Saturday, March 13, 2010
Friday, March 12, 2010
Stop Texas...!
Stop Texas...!
Whether to allow bias Christian brainwashing of our nation's children is a question that will be on the Texas board of education bargaining table this spring. Of course, the question won't be posed in quite those words, but that's the bottom line.
Text book companies are annually persuaded to write the pages of their school books according to the whims of the Texas school board. Why? Because Texas is the largest book buying state in the nation. It's that simple. The board of education in Texas wields so much power over the schoolbook business that if it should would one day decide that 2+2 does not equal 4 our nations kids might all have to re-learn the answer to this basic addition problem.
A key battle line is drawn in the sand and the sides are currently gathering troops. The question: Will the establishment clause of the first amendment be included as an important subject for study? Texas State Board Rejects Teaching About Establishment Clause Moreover, the agenda written by far-right evangelical fundamentalists goes farhter. It desires nothing less than to carry on with its dishonest program of spreading misinformation at every opportunity. From the Dallas Morning News: Board member Don McLeroy, R-College Station, said he would seek board approval today for several amendments to the U.S. history standards, including one that would highlight Judeo-Christian values in American history. "Highlighting Judeo-Christian values" means, in other words, that Mr McLeroy intends to overly emphasize the remarkably few Christian heritage references which can are found among actual history... and he intends to skew the import of those documents to forward his bis notions.
Omission of teaching the intent and meaning of the establishment clause, the very first item of our human rights as protected under the first amendment, and failing to teach history as history actually was will leave the door wide open for Christian aggressors to continue their agenda of spreading false notions about America's history and its heritage - a heritage they wish to falsely paint as one which is brightly colored in glittery Christian richness.
Reason minded people, we the atheist community and all of our non-religious allies must not overlook the far reaching importance of winning or losing this heavy-hitting controversial fight. Get with it atheists... stand up and demand that our country must be lead by common sense reason and intellectual honesty. Stop Texas. Nothing less will do.
.
Whether to allow bias Christian brainwashing of our nation's children is a question that will be on the Texas board of education bargaining table this spring. Of course, the question won't be posed in quite those words, but that's the bottom line.
A key battle line is drawn in the sand and the sides are currently gathering troops. The question: Will the establishment clause of the first amendment be included as an important subject for study? Texas State Board Rejects Teaching About Establishment Clause Moreover, the agenda written by far-right evangelical fundamentalists goes farhter. It desires nothing less than to carry on with its dishonest program of spreading misinformation at every opportunity. From the Dallas Morning News: Board member Don McLeroy, R-College Station, said he would seek board approval today for several amendments to the U.S. history standards, including one that would highlight Judeo-Christian values in American history. "Highlighting Judeo-Christian values" means, in other words, that Mr McLeroy intends to overly emphasize the remarkably few Christian heritage references which can are found among actual history... and he intends to skew the import of those documents to forward his bis notions.
Omission of teaching the intent and meaning of the establishment clause, the very first item of our human rights as protected under the first amendment, and failing to teach history as history actually was will leave the door wide open for Christian aggressors to continue their agenda of spreading false notions about America's history and its heritage - a heritage they wish to falsely paint as one which is brightly colored in glittery Christian richness.
Reason minded people, we the atheist community and all of our non-religious allies must not overlook the far reaching importance of winning or losing this heavy-hitting controversial fight. Get with it atheists... stand up and demand that our country must be lead by common sense reason and intellectual honesty. Stop Texas. Nothing less will do.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Duck and cover - The Blitz is on.
Duck and cover - The Blitz is on.
I was there as a school kid in the fifties, hiding under my desk just like everyone else for every practice air-raid drill. It was an integrated part of growing up to learn that the US had a nasty enemy - the Soviet Union.
Today, kids ought to be practicing something similar to "duck and cover." They need to learn to shield their eyes and minds from a barrage of misinformation - a real barrage and not just a practice drill. Attacks on the actual events of history are increasing annually and, if evangelical Christianity gets their way, it is about to come from the pages of classroom textbooks. So you see, lessons to "duck and cover" are still needed in the US. We still have a nasty enemy and kids need to learn how to protect themselves from it.
But should kids be on their own to escape the BS that's tossed at them? Look at this Google list of articles found by a simple search: "Rewrite history, Christian nation, textbooks." The Christian propaganda machine is running at full speed ahead. Something has to be done to right the wrong.
Wake up America... Lets get cracking atheists... We've got serious work to do if we want to preserve liberty and justice for all here in our United States. History is history, after all, and it's on us to demand that the whole truth must be told as it actually was and not as it might be pleasing to the agendas of the god-believing crowd. A few cherry-picked "God" statements must not be allowed to become the painted representation of our nation's founding. Kids deserve better than to be brainwashed and we have a responsibility to protect them.
Today, kids ought to be practicing something similar to "duck and cover." They need to learn to shield their eyes and minds from a barrage of misinformation - a real barrage and not just a practice drill. Attacks on the actual events of history are increasing annually and, if evangelical Christianity gets their way, it is about to come from the pages of classroom textbooks. So you see, lessons to "duck and cover" are still needed in the US. We still have a nasty enemy and kids need to learn how to protect themselves from it.
But should kids be on their own to escape the BS that's tossed at them? Look at this Google list of articles found by a simple search: "Rewrite history, Christian nation, textbooks." The Christian propaganda machine is running at full speed ahead. Something has to be done to right the wrong.
Wake up America... Lets get cracking atheists... We've got serious work to do if we want to preserve liberty and justice for all here in our United States. History is history, after all, and it's on us to demand that the whole truth must be told as it actually was and not as it might be pleasing to the agendas of the god-believing crowd. A few cherry-picked "God" statements must not be allowed to become the painted representation of our nation's founding. Kids deserve better than to be brainwashed and we have a responsibility to protect them.
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We've got the right formula.
Unlike church-sponsored misinformation, offering its notions of superior absolutes in top down fashion to mere mortals, atheist communities celebrate the facts of reality, all of the facts - the nice ones and the not so nice ones included. We include everything which is brought to us from all levels of human participation and nature.
We've got the right formula. Knowing and accepting reality as it is is a far, far better way to find happiness than cowering under the ideas and words of false protection. The gods aren't there and we non-believers are able to live with it just as we we're able to let go of our Santa Clause fantasies as children.
Our communities are growing up healthy and strong and I suspect they will continue to do so.