I found out just a little while ago that the Ohio Board of Education did vote on the question of removing the controversial lesson plan that would allow Intelligent Design into Ohio 10th grade classrooms.
A vote was taken and my information has the effort to remove the lesson plan losing by one vote at the meeting held today in Columbus.
More Later….
In the next post of Secular Left: On Thursday January 5th, the news was filled with the comments made by evangelist Pat Robertson on his TV show the 700 Club. On the program Pat says that the stroke suffered by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was “divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.” The ironic thing is that while many would indeed say and have said Robertson is crazy, yet no one seems to question the God talk when it is done at times of trouble even though it is not rational either.
With the next Ohio State Board of Education (OBE) meeting just days away, opposition to a lesson plan adopted in 2004 , that gave the green light for teaching Intelligent Design, heats up.
Some on the Board don’t see the big deal. Americans United for the Separation of Chruch and State want to give them a reason to be concerned.
In the next post of….. Secular Left
On the January 3rd “Late Show with David Letterman”, host David Letterman called Bill O’Reilly out on his Christmas sham. I missed it.
I am a regular viewer of the show but I refuse to watch any show that people like Bill O’Reilly host or appear on. I do that for my sanity and blood pressure. That is one reason I have not watched the Sunday morning talk shows for many years.
I should have watched this time. Letterman called O’Reilly out during his segment when O’Reilly brought up the “war” on Christmas. He once again used as “proof” an elementary school in Wisconsin that supposedly changed the lyrics of “Silent Night” for a holiday concert. He never mentioned that his “proof” had been debunked months ago.
Lucky for me, and for you, the website Media Matters has the transcript and a video clip of the exchange. It went something like this…..
See it on the next posting of Secular Left
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.
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