Faithless Relativity

Deciding that I have alienated the majority of people that ever peruse this blog, I'm going to continue on that vein because - I'm not really writing this for some particular audience. If that were the case I'd be doing entertainment pieces and cushy photo journals.

The issue is, I think, that I've become bereft of the small amount of people that read this, as far as I can tell, ideologically speaking. Still, I consider this a medium of self expression and personal enjoyment, so I'm going to soldier on.

If you're interested, read this.

The writer of the article does a fine job of expressing the sentiment I'm going to express, but this is my blog and I can go further if I want.

What...the hell.

"...may not discriminate against the student based on a religious viewpoint expressed by the student on an otherwise permissible subject."

We're going to need a clearer definition of "permissible subject" before we can decide whether or not to throw out all of public schooling, not just the sciences. If the educators MUST say, "you're right" because of what you say are your religious beliefs, education becomes nothing. You're not being educated about anything. You're coming with your prejudices, unfounded opinions, and feelings, and leaving with...your prejudices, unfounded opinions, and feelings.

I'm a pagan, and we believe that the earth is the center of the universe, followed by the planets, which are actually gods, traversing the skies as they will (this including Helios, the god of the sun of course (or Apollo, that fiery chariot seems appealing), and then the sphere of the stars, which revolves around the earth like an orange peel around it's seeds.

I'm a mormon, and excuse me, the Americas were not peopled by North East Asians, but rather Jews, sailing over from Israel in 400BC. When they got here they brought silk, steel, and found horses to ride around on.

I'm Shinto, and no, Japan was not created by continental drift, but when one of our gods dipped his sword into the ocean and drops fell, creating our islands. They also blessed us, making us intrinsically superior to Chinese.

And your History, Astronomy, Physics, Earth Science, Humanities teacher has to put on your paper, "Great Job! You got it all right!" Gold star, gold star, gold star.

If we cease to have a standard of what is factual and what is not, we cease to learn. Reality is determined by evidence, not fiat.