfish? Why or why not?
9. Say there is no god, would you steal money from an unattended purse? Why or why not?
10. Say there is no god, would you steal an item from a large department store? Why or why not?
FINALLY: Say there is no god, identify at least one reason you would still have to keep on living, be happy and that would bring meaning to your life. (Think hard–you can do this!)
The point is that your answers would not change whether you believe in God or not.
There is also an ongoing list of ideas/events you can engage in that day.
You’ll be hearing about this more in the future, but consider this a heads-up for everyone interested!
He reviews it alongside Christopher Hitchens’ God is Not Great and says some very nice things:
… Hemant’s name is going up on my list of the top influential Atheist authors in all history. In being respectful and honest as he discusses his religious upbringing, his Atheistic views, and his journey that took him to churches of all shapes and sizes, he did what no other Atheist author I know of has been able to do: he got Christians to read his book all the way through!
…
This is finally a book that can appeal to Christians and Atheists alike. It is one of the few Atheist books I have read that didn’t make me feel scared or doomed, but rather gave me a sense of hope. Hemant doesn’t condemn Christians and scream at them for being wrong on certain issues. He talks to them in reasonable manner, throwing for a loop anyone with the preconception that Atheists are Stalinist fire-brands who want the utter banishment of religion.
I am going to loan this book to my former pastor to read. Not as an Atheist trying to topple the preacher, but as a friend looking to help a church I still feel somewhat fondly about and strike up a friendly dialogue.
Reed also has the book nicely placed in a video entry he made. Watch for the promise he makes at the end of it. Very classy.
A couple weeks ago, I asked for short and sweet responses to various questions that atheists get asked. You responded in droves (thank you!) and I finally sorted through the answers.
Here is a PDF that combines some of the best responses.
Please donate any amount you'd like to the Secular Student Alliance by using the PayPal link below. The SSA appreciates your thoughts. (But not your prayers.)
