Oh, look. Yet another thread in which clever little sanctimonious prigs of goddamn atheists belittling religious morons. (Resolved: 90% of religious people No, I don’t know how to link that. This is my first thread.) The best part is the statement that placing a statue of The Prophet at a court house would show dem damn Christians to respect how stupidly sanctimonious they are. Jesus Christ, how could anyone be so stupid? Don’t they * know* Muslims refer to “people of the Book” for a reason?! The ideals of the Ten Commandments can be found in all cultures, even if the name of god changes, for Chrissakes!
There I convinced you all it was stupid, didn’t I? I thought the Straight Dope was about fighting ignorance. I don’t see where belittling achieves that end. I don’t see where removing public displays, even if they are of a religious nature, achieves that end. Ironically I am sitting in a hotel room in San Antonio – maybe three blocks from that secular shrine to a bloody southern land grab spreading their ideals of white supremacy and slavery over peaceful indigenous populations and the legitimate political power of Mexico – The Alamo.
Of course, the Alamo is more than that. The Alamo is a few hundred brave people risking their lives defending the ideals on which this country was founded – justice for all, the rule of law, republican government – against a tyrannical government. A government whose original invitation used the settlers as pawns in its defense against European claims.
Let’s face it. Americans are an ignorant lot. Among other things, we are ignorant about our historical and cultural legacies. Public edifices help transmit that legacy. And Dopers should be pushing for more public shrines, not fewer. Yeah, the Ten Commandments represent a religion. A religion so enmeshed with our culture that you can’t even swear without paying homage to it.
Instead of tearing down one set of the Ten Commandments - throwing out ideals over three thousand years old for a social ideals at best 100 years old – let’s put up new edifices at every courthouse. The Constitution written out in plain typeface. [Texan]”Well Bob, I don’t see nothin’ there about separation of church and state.”[/Texan] [Joisey]”Yeah, well here’s something about not establishing a religion. Think that’s the same thing?”[/Joisey] [Texan]”Well, I dunno. It seems kind of confusing. That’s our dollars at work there, but this here isn’t really establishing nothin’ ”[/Texan] [/Joisey]And who says that stuffs right anyway? That was just written by some dead white guys long ago. [/Joisey]…. That is fighting ignorance.
We could put up edifices to our pagan heritage. Except that their influence on America is mostly through their influence on the general culture and religion of the English, German and French speaking settlers. And the Indians Instead, let’s put up statues of Plato and Aristotle. Ones that demonstrate Platonic influences on Christianity (e.g., the trinity), and reviled Platonic influences (e.g., eugenics). How about some homages to Locke? Brilliant treatise on the limitations of government and the rights of people to overthrow tyrannical governments? Rich, dead, white guy rationalizing a desired set of ideals based on the false premise that people agree to be governed? Yep.
This isn’t some stupid waste of taxpayer’s money. Every culture in the history of man has “wasted” valuable resources enshrining their ideals. The Mesopotamians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Islamic Arabia, Thailand, India, Mesoamerica. What makes us think we don’t need to do the same. I say let’s put the Ten Commandments on display. Let’s have shrines to the Puritans, the Leni-Lenape, George Washington, Daniel Boone, The Alamo, Lincoln, the Mormons, Geronimo, Vanderbilt, Ford, and Martin Luther. Let’s build lanterns, not hide in the dark.
