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If I haven’t included your BAT post, please let me know!

I invited some of my fave bloggers to participate in the blogswarm. Here are two that did. I’m not sure whether they’ve been listed, but I sure didn’t want to leave these great posts out!

Hail Dubyas: Don’t miss the great cartoons at this site. “My own religious beliefs are delightfully confused, going from polytheist one day to Gnostic Christian the next and atheist the day after that. With this belief structure, I naturally take offense at ANYONE telling me what I should or should not believe. Now, imagine that it is the government that is … not telling me what I SHOULD believe, but making it advantageous for people who believe. Like we have in Mr. Bush’s government. Well, that’s not telling me NOT to believe something OR to believe something other than what I do believe. But it IS discrimination against my own beliefs–because it gives its favor to a different set of belieds. Discrimination–that’s simply the first step on the cliched, but nonetheless real, long slippery slope towards an established church and theocracy. We’ve already taken those steps through Mr. Bush’s “faith-based initiatives.” As we’ve gone along, schoolbooks have been rewritten to present evolution and “creation science” as hypotheses of equal footing, never mind the scientists who’ve been muzzled on environmental and conservation concerns, which while horrendous, are not part of the issue we’re discussing. Anti-abortion rhetoric has been enshrined in government-ssed handouts of advice to pregnant mothers. We’ve entered into a “holy Crusade”, theoretically against the foes of “freedom”, but which is simply a codeword for Muslims. Psigh–this is the kind of government you get when its leader believes that he has a special hotline to God. To theocratize or not to theocratize–this is not a question that belongs to liberals or progressives alone. Conservatives should also be intensely aware of the dangers. What, isn’t the tie between conservatism and that old time religion natural enough for me? But wasn’t it Ayn Rand who, in her most embarassing work “Anthem”, decried the stultifying effect of having a government that had to approve everything based on its own beliefs? Even the architectrice of the Church of the Individual was afraid of any Group ruled by beliefs from governing any secular state. And real conservatives would do well to heed her warnings as well.”

Prose and Thorn: “”The problem is we count on politicians to do right by us much in the same way some parents expect their children’s teachers to parent their kids. It is a responsibility we cannot, must not, abdicate to those in power. They will only do as much as they can get away with, and maybe slightly more if there’s enough money involved. God, like good character, starts in the home, not on Capitol Hill. Like past mistakes, one’s feelings toward God should inform one’s actions, not control them. If those who would put our necks to the sword could understand that, perhaps they would stop trying to control the rest of us.”

Yes, there really are more participants in the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm. My own post is buried way back here. In my very subjective judgment, here are the best bits from each post. Drum roll, please … at number 106:

106) Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub: “They will most likely take a stand that there is no reason to “debate” intelligent design advocates, since the debate venue is stacked, the debate audience is stacked, and that intelligent design has not paid its dues to be admitted to the college of the sciences. But I wish they would take a further stand: I wish the Christians among them would call on the advocates of intelligent design to repent, to stop asking people to turn away from science, to stop spreading false stories about science, to stop making false claims. … Creationism, or any belief contrary to evolution, is not part of the Methodist faith. That critics of evolution are allowed to gather on the campus of SMU is evidence of the tolerance advocated by Methodism, and the respect for a freedom of speech unprotected by the Constitution, on the part of the officials of SMU. It is not the scientists who come heretic to the meeting. Our strong, traditional views against theocracy allow even foolish, non-rational views to be heard.”

107) IseBrand: “And check out ‘Through A Glass Darkly’ in Harpers. The first two sentences should hook you. It’s ann interesting article by Jeff Sharlet. ‘We keep trying to explain away American fundamentalism. Those of us not engaged personally or emotionally in the biggest political and cultural movement of our times—those on the sidelines of history—keep trying to come up with theories with which to discredit the evident allure of this punishing yet oddly comforting idea of a deity, this strange god.’

108) Religious Right Watch: “I was there when the religious right in Iowa first flexed their electoral muscles, revealing the strength of their years of patient, persistent organizing. That was 1988…when Pat Robertson nearly won the GOP caucuses. The minister of the Evangelical Free Church my family attended was the country chairman for Jack Kemp for President. But, certainly Robertson had a lock on the local Pentacostals and conservative charismatics.”

