(January 15, 2015 at 7:36 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: I disagree about secularists. The ones I've heard have an agenda to deny the identity of theists. They want to remove the right to love God.
You say, "deny the identity of theists" I say, "teach theists that there is a time and place for their religion and that places like governemnt law and education aren't one of them." These places need to stay neutral, which is the goal of secularism.
No one's trying to remove god, fr0d0, although, I understand if you fail to realize this due to the fact that the idea of feeling persecuted is built into your religion. We're just trying to eliminate the special privelage religion has demanded over the centuries and pointing out that acknowledging your religion in public arenas is giving it special privelage over the large variety of beliefs that many others hold.
Treating your beliefs equally to all others is not infringing on your religious beliefs whatsoever, so stop with the whiny melodrama.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell