WTF Moments in Local Editorials!
While I would never single someone out simply because of their religion (or the religion of their grandparents, as it were) nor would I ever find pleasure in pointing out inaccuracies to old people, I'm afraid I'm gonna have call out Mr. Manning here. Dude. It's called "separation of church and state." I believe it's in our Constitution; you know, one of those founding principles of the good ole U.S. of A. There's a trend here in the South (and elsewhere, I'm sure) of talking about "back when we had prayer in schools." Let's think about this: when was there ever prayer in schools (see "separation of church and state" argument above)?By the way, the courts of this country can be called many, many, many things, but I'm fairly certain "atheistic" isn't one of them. In fact, I found it interesting that this editorial (from today's Commercial Appeal) was located in the same section of the paper as this little tidbit:
Clearly, Americans feel more comfortable with people who have some sort of religion, regardless of what it is, than with people who have none. And that's totally why we filled our court system with atheists. Also, great to see that we've made such huge strides in race relations. Go, America!
posted by Becky Heineke at 7/30/2006 06:13:00 PM
Comments on "WTF Moments in Local Editorials!"
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Weirdland said ... (9:31 PM, July 30, 2006) :
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Becky Heineke said ... (8:02 AM, July 31, 2006) :
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britpopbaby said ... (10:30 AM, July 31, 2006) :
post a commentI think it's a very interesting subject you've brought out here. Unlike European countries as Germany or France (rates of atheist people above 40%) or Sweden, Denmark (above 45%), the atheist US rate is very tiny: only 3% to 9%, according to some statistics articles I've read. Another book about this matter Samuel Huntington's "Who Are We?: The Challenges to America's National Identity", where it's reported USA next to Ireland as one of the most religious countries in the world.
"The Journal of Religion and Society", an US academic journal, reports:
“The United States is almost always the most dysfunctional of the developing democracies, sometimes spectacularly so.”
Gregory Paul, the author of the study and a social scientist, used data from the International Social Survey Programme, Gallup and other research bodies to reach his conclusions, comparing US with France, Japan and the Scandinavian countries.
The study concluded that the US was the world’s only prosperous democracy where murder rates were still high, and that the least devout nations were the least dysfunctional.
^^^ Wow, Kendra. You've done your research. And you're absolutely right. We're also one of the very few developed nations who still execute people on a regular basis as part of our justice system. Talk about behind the times.
America is an EXTREMELY religious nation, and it's difficult to reconcile that with a government that was created out a need to end religious persecution. There is no national religion, although you'd most certainly think there was, with all the debates about prayer in schools, putting the 10 Commandments on judicial buildings, and the blatantly Christian rhetoric our President spouts on a daily basis.
We're also, like you said, an EXTREMELY violent culture. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but these inconsistencies are more apparent now than they ever were because the executive branch of the government is more outwardly religious than any time in recent memory. I'm just confused as to why that's OK when everything I know about the Constitution says we shouldn't mix the two.
Aah, PG this is a fascinating point. Coming from the UK where I reckon about 70% of people would place themselves under the title, 'I couldn't give a shit about religion' it puts great fear in me when Tony Blair says things like, 'God will judge me'. I'm convinced he has picked this kind of rhetoric up off The Bush. Unfortunately last time I checked, 'God' isn't registered to vote in UK elections so it looks like the mere mortals of your country will get to judge you, TB. Idiot.