109) Bratfink: “I believe God still communicates to people. I just think that a lot of people aren’t attuned to hearing His still, small voice and reacting. [And I think God has a still, small voice only because hearing His ‘real’ voice would probably literally kill us puny humans.] Hang in there, my point [and there IS a point] is coming. IF IF IF IF IF! The all-powerful God of the Universe wanted all of the puny humans to be the same religion, IT IS WITHIN HIS POWER TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. If the God you believe in is truly GOD, then you must believe this is so. And if you can make THAT leap, then make this one: All religions exist because God lets them exist. For His own reasons. And I’m going to make another leap here. Because God lets them ALL exist, they are all equal. Which means, one is no better than the other. And if this isn’t true, God is more than able to make me see the error of my ways without any help from any human being. Because that’s the type of God He is. [And so far, so good!]”

110) Deleted Items: I have issues with anyone making legislative decisions based on religious belief. Of course, most Fundamentalists that I know feel that you cannot have morality apart from religion and whichever sect they choose. If we allow the religious right to turn this country into something it was never intended to be, a theocracy or sorts, we will no longer be a free country. Freedom is what makes this country what it is. However, all over the news, all over the web…we see that many of our freedoms are being infringed upon in the name of God. From getting a sculpture of a chocolate Jesus banned, to implementing a Bible class in a public school, the chilling tentacles of close minded religiosity is infiltrating our country like never before. They have the president on their side, they have influence like never before. We need to stand up, and speak out.”

111) Tengrain (at MPS): Here are some of the things that kids have been taught since Chimpy started imposing his sex-phobic views:

• abortion can lead to sterility and suicide
• that half the gay male teenagers in the United States have tested positive for the AIDS virus
• touching a person’s genitals can result in pregnancy
• A 43-day-old fetus is a “thinking person”
• HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, can be spread via sweat and tears
• condoms fail to prevent HIV transmission as often as 31 percent of the time in heterosexual intercourse

Because Chimpy is staking his reputation as “the education” preznint with the very measurement-intensive No Child Left Behind Act, you would think that his administration would be all gung-ho to measure their success with Abstinence-only sex education, wouldn’t you? Well, you would be wrong.”

112) Abnormal Interests: “Several things need to become common currency before the risks of both aristocracy and theocracy are nullified. First, large numbers of people must come to see every truth as a probability rather than an absolute certainty. This is not to imply that there are no facts of the matter with regard to this topic or that. It is only to say that nothing can be known with the certainty that is often associated with religious belief or as is often demanded by the aristocracy. Second, without evidence that is subject to public scrutiny no group can claim special knowledge. Theocrats and aristocrats have always claimed some kind of special knowledge. Third, everyone should be far more interested in the why and what of any belief than the belief itself. All beliefs should welcome for rigorous study. The claims of theocrats and aristocrats seldom do.”

113) Xark: “Should your religious convictions compel you to speak out against the separation of church and state, do that, too. And if anyone tries to limit your First Amendment right to that public expression of conscience, then please let me know about it, so that I can offer my support for your cause. But whatever you do, please don’t confuse this message: It is not the public expression of religion that we fear, but the state expression of religion. By protecting the rights of the few — be they pagan, Muslim, Taoist or Pastafarian — we secure the liberties of the many, and the peaceful co-existence of our people.”

114) I doubt it: “Even if you are a religious person, you must respect that science and reason have gotten us far in this world. Science is our best method of finding things out. It may not be perfect but, like Democracy, it appears to be the best method we’ve got. In both, it is best to keep religion out of the equation. That’s why I recently wrote my congressmen loudly voicing my disgust over the current administration’s frequent acts of white-washing scientific reports and censoring governmental scientists because the facts led them to conclusions that are distasteful to the Republican agenda. From birth control methods to global warming, natural resource reserves to endangered species – this administration is completely devoid of reason and integrity.”

