… As I’ve said in different ways in different settings, we teach our children they are nothing more than glorified apes, yet we don’t expect them to act like monkeys. We place our value in things, yet expect our children to value people. We disrespect one another, but expect our children to respect others. We terminate children in the womb, but are surprised when children outside the womb terminate other children. We push God to the side, but expect our children to be godly. We’ve abandoned moral absolutes, yet expect our children to obey the universal commandment, “Thou shall not murder.”
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Do we now believe we can consider morality and religion optional, without suffering civil and societal repercussions, despite the warning of our Founding Fathers like John Adams, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other”?
So according to Norris:
Evolution caused the shooting.
Abortion caused the shooting.
Atheists caused the shooting.
And I’m guessing Mike Huckabee (whom Norris supports) could prevent such things?
Unbeknown to many, GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has written several books while during his tenure as governor of Arkansas. A decade ago he wrote “Kids Who Kill,” which examines and seeks remedies for school shootings. In it, he points to many modern day factors that contribute to a culture of killing. Among them are a devaluing and disregard for human life… an abandonment of a fellowship and moral center of community like a church; and a complete disregard for moral absolutes.
Or maybe the shooter just needed to take his medications.
It sounds nice — Religious Freedom — but in this case, it could cause a lot of problems.
The Workplace Religious Freedom Act (HR 1431) would actually allow for religious persecution and harassment the way it is currently written.
The Secular Coalition for America sent a letter to members of the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, Pensions, which will soon be considering this bill. Excerpts from the letter are below (emphasis mine):
The Secular Coalition for America, dedicated to protecting the rights of nontheists, is very concerned about HR 1431. The Workplace Religious Freedom Act will empower individuals to use its religious freedom protections as a weapon against co-workers and clients who do not hold or share their religious beliefs.
The purpose of this legislation is to strengthen current protections to require employers to accommodate the religious needs of their employees in such areas as observing religious holidays, wearing religious apparel, and religious requirements for beards and hairstyles; however, the language of this legislation goes much further.
As written the legislation would encourage employees to ignore employer policies prohibiting religious proselytizing in the workplace, religious condemnation of co-workers, and inserting religion into secular workplace practices and activities. The courts have already seen these types of cases and ruled against them, but HR 1431 puts these precedents into question.
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Employees and clients have a right to a workplace free from religious harassment and coercion. This bill must be changed to protect these rights.
Religious tolerance as far as personal freedoms go is commendable and should be protected.
But we have to make sure religious freedom doesn’t trump personal rights to live and work in safe environments.
i’m giving up the shift key. among other things, this means no money, no email, no quotes, no questions, and no excitement. i’ll probably miss the snide parenthetical remarks most.
Congratulations to the winners! The top three will be receiving specially-made Friendly Atheist wristbands (in the color of their choice), sent to me by blog reader Shauna and her sister Danni!
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If you’d like to win your own wristband, here is the new contest:
According to The New York Observer, Richard Dawkins‘ next book will be (surprise!) a defense of evolution titled Only a Theory?.
I liked The God Delusion and all, but I’m glad he’s back to writing about science.
How much is publisher Free Press paying for the right to publish the new book?
$3,500,000.
And I’m sure Dawkins will be seeing a good chunk of that…
According to this source, the book—to be called Only a Theory?—will offer empirical evidence for evolution, and will be published next year, on the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species.
The God Delusion, which has sold over a million copies and inspired several book-length counterarguments, was published by Houghton Mifflin.
Free Press publisher Martha Levin said she and her staff were “thrilled” about the acquisition.
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.)
