(June 9, 2016 at 4:32 am)The_Empress Wrote:(June 9, 2016 at 4:27 am)Mechaghostman2 Wrote: You aren't going to get rid of those social issues until you start to attack the root of the problem. The problem is religion and a religiously based culture. Get rid of that and you get rid of most of the social issues. Otherwise you're just trying to hose the fire instead of the coals.
Creationism is not low hanging fruit. There are still tax funded schools to this day that teach it. That will make it so that kids grow up without a proper understanding of biology, of medicine, etc. That means our kids won't grow up to be anything more than a basic factory worker, even if they had the potential to be something more. No, I'm not knocking the factory workers, before anyone tries accusing me of anything.
They'll never win the abortion case. Get rid of it legally and it'll be back to coat hangers. They'll realize that mistake soon enough. As for bathroom laws, well, nobody really enforces them, and people are boycotting that state.
Many of these things are worth the discussion, but not when the discussion is about something else entirely. It's like going up to a bunch of people who are talking about golf, and then forcing them to talk about hockey. They're going to get annoyed.
Real work to be done? By doing what, voting Democrat? Because that's worked so well these past 8 years, right? The only thing accomplished is gay marriage and gays being allowed to serve openly in the military. Ok, so we tackled some of those small issues. What else has been done again?
Dude. You are all over the place. Why are you allowed to have pet issues you deem secularism, which you conflate with atheism, but other people aren't?
This. The Reason Rally isn't just a fight against creationism. It's about promoting secularism as politics in an effort to remove religion from policy making. So, that will encompass:
Creationism
LGBT rights (it doesn't matter that it's one state, what matters is that it's an unnecessary law imposed on a certain population because of religion)
Abortion (the extreme religious want it to happen in back alleys so they can criminalize it and punish both those who have abortions and those who provide the service)
Climate change and environmentalism (plays, in part, with creationism)
I hope it will also cover:
Child abuse. Our very own Drich exalts in how he beats his children, justifying it by his interpretation of the Bible. And he's certainly not alone.
Rape. There's a not insignificant problem of marital rape and abuse, and the overall notion that a woman is property of her husband (helped to be normalized by the Duggars).
Medical laws (vaccinations, faith 'healing' (which, again, plays partially with creationism)).
As far as voting goes, you're right, the Democratic party has mostly failed when it comes to issues such as these. But what's the alternative? The GOP would have us go back to the Dark Ages, and no 3rd party candidate is viable. I'll take the small victories over no victories every day.
So, basically, stop being a naive child. There's more to secularism than fighting against creationism, which is low hanging fruit since it's utterly uncontroversial with secularists. I can tell that you have a dim opinion of feminists and others who are interested in other issues, but at some point we're going to have to align ourselves with them if we're going to actually succeed in driving religion out of our government. Why? Because religion is a main contributor of their problems - both real and perceived - as well. And given we're still the least trusted group in America, we're not really in a position to turn down political allies.
"I was thirsty for everything, but blood wasn't my style" - Live, "Voodoo Lady"