Welcome to Gaia! ::

Utah slipped and gave you what it was preparing for everyone here.

Don't worry, if it had finished it's preparations it would be much worse.


And Chi: No, you get them to look at the flower and then birds burst out of them and peck your enemies eyes out or at least leave chickie poo on their shoes for them to upset about long enough for you to sneak up behind them and stabtheir eyes out on your own.

Ooh, flower camouflage... Good idea!

Ok, I am going to go off on a little rant here for a second.

The concept of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is brilliant. It was "founded" by a physics graduate student as a retort to Kansas teaching Creationism in school. It started as an open letter in the style of "A Modest Proposal." The letter itself is a brilliant satirical social commentary on the state of the Right wing of this country. One of the things that this Nation is founded on is freedom of religion. That was never a problem for the right for a long time because Christianity has been the dominating champ for quite some time. Still, with the fast, and free exchange of information and the increase in immigration (and the status of the immigrants) from the Middle East, Asia and Africa the percentage of Americans that are Christian has been falling. America has also started to become better educated, and one of the side effects of more education is Atheism and Agnosticism. I am not trying to start s**t, it just is. So the certain individuals have such a strong need to keep not just the majority of Americans Christian, but an overwhelming majority of them Christian that they resort to pushing Bible study in the Classroom.

This is where I will start some s**t. ANYONE TEACHING CREATIONISM IS DOING JUST THAT! They might hide behind saying that it is not Christianity, and that it just means that a higher power created life, but that is still pushing religion. As we have been given the freedom of speech, we also have been given the freedom to remain silent. The Freedom of the press means that we may choose if we want to read the papers or watch the news. Freedom of Assembly does not mean that we have to assemble every time the Government puts out a citizen call into the night sky, and with the Freedom of Religion comes the right to not be religious.

The point I am trying to make here is that the original concept of the FSM is two-fold.

1. That if you teach creationism as taught by the Bible or the Christian faith there are many, many more that you would have to include. Science classes would be overwhelmed with Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Native American, Santerian, hell even Scientoligist creation mythology if they wanted to be fair, which it would have to be in order to be constitutional.

2. That the whole concept of creationism is idiotic, and that if you believe in it you are an idiot.

The second concept is what is offensive, and that is the part that most dumb-asses have latched onto. Instead of being this great satire, it has become a weapon that the "intellectually elite" use against the faithful in the never ending battle of religion.

In closing I support objective 1. Religion is not something that the state should teach to children or the general public. It is reserved for Parents and Members of the faith to teach, and ultimately yourself to accept or not accept. Be teaching it in class, and even worse, assigning a grade to it the state of Kansas has gone against the Constitution, the Founding Fathers, and ultimately what this country stands for by making it a part of their curriculum. Objective 2 is part of the reason I do not believe in organized religion and do not publicly practice my faith. People ruin religion, it doesn't matter if they are practicing it our denouncing it.

interesting.

Super.

Paper.

Mario.

Yeah, the fact that there's even one state where that law has passed makes me sad, because it sets a rather disturbing precedent. The separation of church and state is the only thing that is preventing the United States Of America from becoming a Christian theocracy. I think we have all seen the signs that certain people in power for oh, about the last six years or so have been slowly and subtlely pushing it in that direction.

Here's a fun one for you. I happen to know this because I have a certain relative who, unfortunately could be described as an "extremist" in a few areas. There are people out there who apparently believe that even though the Founding Fathers specifically put in that whole "freedom of religion" thing in the Constitution, that... well, what they actually meant was "freedom to worship Jesus Christ in any way you want." They basically say that the founding fathers founded the country on Christian beliefs (likely) as they, themselves were all Christians (laughable) and as such we shouldn't allow this namby-pamby separation of church and state crap prevent us from teaching the Bible in public schools because... "well, that's what they meant.

Oh well...

Mmmmm, yum!

And wow Saint, up on that soap box huh?

You guys, I think I'm out of practice. I think I might be losing my mind-reading powers. And I'm sincerely frightened.