115) Evil Bender: “The Catholics persecuted the Anglicans; the Anglicans the Catholics; the Christians the Jews; the Muslims the Jews; the Jews, other Jews; the Protestants persecuted the Hindu, and everybody went hard after indigenous religions. The problem with this model is, of course, that you don’t get to be the one doing the persecuting very often. One day you’re enforcing the will of the Pope in England, and the next you’re out of a job because the King wanted to divorce his wife. Now you’re hoping the new Religion treats you better than you treated others. Simply put, theocracy is a government model for those who are only capable of caring about their short-term interests. No matter how much they may believe God is on their Side [see note below], the simple historical truth say someone will come along and declare their views heretical, and then they will be the ones being oppressed by theocracy. This is the unfortunate way of power-struggles in the world, and not simply among religion. But religion has a unique claim to such thinking in this era, for it declares that it’s narrow vision does the will of God. All theocracies claim this, by definition. But only one of them, at most, can be right about this. God certainly cannot support both the Bible-thumper and Koran-thumper theocracies as the One True Expression Of His Will. So, if you’re convinced that God is with you, the last thing you want is a theocracy, for it is self-evident that the vast majority of such governments were not following His will, and even if some were, they had to have been quickly subverted by the ever-shifting laws their leaders claimed were made by God. In other words, if you value your religious liberty, you must be against theocracy, for it works against you. The only way to protect your beliefs from government persecution is to protect every faith’s from that persecution. Any other solution leads to disaster for everyone. (Note: Abraham Lincoln famously suggested that we should ask ourselves if we were on God’s side, not He on ours. Not a bad standard to hold, I suspect.)”

116) Knight of Pan: “Look no further then Iran with it’s two governments. The national one, and the real one run by the Muslim clerics that tells the national government what “Islam” will and won’t allow it to do. In the Philippines and Indonesia these militants fight non-Muslims, in the Middle East they fight Jews, Christians and secularist. In Minnesota, where I live, they test the waters of the separation of Church and State by refusing cab rides to people with seeing eye dogs or who are carrying alcoholic beverages. … This country was founded on Democracy, not theocracy. Were a lot of our founding fathers Christians? Yes, and they were the ones who recognized the need for separation of Church and state! They came from a Europe that had fought centuries of wars because of religious oppression and didn’t want a repeat in the new world.”

117) Essential Saltes (Journal of No. 118): “Okay, so now let me pick on faith-based initiatives. I’ll try to make this brief, because my stomach says it’s lunchtime. It’s nice that faith-based organizations want to help. It’s not so nice that they want to line up at the government teat, without obeying the same rules that everyone else has to obey. They don’t have to obey equal opportunity employment laws, which maybe isn’t so objectionable, except for the part about me paying for it. But it does bother me that there doesn’t seem to be appropriate oversight over the services being provided. I really don’t think that being forced to read the Bible for seven hours a day and renounce one’s Catholicism constitutes a drug rehabilitation program. Let me take another quote from that article: ‘At one point, the program director told his aunt that he “gave up his right of freedom of religion when he was placed into this program.”‘ This jerk is getting public funds to deny someone’s First Amendment rights. That, my friends, is a sign of creeping theocracy.”

118) The Greenbelt: “Have you never seen the giant statues of the Beloved Leader, the embalmed and worshipped bodies on Red Square, the chants of “Lenin lived, Lenin lives, Lenin will live!” – can’t you admit these regimes merely worshipped some other god than you? Worship is irrational, whether a Sky God, a State, or a nebulous Notion Of Goodness; and it leads to hatred of the other, those who do not join the worship.”

119) Austin Atheist Anonymous: “I only count one state besides Texas, namely South Carolina, that specifically mentions a “Supreme Being,” among the eight which would similarly prohibit atheists from holding public office. (Thanks goes to God is for Suckers! for providing that link in a post about Atheism And The American Congress.) Author’s Comment: Protection against religious test oaths for public offices and public trusts is a basic protection which might be invaded by zealous pressure groups. Since the addendum of 1876 to Section 4 does seem to dilute the broad guarantee and presumably violates the United States Constitution, it should be deleted.”

120) Northgate Science: “Not a theocracy?…consider the ID proponents who are trying to legislate intelligent design creationism into the classroom; or the YEC creationists supplanting actual science with mythology; how about the anti-choice proponents attempting to legislate the religious view that five cells is equivalent to the six-year old riding his bike down the street; consider the number of evangelical Christians who want us to remain in Iraq largely to bring about biblical Armageddon; how about our tax money going to fund “faith based” initiatives and private schools?; how about the large number of Christian dominionists who are actively engaged in getting the government to follow biblical principles? There has clearly been a concerted effort to make government at all levels be more supportive of Christian values (note that the arguments are not generally about making government more religious; they’re about making it more “Christian” – by contrast, most of us “blogging against theocracy” want to maintain a clearly (and actively) secular government with little or no religious influence in terms of policy or law. Religions are based on personal belief supported by flawed or falsified history and science. They have no business running governments (and have always fostered rebellion when they did). [On the DaVinci Code..] Historically and theologically illiterate viewers…How ultimately ironic. What about the scientific literacy required to critically evaluate proposals such as Intelligent Design? Just how scientifically literate are the 90% of the American population who supposedly buy into Intelligent Design? How scientifically literate are the kids Ken Ham preys upon with his historically incorrect bible propaganda? Can the majority of Carl Baugh’s viewers think critically about his claims? Mark Shea is absolutely correct to be concerned about the historical and theological illiteracy of the audience – just as evolutionary biologists are justified in being concerned about the same audience’s scientific literacy. The fact is that most Americans have lost the ability to think critically, preferring instead to take the FOX thirty second sound bite as gospel because it’s easier. But my bet is that Shea and other apologists will not accept the distinction. Critical thinking is necessary only when the sacred cows of Christian theology are being slain; it’s not necessary if evolution is the target.”

