Letters to the Editor
Taliesan
Published Letters: 942 Editor's Choice: 19
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geemoney
[Read the article: "Missing" evidence is familiar Bush pattern]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Unfortunately not. The corruption in both parties is born of the actual parties themselves, as opposed to the individuals in them.
So long as the Democratic Party can do what it likes and not get voted out, term limits will make no different. They will just mean you have one guy in for ten years, to be replaced by pretty much the same guy in a different skin ten years later.
The same applies to the Republicans.
The hold your nose voter is the second greatest enemy of democracy in the world. The greatest is the guy who doesn't vote.
What you need is to get everyone voting for the party they actually want in power, not the party which they feel that they have to vote for otherwise the Republicans or Democrats will win.
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droogoy
[Read the article: Romney and Huckabee's religious intolerance ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, if we are honest about it, the Biblical Christian god has been disproved. So has the Biblical Jesus.
http://godisimaginary.com/i1.htm
http://godisimaginary.com/video4.htm
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Anonymous
[Read the article: Romney and Huckabee's religious intolerance ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Back in the Middle Ages, when religion was strongest, Europe was not exactly the nicest place in the world to live. America overtook Europe as a centre of intellectual thought in fact, because Europe was so religious back then. Now you are seeing it swing back because America is so religious now.
Also, communism did not actually practice anything like strict secularism, or a seperation Church and state. It banned religion, which in essence was state meddling in religion.
Seperating church and state means the government does not have the right to promote, demote or otherwise influence religion except insofar as religion interferes with another right.
Religion, similarly, does not have the right to interfere with government. While religion is no bar to serving in government, your priest is not the guy making your decisions, whether it be in the ballot box, the Senate, the White House or your local school board.
Thus you don't get to teach creationism in school. It promotes religion.
Evolution is taught in government schools because it is a vital part of biology, and isn't a religious viewpoint, it is a scientific one. The state cannot protect your religion from inconvenient facts, because it is not the state's place to, but it cannot ban your religion either.
This is the heart of secularism. You have the right to your beliefs, you do not have the right to never see your beliefs challenged by way of argument, you do not have the right to force your beliefs on others, and you do not have the right to supress scientific knowledge in the name of your beliefs.
Instead you have to argue with something more then God on your side, you need the facts on your side. Faith based unreason is killing America.
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Anon 01:12 PM
[Read the article: Romney and Huckabee's religious intolerance ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]On the contrary.
The US constitution was adopted in 1787, two years before the French Revolution of 1789 (Which treat religion badly because the Church was one of the major landowners in France and was one of the worst culprits when it came to raping the poor. The French Church demanded rents, as well as tithes from its members, who couldn't even afford bread.)
In fact one of the primary causes of the French Revolution was the American revolution, as the French king at the time had bankrupted his treasury supporting the American Revolution.
As an example of the difference in religiousity between America and Britain (Which is now one of the least religious contries in the world) John William Gott, was imprisoned under Blasphemy laws in 1921.
The last person to be jailed under Blasphemy laws in the United States on the other had was Abner Kneeland in 1838, which was prior to the 14th Amendment.
Further, the next major cases to come up in both countries, Joseph Burstyn, Inc v. Wilson in America and Denis Lemon in the UK had opposing findings.
The American case found the blasphemy laws to be unconstitutional, the UK case fined Denis Lemon 500 pounds, and gave him a 9 month suspended sentence.
The result of this religiousity was religious intolerance which led to a lot of people moving to America because you had a reasonable degree of freedom of religion. Much like Rome's original open arms approach to people banished from other nations, this had the effect of bringing in greater scientific knowledge because you ended up with the guys who did not simply accept what higher authorities told them.
It is why I do not respect university professors who teach from authority, rather then from reason. If you say to me "Such and such is like this, and I know because I am just so much better educated then you, older then you, more experience or even brighter then you" I will simply ignore you and go study the subject myself from people who actually know what they are talking about.
This is what is what is wrong with the Bible, the Bible says so, and therefore it must be true no matter what the evidence has to say about it.
Now, with Europe as it is today, you are seeing the rise of a series of nations which are turning atheist. Sweden, has a majority of its population as being non-religious, the UK, Germany and France are all catching up with this. Similarly these nations are quickly becoming more scientifically advanced then America, because America is simply not a welcoming home to a lot of your scientific community, which is largely atheist.
When your car gets keyed three times for it having a Darwin fish on it, it kind of makes you feel like emigrating to a place that would actually like you.
Thus you have now got a situation where the latest hybrid cars are coming out of Europe and Japan. Japan is similarly on the list of most atheist countries in the world, and in fact is on the top ten list.
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johnnyrandom
[Read the article: Romney and Huckabee's religious intolerance ]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Quotes can actually prove that someone held a given opinion though.