In North Carolina, students at the North Windy Ridge Intermediate School were told that they could pick up a free Bible, donated by the Gideons. When Ginger Strivelli’s son came home with a new Bible, she decided to offer her own free copies of sacred books. She is a pagan and brought pagan spell books to the office. She was turned away (though I expect spell books in the age of Harry Potter would be snatched up like Bertie Bott’s Every Flavor Beans). The Buncombe County Board of Education now says that it will reexamine its policies. However, this only came after a non-Christian religion asked for the same access to schools.
Category: Religion
Democrats and independents have often challenged the use of churches by GOP candidates for campaigning and voter registration drives. The same concern would appear raised by the remarks of senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett this Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church where she appeared to be stumping for the President — followed by a voter registration drive at the church.
We have spent considerable time on this blog discussing the dangers of Sharia system in various Muslim countries like Iran and Saudi Arabia, particularly in the treatment of women and girls. However, in any free nation, citizens should be allowed to resolve their own disputes through private mediation or religious adjudications. This is what is happening increasingly in England where Muslims are circumventing the court system in favor of Islamic courts and Sharia law. The growing influence of Sharia courts has raised concerns among women’s groups and such reliance should come with added vigilance to ensure that all of the parties are truly consenting to such faith-based adjudications.
Continue reading “English Citizens Increasingly Turning To Sharia Courts”
Respectfully Submitted by Lawrence Rafferty (rafflaw)-Guest Blogger
On Monday we celebrate the life of the Reverend Martin Luther King and honor him for his work with the Civil Rights movement. One of his most famous speeches was the 1963 “I Have A Dream” speech that he gave in Washington, D.C. to a crowd of thousands. In that speech he laid out his vision and hopes for the Civil Rights movement. I would like to review some of his words and discuss if his dream came true for African-Americans and minorities throughout our country. “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.” ‘ Huffington Post Continue reading “Did Martin Luther King’s ‘Dream’ Come True?”
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
Almost four weeks ago I read an article in Huffington Post entitled: “Can Loving A Robot Lead to Divorce?” by Vicki Larson, a journalist. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vicki-larson/robots_1_b_1150679.html Ms. Larson introduces her piece by quoting the claims of a current manufacturer of anatomically correct “sex robots”, who presumably speak and move in sexual ways. I followed the article’s link to the website of the robots inventor, Douglas Hines, who enthusiastically discusses his creation and has a few videos (non-explicit) that demonstrate the robot’s “capabilities”. While the HuffPost article links the Company’s website, I’m not doing it here, since publicizing this device is not my aim. Should you want further information it is available at the articles link. The “sex robot” being produced now is but an update on inflatable sex toys, though with a “skeleton”, rudimentary movement and speech added. It therefore is only an opening reference to a real issue that will shortly become scientifically possible.
The next part of this short article is an overview with of the opinion of Artificial Intelligence Expert David Levy http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=humans-marrying-robots “It also may be the future of love and marriage, if you believe artificial intelligent (AI) expert David Levy, author of Love and Sex With Robots. According to Levy, human-robot sex, love and marriage is inevitable — perhaps as soon as 2025. He predicts that robots may not only be more lovable and faithful than many humans, but they may even be more emotionally available than the “typical American human male.” Not only will they make us become better, more creative lovers, but they also will offer those singles who feel a void in their emotional and sexual lives and married couples with differing sexual needs new, nonjudgmental ways to be happy and healthy. Although Levy believes that the “availability of regular sex with a robot will dramatically reduce the incidence of infidelity as we know it today,” he also acknowledges there may be some potential sticky points. “Some human spouses and lovers might consider robot sex to be just as unfaithful as sex with another person.”
Levy’s view naturally flows into the conclusion of the article which is an E Mail interview with Sonya Ziaja, a San Francisco Bay Area attorney who blogs at numerous law and policy media outlets as well as her own, Shark. Laser. Blawg.
“And what could be more fraught with legal dilemmas than a love triangle among a married couple and a sexbot? How that might impact a divorce? That’s what Ziaja explores in her paper, “Homewrecker 2.0: An Exploration of Liability for Heart Balm Torts Involving AI Humanoid Consorts,” which she presented at the 2011 International Conference on Social Robotics that took place in Amsterdam at the end of November.
