Reply #97: Thanks

[jprd]

for the welcome! I appreciate that. I compared your comment about Tantra to trying to prove the existence of God because, although you seem to believe in Tantra, you didn't give examples that would explain to others why it's worth believing in. You're right that I don't know anything about it! I am NOT a glassy-eyed religious nut. I'm just a guy who tries to be logical about things, sometimes succeeding, and sometimes not.

When I try to be logical about the issue of the school prayer that we were discussing, I see it differently than you do apparently. I read our Constitution and it says that no law shall be made that will restrict the "free exercise" of religion. I understand and appreciate that there are times when SOME folks in a school might be offended by a prayer. In such cases, I can agree that a prayer may be inappropriate. If ALL students and parents in attendance had no problem with a prayer, then there is no minority to offend. I conlcude, therefore, that the folks wanting the prayer should be allowed their "free exercise" rights!

As for "personal behavior", norms can be taught with absolutely NO religious involvement. Traits such as self-control, taking responsibility for ones actions (NOT just saying that you're sorry), respect for the person and property of others, etc. These are pretty much the standards of behavior to which our founding fathers ascribed, the same founding fathers that gave us our great Constitution. The only reason I said that "personal behavior" was related to "western religion" was that up until fairly recently the source for teaching norms of "personal behavior" was mainly the Churches and Synagogues, and those norms were reinforced in schools. We can't typically involve religion in schools anymore, but we shouldn't forget the need for teaching priniples like those I mentioned above. I'm certainly NOT talking about teaching creationism or religious dogma.

I would never imply that non-believers are incapable of "moral" behavior, because I don't believe that. I just believe that having NO standards for personal behavior is a dangerous concept, don't you? Again, thanks for the welcome!