In discussing the issue of how the US Supreme Court may dismiss one or both of the same-sex marriage cases that it heard last week because of the lack of standing of the parties to sue even though the lower courts had granted them that right, I was reminded of an earlier case that had similar issues and decided to look into what had happened subsequently, to see if the issue had been resolved. [Read more…]
Listen to this Catholic priest who argues on Fox that opponents of gay marriage are now the victimized ones, the oppressed ones. What is amazing is that he thinks it is unfair and outside the bounds of civilized debate to characterize certain views as bigotry while at the same time he thinks nothing of referring to people as sinners. And even though many religious people believe that sinners go to hell where they face everlasting torment, that is supposed to perfectly acceptable to say. [Read more…]
In February, I wrote about a story that reader Ahcuah sent me about a public school in the southeastern Ohio town of Jackson that had a huge portrait of Jesus in the entrance hallway. The school board rejected requests to have it removed, saying that the portrait was hung in a space reserved for students to use and thus they had no involvement in it and it could not be construed as an official endorsement of religion by the school district. [Read more…]
My university is a secular private one and has for a long time not done anything explicitly religious. Then a couple of years ago, president Obama invited colleges across the country to join in an Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge and our university decided to take part, recognizing that students came to college having some yearning to find meaning in their lives and that we were not really addressing that need. [Read more…]
Some advocates of school vouchers have been pushing it as a means to enable funds to go to parochial schools without violating the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution. They have been doing this while cutting funding for public schools. [Read more…]
In another sign of desperation at the increasing secularization of society that is resulting in religion being relegated to its proper sphere of the private domain, the legislature of North Carolina is proposing a bill that would allow the state to declare an official religion as well as “nullify any federal ruling against Christian prayer by public bodies statewide”. The bill reads in part: [Read more…]
This Friday, April 5, I will be on a panel to discuss Science and Religion. It will take place from 12:30-2:00 pm in Nord 310 on the Case quad of the CWRU campus. The program is sponsored by the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge. Lunch will be provided. If you are in the vicinity, feel free to drop by. [Read more…]
It is well known that Einstein spoke about god frequently, leading many believers to hope that he was religious in some way. This habit of his was a puzzle to his physics contemporaries who could not imagine that a scientist of his stature would be religious. They knew that he had no sympathy for the idea of a personal god and concluded that he was using the word god as a metaphor. [Read more…]
The Church of the Latter Day Saints has very similar views to the Catholic Church on homosexuality and along with it seems to be determined to try and hold back the tide of approval of same sex marriage that is sweeping the country. You may recall that it was one of the strongest backers of California’s Proposition 8 initiative, pouring money and personnel into getting that measure passed. [Read more…]
Today is Easter Sunday, one of the two times of the year (Christmas being the other one of course) when Christians get past their obsession with the doom and gloom of original sin and death and hell, and look on the bright side of life, seeing in the resurrection of Jesus a new beginning and hope for the future. [Read more…]