Skeptics I no longer have any respect for.

[Shell B]

I fail to see why this is a bad thing. Sorry. That's EXACTLY where it belongs. Isn't the discussion here regarding whether private faith schools should be allowed?

Yes, it is. You took my comment out of context. I was replying to precisely what was posted by Raph.

I'm not convinced by the argument that its discriminatory against the religious by not allowing private faith schools.

Well, since you failed to quote and respond to my actual argument against not allowing private faith schools, I can see how it failed.

You aren't putting them at any positive or negative disadvantage to any other person by rights of their deeply held belief.

There is the rub. I don't have to. It can be a negative or a positive thing. Either way, it is a constitutionally held right. The government has absolutely no say in whether a private school teaches faith or not and with good reason. If you want to start combining church and state, you're going to have to be okay with all combinations of church and state.

Yes. It does imho. Unless the logic here is that if you tell anybody they cannot do something it is therefore intolerant.

No, the logic here is that telling people that they cannot raise their children according to their beliefs is intolerant. If you are going to say you have to raise your children according to our lack of belief, you have spit in the face of tolerance.

I can think of several reductio ad absurdium points on that immediately to say the least.

Have at it.

Schools have a responsibility to teach a fair and equitable viewpoint of philosophical matters including religion.

Public schools should do just that, yes. What does this have to do with private schools? Private schools are not for the government to dictate. Would you feel the same about a private school geared toward the sciences? I doubt it.

You breed intolerance when you have a "special" school which has an agenda of promoting only a single theological viewpoint, to the extent that it excludes, and warps subjects beyond the theological.

Perhaps, but it really does not matter in terms of whether it is justified to dictate what they teach. They are private schools. I know around here private schools must have a certain standard. The students must display certain aptitudes. Beyond that, and anything illegal, it is up to the schools, as they are private schools.

The popular and most obvious example is seen regularly in the debates over whether a creationist school can teach the creation myth as equally if not more valid than natural selection and evolution in science.

They don't have to. It's really quite simple. Teaching religion has nothing to do with the government, unless it is a public school, at which time it must be entirely absent from the curriculum so as to separate church and state.

It would be easy to look at this point of view and demand that this is just an opposing point of view that equally shouldn't have precedence, and that shows the very problem with theological thinking in terms of the above example of science. It denies the scientific method, and gives validity to opinion and strongly held belief as valid balancing views in ALL aspects of the curriculum beyond science, including history and religious study/philosophy.

We're in agreement on that. However, it is entirely irrelevant to the discussion. Creationism could teach children that they can only eat cheese on Fridays and it would be none of our fucking business if it is taught in a private school. Relief from religious and non-religious persecution is a simple concept. By persecution here, I mean legal and political action. Neither can come about in this country for teaching children religion or not teaching children religion.

Anyway, this is getting away from the point of this thread, which has been somewhat derailed by some spectacular and unwarranted personal abuse and worth looking at the points raised themselves. I just had some opinions I wanted to share on those comments, although that's all they are.

Yes, this thread turned to shit. At any rate, as an atheist, I agree that teaching Creationism is absolute shit. On the other hand, as an American, I refuse to take away parents' and private schools' right to do so. I would fight that with a vengeance.