That last bit was a bigger bite, but worth it.

Yes, there are more.

Yet, still more of the juiciest bits from the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm. My post is now buried way back here. And now, at number 91….

91) Cause for Concern: “Is it right for our elected officials to use the Capital lawn as a spawning ground for Jesus Hallelujah? No, it is not. Free speech is protected, and on that angle, whatever they feel they need to talk about is fine. But using our time and our airwaves and our lawn to spawn a religious revival is not right.”

92) Beep Beep It’s Me: “Whereas secularism protects the right of citizens to be of any religion of their choosing, or no religion at all, theocratic governments demand civilian adherence to the scriptures of ONE religion. That religion and the beliefs of that religion, would be enshrined in all law. Both of these religions seek to oppress and deny individual rights in favour of the tenets of their religion. Both religions are imperialistic by nature. They each seek to be a religious monopoly.”

93) There are no Barking Sparrows: Posts the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 217A (III) of 10 December 1948. I’m stunned. And we think we’re some kind of human rights leader? See how far we’ve fallen.

94) God is for Suckers! Great quotations video. Take a look-see.

95) Happy Jihad’s House of Pancakes: “Barton is the darling of the homeschool movement because he feeds those who would demolish the wall between church and state the precise fairytale they need in order to justify their misguided assault on the Constitution. They never seem to have heard that among the most fervent initial supporters of the separation of church from state were…wait for it…fundamentalist Christians. Really. They were afraid that Anglicanism, should it become the official religion of the state, would make their small sects outlaw. Of course, the establishment of what is essentially an unregulated free market of religion ultimately served these loud little groups well, and the loudest of them have risen to political ascendancy.
And they want more power.”

96) APLawrence Blogger: “I’m sick of a politicians decrying their faith to curry favor from the religious. I’m sick of religion in general, from the crazies pushing “intelligent design” to my neighbor who thinks a tattoo of Jesus on his back would be a wonderful thing. I absolutely support the right of every person to believe whatever crazy thing they want to, but why is it that people who say they talk to aliens are seen as fruitcakes but people who say they talk to gods aren’t? The evidence for gods is no better than that for UFO’s; and the latter at least doesn’t suffer from logical inconsistencies.”

97) Cycle: “Those people are better at deliberative debate than I am or could ever be. Their points are valid, cogent, and important. I am as incapable of such feats as I am of commanding with success a mountain to throw itself into the sea. What I do do well is this: Jesus Boobies. That is humor. Pure. Concentrated. Let’s do it again. Jesus Boobies. Do you feel it? Do you feel alive? Jesus Boobies quench that insatiable thirst. They bring life to the young. Jesus Boobies love little children. Stick my face into Jesus Boobies and I am filled with life, (res)erected. What we are doing here is using absolute nonsense to offend. I have said nothing. Made no point. I took two, pure, holy entities – Jesus and Boobies respectively – and conjoined them in a delicious and nutritious soul-saving spread. Christi de leche. It’s great on ice cream and your sins. Quiets a crying baby and rescues a drowning man. What we need to do is to open up religion to be discussed. At the moment, when a drawing of Mohamed (Mohamed Boobies) can cause riots and the UN can draft resolutions to “protect” people from slander of their religion, we need to be as much on the offensive as possible. I urge you to actively attack religion. ”

98) Unrepentant Old Hippie: “The anti-choice movement, many if not most of whom are religiously-motivated, increasingly puts pressure on the government for more restrictive abortion laws, their ultimate goal being a complete ban (and then on to contraception!). But Canadian abortion laws are guided by medical and scientific definitions and personal privacy rights, not by anyone’s interpretation of religious tenets. In spite of anomalies like the House of Prayer just a short walk from Parliament Hill, we don’t yet have a theocracy. But with stealth tactics like Focus on the Family-type groups trying to exercise influence in politics, it isn’t for lack of trying on the part of the fundies, and they will keep pushing. We need to send the message that when push comes to shove, we can push a lot harder than they can.”

