Author: Doug

Founder, editor and host of Secular Left - please be gentle

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December 27, 2005

Reynoldsburg, OH Mayor Ignores Law on Holiday Scenes – Again

In 2005, the mayor didn’t put up the Navtivity scene. He claimed that road work in front of city hall made it too difficult to keep the scene safe from damage. He intends to put it back up in 2006 along with symbols from other religions:

McPherson said he already has approved a symbol celebrating the winter solstice and another for the Hindu religion — a partman, part-eagle deity called Garuda who sometimes represents the sun.

Of course if he plans on including such symbols then he also needs one from Kwanzaa, Jain, Sikh, Witchcraft, magick, the occult, Sumerian, Zoroastrian, Baha’i, Islamic, Wicca, Neopaganism, Druid, Celtic, and on and on. If Mayor McPherson says no to any religious symbol then he is risking the city of Reynoldsburg to a law suit.

Just like in 2004, McPherson is ignoring the law and even the advice of his own City Attorney.

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December 25, 2005

No, Virginia, there is no Santa or anything else mythical

We are told we are “affected” by skepticism that we only believe what we see. Our minds are small, we are told, unable to grasp the whole “truth” of the vast universe. We are told that there would no art or romance and we would live in a dreary world indeed. We are told children need to believe or all light in the world would be extinguished — What the hell!?!

What is interesting about the editorial is if you substitute “Jesus” or “God” for “Santa Claus” you can read some of the very same arguments used to rebut those who don’t believe in any of them.

Here is how I rewrite the editorial had it come to me in 1897:

Virginia, your little friends are right. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their minds. We may not know everything about this great universe of ours, but we know there is the possibility we may learn.

Read more in the latest episode of Secular Left

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December 21, 2005

Judge throws book at Dover Board in ruling

On December 20, 2005, Judge John E. Jones III, In The United States District Court For The Middle District Of Pennsylvania, ruled that the Dover District School Board violated the US Constitution when they changed the 9th grade Biology curriculum to include Intelligent Design (ID).

Some of the members of the Board who voted for the change didn’t even know what ID was all about.

The Judge also took to task some members who lied under oath and tried to cover their tracks when the change caused some issues for the community.

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December 20, 2005

Victory for real science in Dover, PA

Judge in Dover case rules in favor of the parents who wanted to keep ID out of their children’s classroom

“We find that the secular purposes claimed by the Board amount to a pretext for the Board’s real purpose, which was to promote religion in the public school classroom,” he wrote in his 139-page opinion.

Jones wrote that he wasn’t saying the intelligent design concept shouldn’t be studied and discussed, saying its advocates “have bona fide and deeply held beliefs which drive their scholarly endeavors.”

But, he wrote, “our conclusion today is that it is unconstitutional to teach ID as an alternative to evolution in a public school science classroom.”

More later —

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December 15, 2005

More on “war” on Christmas: writer wants special treatment for Christians

Robert Meyer tries to make a case that businesses expressing “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas” are being offensive to and exclusive against Christians.

“Free exercise of religion isn’t realized by an exclusion of all. This is an attempt at negative neutrality that publicly squelches the free exercise of religion, but does nothing constructive to ultimately avoid conflict. It amazes me how the First Amendment, which protected the public’s free religious exercise from intrusions by the government, now is twisted so that the Establishment Clause is used to sanitize the public square from any mention of God.”

Find out why and how he is SO wrong on the next episode of Secular Left…..

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December 15, 2005

Cal Thomas gets it on “war” on Christmas

Cal Thomas, a conservative columnist, has gone against his conservative brethren. Both in a recent column and on the FOX News Channel, Thomas complained about the efforts in support of “Merry Christmas”. In his column titled “Not so silent night”, Thomas writes:

“The effort by some cable TV hosts and ministers to force commercial establishments into wishing everyone a “Merry Christmas” might be more objectionable to the One who is the reason for the season than the “Happy Holidays” mantra required by some store managers.

I have never understood why so many Christians feel the need to see and hear “Merry Christmas” proclaimed to them at stores by people who may not believe its central message. While TV personalities, junk mail letters and some of the ordained bemoan the increasing secularization of culture; perhaps some teaching might be helpful from the One in whose behalf they claim to speak.”

So we may not agree with everything Cal has to say but at least on this issue he gets it.

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