Quote of the Day

SheikBen wrote:"Teach your son evolutionary theory, even if you don't believe it. Nothing, not one thing, in biology makes any sense without it."--TerryRC

I am very curious about the need for that biology "make sense." What do you mean by this? Why do you feel the need for the living world to "make sense?"

Wouldn't such a concern be in the realm of, say, phrenology, astrology, magic, or alchemy?

TerryRC wrote:So US Senators should only be US Senators if they believe exactly as you do.

Now who's the one pushing beliefs?

You just don't get it.

They can believe what they want. It is when they try and legislate for it that it became a problem.

Get it now?

big·ot

big·ot [bíggət]
(plural big·ots)
n
intolerant person: somebody who has very strong opinions, especially on matters of politics, religion, or ethnicity, and refuses to accept different views


[Late 16th century. From French , of unknown origin.]
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

SheikBen wrote: The ID'er looks at the challenge of abiogenesis and infers that at one time a supernatural force was necessary for the beginning of life.

Through Miller-Urey's INTELLIGENCE, some amino acids were created by artificially imposing conditions in a lab.

TerryRC wrote:
What I "get" is that you believe everyone that does not think the same way you do is wrong, you have no use for them or their opinion, you find them 'boring' and you refuse to accept their views.

Whatever. You are free to be as ignorant or as religious as you please. When try and make me the same way, I will push back.

You avoided the questions I asked:

Speaking of bigoted, tho'. How about the number of people that think atheists shouldn't even be citizens, much less in politics?

This has obviously been the case. Many of those laws are still on the books, even if they were finally found unconstitutional.

Ignoring the obvious will not make it go away.

Is it still your contention that christians haven't and don't try to legislate their beliefs?

If so, you are clearly lying to yourself.

Calling me a bigot won't change that.

Are you insinuating that atheists and secular humanists don't attempt to legislate their beliefs? How about their use of the courts to further their agenda?

Stephanie wrote:Are you insinuating that atheists and secular humanists don't attempt to legislate their beliefs? How about their use of the courts to further their agenda?

How many secular humanists and atheists believe members of certain religious groups shouldn't enjoy the same rights and freedoms as they do?

Pharmacists fired for denying 'morning after' pill
Thursday, February 12, 2004 Posted: 9:18 AM EST (1418 GMT)

DENTON, Texas (AP) -- Eckerd Corp. has fired three pharmacists who declined to fill an emergency contraception prescription for a woman who had been raped, one of the pharmacists said.

Gene Herr said Wednesday he and two co-workers were fired January 29, six days after refusing to fill the prescription. He said his own refusal was based on religious grounds.

Eckerd has declined to comment on their employment status. Joan Gallagher, the vice president of communications for Largo, Florida-based Eckerd would say only that the company has taken appropriate disciplinary action.

Herr, 33, of Denton, said he declined to fill the prescription for the so-called "morning-after pill" because he believes it could have killed the embryo if the woman already had conceived. Though he had declined five or six times in the past to fill such prescriptions, it was the first time he had been handed one for a rape victim, he said.

"I went in the back room and briefly prayed about it," said Herr, who had worked for Eckerd for five years. "I actually called my pastor ... and asked him what he thought about it."

The two other pharmacists who were present also declined to fill the prescription. Herr would not name them.

The rape victim had the prescription filled at a nearby pharmacy.

Gallagher said Eckerd's employment manual says pharmacists are not allowed to opt out of filling a prescription for religious, moral or ethical reasons.

Herr said he did not know about that policy until his supervisors questioned him about it shortly before he was fired.

"In my mind if I agree to work for someone knowing that that's their policy, then I should submit to that policy. But I didn't even know about it," he said.

Morning-after pills are higher doses of the hormones in regular birth control pills and have been sold under the brand names Plan B and Preven since 1998. Taken within 72 hours of sexual intercourse, the pills are at least 75 percent effective at preventing pregnancy.

Coach Banned From Joining Student Prayers
Federal Court Rules Kneeling And Head-Bowing Is Endorsement Of Religion, Not Free Speech
PHILADELPHIA, April 16, 2008

AP) A New Jersey school board was within its rights to tell a football coach he cannot kneel and bow his head as members of his team have a student-led pre-game prayer, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

The ruling from the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia reversed a lower-court ruling made almost two years ago.

All members of the three-judge panel wrote their own opinion on the issue, which pits the right to free speech against the freedom from official establishment of a religion.

The judges agreed that the East Brunswick Board of Education's policy barring school staff from joining in student-led prayer was constitutional.

But the judges differed on what exactly a coach should do when his team prays.

From the time Marcus Borden became the Bears' coach in 1983, he was deeply involved in team prayers; for a time, he even led them.

In 2005, school officials received complaints that he was leading prayers and asked him to stop participating.

He sued the school board seeking to be allowed to bow his head and kneel when students led their own prayers. A lower-court judge found that should be allowed.

But Judge D. Michael Fisher wrote in the lead opinion Tuesday that Borden's past action of leading the prayers made his head-bowing seem inappropriate: "A reasonable observer would conclude that he is continuing to endorse religion when he bows his head during the pre-meal grace and takes a knee with his team in the locker room while they pray."

Meanwhile, Judge Theodore McKee wrote that kneeling or head-bowing would look like an endorsement of religion even to someone who did not know the coach had led prayers in the past.

And the third judge, Maryann Trump Barry, wondered what a coach should do in Borden's position. "Surely he would not be required to keep his head erect or turn his back or stand and walk away," she wrote. "Any such requirement would evidence a hostility to religion that no one would intend."

Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, which represented the East Brunswick Board of Education in the case, said the Borden case shows that school employees should avoid looking like they're endorsing religion in any way.

"Extreme care needs to be given to any involvement by school personnel even with student-led religious activities because it's very easy to cross the line and find yourself over the constitutional cliff," Lynn said.

Borden's lawyer, Ronald Riccio, said he would ask the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the case to clarify what he says is murky law - especially given Tuesday's decision - about student-led prayer.

"As the matter now stands, some coaches can bow their head and take a knee," Riccio said.