Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of
religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...
Those of you who know me will probably be rolling your eyes
right about now. Yes, I am back up on the soap box on this one. I have seen a
number of posts recently espousing everything from encouragement to outright
mandate of some religious display in public schools. The most recent but far
from the only one was my dear cousin in South Carolina (and I am not picking on
you – you were just the most recent to post one) who posted an editorial by a
local television station about a move to mandate the saying of The Lord's
Prayer in public schools.
Here's a thought experiment for everyone who harbors dreams
of installing a Christian theocracy in the USA: Imagine that tomorrow morning
when you awake, the US is no longer a largely Christian country. 90% of the
country now worship The Flying Spaghetti Monster. Each Friday they celebrate
the Pastover and end their prayers with "R'amen!"
Your children are, due to popular support of the Pastafarian
majority, compelled to celebrate Ramandan in school. There is a picture of the
FSM in every courtroom, school room, and police station. His meatballs be
blessed, the FSM created the universe after a long night of drinking and your
children are taught this in their schools… because it is "a good thing for
children to get a religious training."
Does this sound far-fetched? Well, admittedly it is, a bit! But
before you dismiss this as entirely frivolous, think about this; at the close
of the last century nearly 9-in-10 Americans identified themselves as belonging
to one of the Christian sects, by 2008 that number had fallen to just over
7-in-10. Majorities inevitably change. If the history of mankind has taught us
nothing else it is that when the oppressed become the oppressors they seldom behave
better to those below them in the pecking order better than they were treated
themselves.
Of course this is parody, the Loose Canon of the FSM has no
dogma, it is specifically designed to NOT impose itself on anyone else's
religious beliefs. But then, is that not what EVERY religion claims? Live and let live until you are in power –
then it's down the sink with the rest of the hot salt water!
Forget for the moment the hypocrisy of the fact that the most
vocal people who espouse the teaching of Christian beliefs in our schools also
tend to be the loudest critics of many of the Middle Eastern countries for
being theocracies; apparently they are just the wrong kind of theocracy. ANY theocracy
is inherently a bad one. When religion becomes law dissent becomes sin. I guess
that is okay for those who believe with the law, but His Noodleness Forbid that
the person who is making the law disagrees with your world view!
Wherever you are today I wish you a happy day, free from the
yoke of someone else' religious dogma
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