(February 18, 2015 at 5:12 pm)SteelCurtain Wrote:(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.
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On the contrary, as long as there are Christian symbols on display, and not symbols of other religions, there is a privileged place for Christianity. It is giving Christianity a privileged place for as long as there are no other symbols.
And if one wanted no religions to have a more privileged place than any other, there would have to be equal numbers of symbols for every imaginable religion. As that is impractical, as well as undesirable, it is best to keep religious symbols from being displayed by public schools. This is supposed to be the law of the land, and it should be followed. Those who violate the law should be punished, not rewarded, for their transgressions. (It would be different if the law were unjust, but as that is not in this case in this example, that hypothetical is irrelevant to this case.)
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