99) Another Ravan Perch: “Essentially, these Religious Right wingnuts are turning their reach and media aided influence into a defacto religious test for office, and non Judeo-Christian(-Islamic) people automatically flunk, and the rest are graded on how well they mouth the bogus morals of the Christianist party. BTW, if you need a religious book or preacher to tell you what is right and wrong, under the threat of hell if you don’t obey, then to me you are mortally defective, and possibly a sociopath. The person who does right because it is right, not because a book or church says to, or because they expect some sort of reward in an unknown afterlife, is the truly moral person.”

100) The Rational Christian: “It doesn’t take a genius to see that many of today’s Christian leaders symbolize much of Jesus preached against.” Examples follow: quotations + photographs.

101) Dark Christianity: “Many adhere to a statement of belief that puts the Bible (and its literal truth) first, God second, and Jesus Christ, a distant third. They are Christian in name only. They are a political force wrapped in the most popular religion. They use that cover to insinuate themselves into every corner of our society, because Christian still equals ‘good’ to most people. But the leaders of this movement are not good people. They do not believe in the greater good of a nation of many faiths. Only their beliefs are valid. They do not emulate Christ or follow his teachings at all. Worse, they treat those who do actually adhere to Christ’s teachings as religious pariahs, or non-Christians. The word “Christian” itself has become tainted with the stain of intolerance, homophobia, fear, ignorance and hatred. … A believer can govern, as can a non-believer. But the believer must be capable of looking beyond the dictates of his or her faith to serve the greater good. And in doing so, they are actually following Christ’s greatest commandment: to ‘love your neighbor as you love yourself’. That is the ultimate governence.”

102) The Skeptical Alchemist: “No need to go as far as Pakistan, Iran or India to look at religious abuse of women, who are forced, if they now decide to undergo IVF in Italy, to go through multiple pregnancies or (as pre-implantation screening is not allowed anymore) multiple abortions. You just need to look at a place where the separation of Church and State is law, and still the Church does not pay taxes, gets money off of Italians, while getting their (well, foreign!) policy through in the Italian Parliament. – Welcome to the Country of Jokes. We make you laugh, but you’ll be joining us soon.”

103) ProgressiveU: “When we find a billion year old fossil, don’t discount the evidence. When we connect the genes with bone records suggesting connections between two seemingly unrelated species, don’t cry out against evolution. When a non-traditional couple wants to be married, don’t judge and say they will go to hell (according to one translation of the bible, the people who say ‘You are going to hell’ are passing judgement, and right given only to the christian god, and are condemned to hell for attempting to act in place of god… never thought of that did you?) All I ask is that you keep your faith, share your faith, but don’t deny others a different faith. No two people believe the exact same thing, faith is a very personal thing.”

104) Hypnocrites: “James E. Hanson, once NASA’s director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has accused the Administration of muzzling him and censoring his findings on global warming. He was warned there would be “dire consequences” if he spoke publicly about his findings. They even had an oil lobbyist and a college dropout editing his work at the direct instruction of the White House. And then, at the end of last year, the Admnistration issued new rules requiring all scientists to submit papers and speeches for “review” before they could be presented. And it just keeps getting worse, as now scientists are forbidden from speaking at all if they disagree with Administration dogma.” Check out the great cartoons!

105) Timeline of Theocracy: Sample entry – “250-350 (about). Constantine the Great. Flavius Valerius Constantinus to you, if you are walking around back then. Turns Roman Empire into a Christian State and carries the religion across Europe and even to those pesky Celts up in those big islands.”

That’s it for me tonight.

And yes, there’s more…

Can you believe it? Even more excerpts from the Blog Against Theocracy blogswarm. Here’s my post. Alrighty then, starting with number 76…

76) Runesmith’s Canadian Content: We must hold fast to our compassion, our tolerance, and our respect for one another. Because the minute things start to get bad (and they will), the vultures will descend and start whispering in our ears. They won’t talk about God or Christ at first – they will use terms like ‘family values’ and ‘tradition’ and ‘average Canadians’. They will speak with nostalgia and longing of better, simpler days when everyone looked like us and respected their elders and we all went to church every Sunday. This is how it started in the United States. This is how it started in Australia. It’s starting here right now.

