Belarus is 96% Christian and has the second highest suicide rate in the world.

Sweden, isn't even in the top ten. The corrolation between suicide and national rates of atheism isn't that strong.

you're wrong. 98% of religious people in Belarus are Christian.

Oh and my example on school and prayer was if I were a teacher and wanted to conduct prayer. Not a student who wanted to say a private prayer. Again. Read.

Obvious, blatant lying for your Jesus.

I've grown tired of your lies and Marxist resources. You must have taken a page directly out of Joe Biden's book of lies...or sat next to him at Katie's Diner to get your info last week.

G'night.

Considering that teachers are employed by the state to educate children, not shove their religion down people's throats, I don't see anything wrong with that.

If you are a teacher you can organise your little prayer meeting on your own time.

And while we are talking about how religion is being so repressed, lets just take a look at taxes. Religion is tax free, it is also largely regulation free. In Alabama if you operate a daycare centre you have strict regulations you have to obey - unless you happen to be a church, then you don't even have to pay taxes.

What a great idea!

-- GSC

You just don't read. I didn't say religion, I said prayer. God does not = religion. Prayer does not = religion. Duh.

Oh, so the correlation is actually worse than I said. Thanks for making my case stronger.

And don't let the door hit you on the backside on your way out.

of religious people are Christian. NOT 98% of the populous.

Prayer neccessitates a religion. It is based on the idea you have something to pray to.

Which means that you want to force any kids I might have, to pray to something they are going to be raised to not believe in.

The state does not have that right and a teacher in a classroom is an organ of the state, the teacher is not there to spread religion, even if it is religion in general, the teacher is there to do their job.

Teachers can still be religious, they can still pray they can still organise prayer meetings - they just can't do it using state resources. Public schools are state resources.

Note how the legislation does not apply to private schools, which can be religious, because they are not state resources.

What you are whinging about, in essence is that the state isn't allowed to shove religion down student's throats - something you guys accuse atheists of because we write the odd occassional book.

... has always been a VERY successful business in the USA. Incompetent GW Bush got eight years as President by doing just that!

GSC

Prayer advocates the belief in a Creator not in religion. I can believe in a Supreme Being--even pray to him and not believe in the scaffolding of religion.

Funny that we can teach about Darwinism, Marxism, etc. (secularism), but not about a Deity. You guys sure are tolerant and open minded.

Oh, sorry misread you.

That reverts it to 96% of the population being Christian.

And I'm sorry for being argumentative. My initial point was the victimization of the topic of the article.

The Association of Religion Data Archive lists Belarus as 32% non-religious or atheist as of 2004 with a significant drop per diem.

I DO think it's a disaster what religion has done in the name of God. I always though God = Love.

On the other hand, religion is not the sole source of inhumanity, wars and greed. That's man. Man = secularism.

Darwin's theory was based on evidence and is largely accepted in the biological sciences as one of the pillars of modern biology. It is taught because it is science.

It is accepted by the Catholic Church on the same basis.

Creationism, is not science. It doesn't even really qualify as a scientific hypothesis, as it is not testable. Darwin's theory of evolution is (EG: treatment resistant diseases are a direct result of evolution) and is fairly central to our understanding of life on earth right now.

You might as well object to Geography teachers teaching children that the world isn't flat.

As to Marxism, that more or less points out how damned stupid you really are. What is taught about Marx is that ultimately his theory didn't work, the communist states are painted as failures because for the most part, that is precisely what they were.

"America cannot regain its moral leadership in the world if...."

Who says America had 'moral leadership in the world', even if it doesn't have it now? Is this a given in the US? And what does it mean?

Are any of the rest of us allowed to show 'moral leadership'?

I agree with you that it isn't God that is the problem - God is just an argument over whether something exists or doesn't, it is like saying that a belief in unicorns kills people.

The main problem is faith. People so sure they are right, they will do anything to make sure that they win. That is why religion is often such a strong feature in the worst excesses of humanity, it is not the religion itself, it is the faith.

I mean, take Stalin, he went through the seminary and ended up an atheist, and ended up being pretty much the same kind of person as Hitler, who proclaimed himself a Christian and used religion pretty extensively to whip up his supporters. Both had absolute faith that they were right, both were willing to use any means of propaganda to do it, and both ended up killing a lot of people.

Faith is not always religious, it is simply that state of mind that goes "Damn the evidence" and proclaims itself right. It is encouraged in religion, because religion frequently rests on belief without evidence, but it isn't the only place where it is found or encouraged.

Doubt is far more valuable than faith.