Silly me, I thought that education was learning about all sorts of things besides your own little patch of the word.
The only reason the Virginia one was upheld was because it had more of a justification than “letting students think about their day”; admittedly, it was still bullshit (preventing gang violence? what the fuck?), but it;s at least more substantive.
As other people have observed, moments of silence do precisely jack and shit to promote student prayer; those who were inclined to pray did so outside of that time as well, and those who didn’t pray most of the time didn’t do so then either. The legislatures’ attempts to inject religion into school do nothing other than waste students’ time. I think Dave Barry said it best: “As long as there are tests, there will be prayer in schools.”
Did they rule that broadly? Or did they rule that the particular law in question had a religious motivation, thus violating the famous “Lemon test”. That Alabama law required schools to have a moment of silence for “silent meditation or voluntary prayer.”
It’s a stupid law, and pretty hard to see as anything other than an effort at “organized” prayer time, since the law already allows students to pray individually at school. In fact, here is the text of that law.
I have no problem with this particular paragraph, but the silent prayer/reflection one is way too obvious. It probably doesn’t help their case that it recently was changed to say “shall observe a brief period of silence…” where before it said “may observe a brief period of silence…”
In this case, the law has no clear (or even implied) secular purpose.
Well, yeah. That’s basically what it means to fail the Lemon test. My question was whether the Court ruled as broadly as **appleciders **said they did-- they usually rule pretty narrowly, and I didn’t say any indication that this was otherwise.
If it makes you feel any better, in this very ‘Catholic’* country (Dominican Rep.) you could be a black, Muslim lesbian, who also happens to be a child molester and you would still be more popular than the nicest atheist.
Most of us atheist here are deeply in the closet. 
- People may be outwardly Catholic, but few really follow the church’s teachings. Faith is just a handy amulet against God’s wrath, as a wise friend of mine put it.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit found that Virginia’s similar law did have a valid secular purpose.
I can skip the rest of the arguments. This statement alone makes her an enemy of Human Freedom and thus, I swear eternal emnity upon her deluded soul.
Someone who believes such things has no business in our government.
According to Wikipedia, you don’t even exist!:
Or you’re apparently one of less than one one-hundredth of one percent of the population (0.01% is 976 people). Damn…
I guess I don’t really have a point here. I just found it interesting.
In addition to being less trusted than Muslims I’m guessing there are also a lot more closeted atheists than there are closeted gays.
Are there any atheist bars or nightclubs out there?
Yeah, but half the time they’re taken over by Baptists and Catholics trying to seem cool.
Damn them to He…no, wait.
Shit-I’ve got nothing.
If there are, I hope it’s called The Foxhole, just to mess with people!
Well, we know which little action figure on which shoulder was whispering in her ear at that time – or do we?
Although there are 3 people in my office (of 40) who do not believe in any god or practice any religion, I am the only atheist. I’m the only one anyone knows is atheist.
It took me a long time to be ‘out’ as an atheist, because of the way things were where I grew up. Much of my family still refuses to acknowledge this, and I have been told on numerous occasions at work and at family gatherings that there is something wrong with me that needs to be fixed.
There was only one other atheist in the family, and it was made clear to me early on that this was a Very Bad Thing to be.
Wow! That many?
See my comment about a closet above. If only we had a secret handshake, or a handkerchief code…
I am a teacher, and as far as I can tell, not a single teacher in my school is participating in this nonsense.
Illinois without Chicago would be Nebraska.
I agree with all of your other points, and the sooner we can take Toddler on the one way boat trip, the better off the County of Cook and the City of Chicago will be.
As far as Monique, well, she’s in the same bag of mixed and crooked nuts as Arinda Troutman, Dorothy Tillman, Burt Natarus and Dick Mell. You can top this bag off with hizzoner da mayor. We’re getting closer to housecleaning the police department, but there’s years and miles of patronage and red tape, respectively, to excise and remove from City Hall.