RE: Middle School Teacher's Memorial
February 18, 2015 at 5:12 pm
(This post was last modified: February 18, 2015 at 5:16 pm by SteelCurtain.)
(February 18, 2015 at 4:43 pm)Pyrrho Wrote: The practical outcome of that would be, no satanist teacher would ever get a memorial, no matter how great of a teacher the teacher was. When deciding whether or not there will be a memorial, they are going to take into consideration what will be depicted on the memorial. So allowing the current one to stand is giving a privileged place to Christianity, and will most likely give Christianity a privileged place in perpetuity.
The problem with this line of reasoning is that you are taking the liberty of assumption that, if the roles were reversed, we wouldn't let stand on these boards.
You have a little more on your side as far as precedent, but until the school board declined a satanist memorial, there really is no preference being given.
(February 18, 2015 at 5:09 pm)Faith No More Wrote: I realize the necessity to keep public grounds neutral, but given the heavy influence religion has in politics and education, surely the FFRF has better things to do, no? Not only does this seem like a poor use of resources, it's going to come across as extremely petty to the public. It's one thing to win a legal battle, but it will be all for naught if atheists can't win the PR battle, either.
But the FFRF always acts on behalf of a citizen in the community. If someone asks them to represent them on this, should they say no?
I agree the PR thing is important. But are we ever winning hearts and minds with this stuff? Is FFRF, by asking to have monuments, crosses, etc removed ever not going to be polarizing? And---ask yourself this: aren't instances like this even more impactful when it comes to future policy making? Next time that school board makes a decision about about book handouts or sponsors at the baseball game, don't you think they'll be a little more apt to take this into account, and by proxy and media attention, other school boards/districts?
"There remain four irreducible objections to religious faith: that it wholly misrepresents the origins of man and the cosmos, that because of this original error it manages to combine the maximum servility with the maximum of solipsism, that it is both the result and the cause of dangerous sexual repression, and that it is ultimately grounded on wish-thinking." ~Christopher Hitchens, god is not Great
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