school
Sunday school teacher indicted for rape and murder
Original story here.
Cue the outraged atheists…. now! This is one of those tricky issues that we really need to watch. Rapists and murderers have a funny habit of commiting crimes whether we like it or not. So, did religion play a role here, or is it a coincidence? First, let’s all agree that if we make a huge deal about her connection to religion, we’ll just get more “well, HITLER was an atheist, so there!” responses. That may be false, but we need to criticize the right thing. You can’t run around screaming “religion is evil in all ways”, because someone’s just going to find one way that it’s not and call that a complete argument.
No, the real problem here is the trust that people put in church-appointed authority figures. What kind of background check did we do on this woman? What kind of trust did the parents put in her just because she was a Sunday school teacher? I would be willing to bet that most parents spend ten times the energy picking out a babysitter they trust than they do thinking about who takes their kids for a few hours a week. You can’t tell your kids to trust someone you don’t know anything about and expect them to be different than the rest of the people out there (who they probably don’t trust at all). I’ve never seen any statistics that show that religious people are any less likely to commit a crime. The only difference is that they have someone waiting at the church to listen to it, forgive them, and go on with their lives.
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Bible in Texas Schools: Quit whining!
I’m sure that anyone who is interested in what I write has already heard some alarming statements about Texas public schools requiring a course covering the Bible! Oh no! I’d like to be one of the first to say, “Easy there killer, it’s not as bad as you pretend”. I will admit that there are a lot of atheists, especially on the internet, who take the alarmist stance on anything that promotes religion in our country. And in general, I would agree that in government controlled and/or funded situations (like public schools) we should refrain from promoting any religious ideas. It’s simply not the place for the government to endorse any beliefs in particular (and no, atheism is not a belief system that’s subject to the same rules).
But, guys, read about it a little more before you hit the “Submit with alarming caption” button. First of all, it’s an ELECTIVE. Kids can choose to take it if they want. I bet they already have a Greek mythology elective too. I don’t recall outrage when that was made an option. Second, it’s not even a standard, always available, elective:
The legislation states that all school districts must offer a course as an elective for the 2009-2010 school year if more than 15 students show interest.
That’s right, 15 students have to ask for there to be a bible course before they are required to provide it. And let’s not get into the debate about parents asking for it when the kids don’t want it. If the parents want to force them to go to bible study every night, they can already do that.
Finally, while I may not agree with following the bible for a guide on every decision in your daily life, learning about what it says is hardly a bad thing. The vast majority of people in this country identify themselves as Christian (I think it’s near 75%). I think that makes the book somewhat relevant to our society, whether I like it or not. It’s up to the teacher to decide how the book is presented, but you cannot deny that a book that has survived 2000 years and has 75% of the country following it isn’t worth some study.
So please, atheists, let’s stop jumping at shadows and spend our time worrying about things that really are a problem. Here are two reasonable examples: [Atheists can't hold office in Arkansas] [Atheist bus ads pulled].
What do you think? Am I too lenient here?