77) David 2’s Brutally Honest Random Thoughts: “A true democracy would destroy our freedoms the moment the “majority” finds them distasteful. And that is already happening right now. If you don’t believe me, I’ve got three words for you: Federal Communications Commission. A democracy inside a republic says that there is something more important than majority rule, and in America that “something” is the US Constitution.”

78) Laelaps: “So he believes it’s his job to be God’s messenger, evidenced by the part where Bush says “I was praying for strength to do the Lord’s will.” What this suggests is that Bush was reluctant to go to war, but it was God’s will, so then Bush prayed for forgiveness for doing the very thing he thinks God wants him to do. While I don’t have a problem with the leader of this country having a religion, this brand of religion where leaders believe they have an open line to God and base their decisions not on rationality but on some abstract delusion of what God does or doesn’t will is dangerous and frightening.”

79) Les Enrages: “The other consequence was that it totally devastated the idea that this mythical God created the universe, as described in Genesis. (actually two descriptions that are at odds with oneanother – the Elohist creation story from the first chapter of Genesis, and the Jahwist version that starts halfway into Gen. 2, 4) This bearded Yahweh (aka Jehova – counterpart to Jove, aka Jupiter, Zeus) certainly didn’t create the vast universe of modern cosmology – nearly 40 BILLION light-years in diameter and around 16-18 BILLION years old. No, the authors of the bible were not aware of galaxies, quasars, neutron stars, black holes, or any of the wonders you can see in photographs from the Hubble telescope.” And from the second post: “Through Thomas we see a Jesus much more in keeping with a modern secular society, but one much less amenable to manipulation by authoritarians. As Elaine Pagels points out in the Gnostic Gospels, the normative variety of Christianity quickly became as hierarchical and authoritarian as the Scribes and Pharisees of the Gospels. I don’t think it coincidental that this Pauline influence radiated not from Jerusalem but from Rome.”

80) Darwin’s Dagger: “Virginia may be the home of Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell, but it is also the home of Jefferson and this document, the foundation for religious freedom in this country. For freethinkers, atheists, agnostics or just those who choose to hold beliefs outside of the Christian mainstream, these words are sacred.”

“Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That no man shall be compelled to frequent or support any religious worship, place, or ministry whatsoever, nor shall be enforced, restrained, molested, or burthened in his body or goods, nor shall otherwise suffer on account of his religious opinions or belief; but that all men shall be free to profess, and by argument to maintain, their opinion in matters of religion, and that the same shall in no wise diminish enlarge, or affect their civil capacities.”

81) Live and times of an ex(2)-pat Yank: “God to me is too much of a mystery… Is TOO powerful to not approach with a certain sense of awe and mysticism. The one place that used to “house” the mysticism was a building specifically made for worship, a church/mosque/synagogue/temple. And people from all over our country, regardless of their particular persuasion, spent an inordinent amount of ‘weekend’ time in their worship-building. Then they’d go home, have dinner with their families, go to sleep… And then wake up and go to work on Monday.”

82) Phillip Allen: “God will not coerce anyone to follow his way; and he will not bless a system that tries to force people to obey him and his ways. Jesus was repelled by all efforts to make him a ruler in order that he might force his kingdom on the world.”

83) Killing time, making noise: “All it takes is the will of the people, and the system can adapt to changes in their lives. But sadly, the mechanism that allowed so much flexibility also seems to have allowed for its own demise. When the will of the people is bent to the will of the forces the system was designed to exclude, through fear, coercion, lies, and manipulation, those forces creep into the cracks in the system, and destroy it from within.”

84) Ten Percent: Many rebel leaders have been tortured to death, or assassinated by the state. At Blairwatch today they post up Martin Luther King’s A Time to Break Silence. Better for you than chocolate eggs. For my part I shall quote one of my own personal heroes (you thought I was going for a personal jesus/depeche mode joke there, go on admit it you did. Ok I almost was, but I demurred at the last second) Kurt Vonnegut-‘Take Care of the People, and God Almighty Will Take Care of Himself.’ Peace.”

