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Evolution is Unconstitutional
MND ^ | Sunday, October 09, 2005 | By Rudy Takala

Posted on 11/24/2005 1:47:03 PM PST by Nasty McPhilthy

On August 19th, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a prison violated an inmate's religion by not allowing him to form a prayer group. According to the court, "Atheism is [the inmate's] religion, and the group that he wanted to start was religious in nature even though it expressly rejects a belief in a supreme being."

It's not the first time a court has ruled in such a way. In 1961, the Supreme Court defined "secular humanism" as a religion in Torcaso v. Watkins. In the 1965 case United States v. Seeger, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a conscientious objector who claimed that his "skepticism or disbelief in the existence of God" did "not necessarily mean lack of faith in anything whatsoever."

Nonetheless, conservatives seem to have fallen in lockstep on the latest case. A senior trial attorney from the American Family Association Center for Law & Policy said, "Up is down, and atheism, the antithesis of religion, is religion." Shortly after, conservative pundits began to rally in decrying the Circuit's ruling.

Such commentators have unfortunately missed the point. This is not, as one article argued, an issue of whether our founders were Christian men. This is an issue of reality — of what atheism really is. It is a matter of faith. It's an unproven hypothesis that its adherents want to propagate and convince others of.

As such, they have no right to talk about it in government schools. Because the thought of teaching creationism in schools usually causes liberals to hyperventilate, the thought of teaching evolution or atheism should now have the same effect. What's the real problem that liberals have with teaching creationism in schools? Do they oppose it because it's a matter of faith, and not of science? Or do they oppose it because it isn't their faith? We should know soon, since the predominantly atheist belief in evolution has now been defined as a religious matter.

Because non-religion is now a religion, the Establishment Clause of the Constitution now requires all court houses in the United States to publicly display a copy of the Ten Commandments. When religion was defined simply as a belief in God, it was unconstitutional to display religious monuments anywhere near court houses. However, the absence of God has also become a religion. At best, the amount of space in court houses filled by religious paraphernalia will have to be equal to the amount of space without any religious things.

Best of all, public schools are now unconstitutional. Vouchers, they told us, were wrong because, even though they worked, the government wasn't allowed to pay Christians for educating anyone. The government could only support liberal atheists. But because liberal atheism is now a religious establishment, their government-enforced monopoly over the nation's children can no longer be defined as Constitutional. (That's the fifth or sixth reason public education is unconstitutional, anyway. Maybe when we get to ten, it'll be enough to do something about it.)

Instead of rejecting atheists from the club of the abused, spat upon and persecuted, we should welcome them with open arms. While this may enable them to form special cliques called "prayer groups" when they're in prison, it will prevent them from receiving special privileges from the government. They will no longer be able to oppress everyone who professes to be religious, simply on account of their faith.

If atheism is a religion, then we truly have attained religious equality in America. The only question left is when we're going to appoint a judge who will enact that equality.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: crevolist
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To: Nasty McPhilthy

Evolution is not a religious belief. It is a scientific theory.

In other words, it is something that some people (I'll note myself) believe in. However, that belief doesn't stem from any sort of religious system. It stems from observation of the world around us, just like the belief that ice is cold and the sun sets in the west. Many christians believe that the sun sets in the west. That must mean that it is a christian belief! If you tell anybody which direction the sun is setting in, then you must be preaching the word! See the problem with this article's logic yet?


22 posted on 11/24/2005 3:45:28 PM PST by durh
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To: Nasty McPhilthy
Sillier and sillier.

Evolution is a religion, so you can't teach it in schools.

ID is not a religion, so you have to teach it in schools.

Sorry, but we are not all as dumb as you might hope.

Does any of this stem from The Wedge Strategy of the Center for the Renewal of Science & Culture?

But I could be wrong; if so, here's a little sample of the real old time religion...

Figure 1.4.4. Fossil hominid skulls. Some of the figures have been modified for ease of comparison (only left-right mirroring or removal of a jawbone). (Images © 2000 Smithsonian Institution.)


23 posted on 11/24/2005 7:53:19 PM PST by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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To: Nasty McPhilthy
"Up is down, and atheism, the antithesis of religion, is religion."

For once I agree with the AFA. This is what you get when you let judges decide real-world factual issues instead of simply what the law is.

24 posted on 11/29/2005 7:20:22 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: marsh_of_mists
First, religious believers would try to say the atheism was a belief system itself and atheists would say, no it's not, it's the ABSENCE of belief.

Getting strange, isn't it? Me agreeing with the AFA, cats and dogs living together...

Atheism doesn't imply belief or a belief system in itself, but it also doesn't preclude the atheist from having a belief system.

Remember, if you define religion as belief in a god, then Buddhists are technically atheist.

25 posted on 11/29/2005 7:24:47 AM PST by antiRepublicrat
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To: Nasty McPhilthy

That is, without a doubt, the most asinine argument I've seen yet.


26 posted on 12/25/2005 12:57:00 AM PST by jess35
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To: AZRepublican

Oh please. I guess you're going to tell all of us we aren't required to pay income taxes as well.


27 posted on 12/25/2005 12:59:40 AM PST by jess35
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To: Nasty McPhilthy

Bump!!


28 posted on 12/25/2005 1:07:56 AM PST by balch3
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