85) Cross Left: Very good biblically-based critique of anti-gay prejudice. The ending is the best part, though. “He spoke out loudly, and often, against hypocrisy, self-righteousness, and pride. He was most strongly against the established religionists of the day who had well over 600 rules and laws to follow, and showed no justice, nor mercy. Jesus informed these types of people that the prostitutes and tax collectors would get into heaven before them. And He made it clear, the most important commandment was to love God and love our neighbor as ourselves. I, for one, am tired of this constant harassment of others by those who consider themselves to have the right to judge. I’m tired of them trying to deny equal protection and rights to those they consider not worthy to be citizens of our democracy. Perhaps it’s time they started fixing themselves, instead of trying to fix others.”

86) xcsharpshadowx:
I’m sick of beging hushed,
of being forced
to tame the Word,
and I’m finished using global peace
to justify my sword,
because politics is top-down,
and real love is ground-up:
my friends, don’t get me wrong,
I follow Jesus,
I’m just fed-up.

87) Dawne Gee at Clean Cut Kid: “i was not surprised that he would pretend not to recognize the attempts on the national and state level (many state levels, for that matter) to support, encourage, or otherwise enable one religion over another, or to (probably truly) misunderstand the wording and intention of the First Amendment. but i do find it sad that Bob declines to respectfully disagree. it’s a by-product of his belief that there is no room in the world for anything he doesn’t believe in. thus, terms like “hegemony” and “theocracy” are lost on him, for after all, what else is there?”

88) Harp and Sword (Listed as Big Brass Blog?): “Benjamin Franklin had to jump through many legal hoops to get around the laws of Pennsylvania which favored the Society of Friends (Quakers). John Adams, while personally devout, had his scuffles with the institutionalization of the Congregationalist Church by Massachussetts. One thing that the founders understood was that backing one sect through government is an essential and primal assault on the liberty of the individual to follow the most personal and private of decisions. Oddly enough, among the most fervent backers of the first amendment was the fledgling movement of the Baptists. They had seen their young sect relegated to the far fringes of the wilderness by the Anglicans in Virginia, the Quakers in Pennsylvania, and the stern Calvinists of New England. They had been told many times that their personal faith was grounds to deny them access to the public arena. They wanted to make sure that this did not happen.”

89) Cassandra Waites: This one is outstanding. Read it. “It does not matter if the individual first given theocratic power is trustworthy. It does not matter if the individual first given theocratic power is firmly grounded in sound teachings. Aaron was a good sound priest. Eli was a good sound priest, but that did not say a thing about his sons. Sooner or later, people like Annas and Caiaphas will be attracted to the power and do what they can to keep it. And where there are people like Annas and Caiaphas, sooner or later good people get influenced into doing bad things.”

90) The Jaded Skeptic: “What does this have to do with science? Science is not a democracy. We don’t vote and pick how much gravity their will be this year. We don’t elect or impeach the laws of motion. Evolution occurs, no matter how much you pray against it. Sorry.”

Wow, there are really a lot of these! What a great response! Ok, this is the last batch for tonight.

61) Doing My Part for the Left (podcast): The podcast player crashed Firefox and there is no transcript. Update me if you post any text. Sorry…

62) North of Center:

63) Fetch Me My Axe: “Essentially, the child is being asked to have more control over hirself than the adult. And to accept abuse that would be considered an outrage were an adult to do it to another adult (well, all other things being equal, which of course they often aren’t; nonetheless). Which pretty much goes against everything we understand about human development, those of us who’ve come out of the Dark Ages, at least. And then the child grows up; and guess what happens to all that pent-up rage, frustration, terror, grief, unmet needs?”

64) The Jewish Atheist: “Even now, people are trying to rewrite American history to portray it all as the story of the emergence of a Christian nation. But thoughtful people of reason must resist — vehemently and articulately –the natural aggressiveness of religious fervor and orthodoxy, or else we are in for some very bad times. Live-and-let-live is no longer an option. America is a secular nation, of course. There is no question in my mind that the Founders of our country were as close as you could be to secular humanists in the late 18th century.”

65) Midget Queen: “No comment on the fact that they picked Easter weekend for this. I agree with the general sentiment though. I do not and will not agree with any religious group, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Pagan, Pastafarian or otherwise, taking over and enforcing their narrow brand of faith on everyone. “Render unto Caesar” and all that.”

66) The Daily Pulse: “What do you do when the people you want to caricature, the people so deserving of satire, have a reality more exaggerated and absurd than any cartoon?”

67) Hard-boiled Dreams of the World: “Martha’s relatives are not required to spend their time with Uncle Mert eating Brussels sprouts; they’re free to share their time with Uncle Mert in any way they choose. Likewise, the U.S. Constitution guarantees that every American can spend (or not spend) time with their best friend — even if that friend is a deity — whenever and however they desire. What’s more, Americans aren’t forced to spend time with friends or deities they’d rather not get to know.”

00) Reconstitution: A double-listing. See #25.

68) after the bridge: “me, if i were god, i’d find that to be insulting. that a believer in me thought my powers so weak that i would need man to help me carry out my divine plan and the other part of all of this that would offend me would be the forcing of anyone, ANY ONE, to have to believe in me to be able to survive, to thrive or to just fit in. i would want people to come to me willingly and with love, not fear, fear of a neighbor, a government or a fiery afterlife. … so, if someone out there believes in garden gnomes as the image of the divine, good for them and i hope that at least one of their holidays includes chocolate because i have been to many different religious ceremonies in my life and will hopefully be able to continue to do so and chocolate, to paraphrase b.franklin, is proof that god loves us and wants us to be happy.”

00) Fitness for the Occasion: A double-listing. See #2.

69) Journeys With Jood (part 2, see also #14): “We are people who normally would not mix, but who wound up in the same lifeboat and there we are. AA has given me tolerance, and some modicum of patience. We have atheists, pagans, Catholics, Liberals, Right Wingers, Christians of many denominations, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, agnostics, Democrats, Republicans, Doctors, Actors, Welders, thieves, cops, airline pilots, you name it, we’ve got it. And nobody demands that I change my belief or faith to be a member of AA. The ONLY thing I need to get right on a daily basis is to not pick up that first drink. All the rest is commentary.”

70) commander others otherwhirled: See #7. Same post, different place.

71) Pandagon: “Needless to say, it’s sad that it’s even necessary to show that people can be both religious and faithful, considering the fact that the very concept of secular government was supported by religious people in the past who wanted to protect their religions from government interference. But the corporate media and a lot of people nowadays reflexively equate “religious” with “theocrat”. What we need is more people saying, loudly, that just because they pray every day doesn’t mean that students should lead prayer in school, which has a coercive element. Or that your Bible belongs in your bedside drawer, not displayed as a monument in front of a courthouse, signaling to non-Christians that they are considered lesser in the eyes of the law. Or that your religious beliefs about sex and marriage and end-of-life care should have no bearing on the laws governing people who don’t believe like you do.”

72) do not read this blog: “See, this is what happens when people take prayer too seriously. The way I see it, there are two choices: 1) people should just treat the prayers like the meaningless jabber that they are, or 2) prayers of any kind should not be offered in public legislative chambers.”

73) No More Mister Nice Guy!: “But the founders of the US had a very different idea on the proper relationship between church and state. They were all too familiar with the history of long, bloody religious wars in Europe, and the constant petty squabbling between different denominations in America, which they feared could escalate into open violence. And so the Founding Fathers stated very clearly in the Constitution that there should be no established religion and no abridgement of religious freedom. In many of the new states, the majority church opposed the first amendment while minority religious groups supported it, fearing that without it, they would be swallowed up by larger churches. One such group was the Danbury Baptists, who sought reassurances from Thomas Jefferson that the Constitution would protect their rights. … The very first international treaty signed by the United States was the Treaty of Tripoli, which stated plainly: “The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.” This treaty was passed unanimously by the Senate, and there’s no record of any debate or controversy about this unequivocal statement.”

74) Barefoot Bum: “If we examine the ideologies uncontroversially labeled as “religious”: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and the like, an obvious pattern emerges: These ideologies say (in a predictive or prescriptive sense) nothing at all about the world of perceptual experience. More importantly, they either say nothing at all about objective reality, or they say things about objective reality (e.g. God really exists) that cannot be publicly determined by appeal to perception. Physical science, on the other hand, is defined in terms of a foundation of shared perceptual experiences[2], and publicly available methods—logical accountability and simplicity—to determine truth from that foundation.”

75) Nonsensical Ravings of Finely Tuned Insanity: “So, I suppose my parting question is just this – which would be more in tune with being a good member of your religion – enshrining it into law and forcing people to worship the same way you do, making loud and public proclamations of your faith (under penalty of imprisonment or death if you don’t), and displaying your faith as conspicuously as possible to everyone, or by doing works that bring about a better quality of life for everyone, regardless of faith? ‘But whenever you go pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.’ (Matthew 6:6, NSRV)”

That’s all I can do this evening, folks. More to come.