“If the doll’s owner becomes enamored with the doll, and leaves his spouse, can the spouse sue as she or he would be able to if the interloper had been human? And who would be sued? The manufacturer? Inventor? The AI itself?” she questions. “So long as we’re intent on adding socially interactive AI into situations that would ordinarily be only human. … socially interactive robots need to be ‘safe to play with’ in a way that manufacturers of toaster ovens never had to imagine.”
Thus we are presented here with a legal quandary instigated by the advent of revolutionary technology affecting serious legal, moral and ethical issues. How should we view this inevitability and how shall we deal with it as a society? Continue reading “Robot Love?”
Rhode Island high school student Jessica Ahlquist has taught her school officials a useful lesson on civics this week. The Cranston High School West student won her challenge to a large prayer mural displayed at the school with a federal judge ordering its removal as a violation of the separation of church and state.
Continue reading “Brava, Jessica Ahlquist: Rhode Island High School Student Wins Separation Lawsuit”
Michelle Williams, was the city manager of Mt. Pleasant, Tennessee for only one full week when she tackled a controversial practice: prayer services during office hours of the employees at City Hall. For years, the local chaplain has been holding prayer services during work hours and Williams pointed out that such observations violated the separation of church and state. She got the local chaplain to agree to hold the daily prayers either before or after work hours. This manifestly reasonable request has led to opposition from some, including City Commissioner Bob Shackelford who wants the prayer sessions to continue.
Continue reading “Tennessee City Manager Criticized For Ending Regular Prayer Meetings For City Employees During Work Hours”
We previously discussed the law passed in Oklahoma barring state judges from considering Islamic and international law in their decisions. Now the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit has blocked the law. The three-judge panel upheld an injunction barring certification of Question 755. The decision has some important language for both standing and free exercise claims.
Continue reading “Too Sooner For Sharia? Tenth Circuit Rules Against Oklahoma’s Anti-Sharia Law”
A survey by the Southern Baptist Convention shows that 73% of Protestant pastors reject the concept of evolution — even when asked if they believe God used evolution to create humans. Forty-six percent maintained that the Earth is only roughly 6000 years old despite tests showing rocks that are millions of years old.
Continue reading “Two-Thirds of Polled Pastors Reject Evolution”
Made Snana is a century-old ritual in India where low-caste Hindus roll in the leftover food from the meals of higher caste Brahmins. It is believed to be cure of such things as skin disorders and fulfillment of wishes, but a group of religious leaders have called for a ban on the practice. That has prompted violent attacks from those insisting on the continuation of the ritual.
We are often discussing stories of religious intolerance and sectarian prejudice on this blog, so it is refreshing to report an act of kindness and tolerance on occasion. Despite opposition from Christian groups, the United States Air Force Academy has established an area for pagans to pray in Colorado called the Falcon Circle. The academy’s senior chaplain, Col. Robert Bruno, insisted that freedom of religion means that cadets should be able to practice their religion — a novel concept to some who later desecrated the religious site.
In Rochester, N.Y., pastor Anthony Lee Drumgoole, 23, has been laying his hands on more than the faithful. He is charged with a robbery at the Carolina Forest Buffalo Wild Wings and racked up additional charges of kidnapping and four counts of financial transaction card fraud. He was arrested at his church.
Continue reading “New York Pastor Arrested For Robbery and Kidnapping At Buffalo Wings Restaurant”
For some people, a dark global conspiracy evolves around the trilateral commission or the military-industrial complex or even fluoride in the water. For some in the Vatican, it appears to be that sinister group in United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and their insidious plan to make “half the world population homosexual.” It is not clear who our overlord in the new gay regime will be, but I see the hand of Harvey Fierstein who has secretly longed for global domination.
Continue reading “Catholic Cardinal: UNESCO Plots To Make “Half The World Population Homosexual””
Submitted by: Mike Spindell, guest blogger
When you contemplate all of the problems that beset us in this election year it is hard not to feel daunted by the task of finding solutions. Many millions of American’s are without jobs, with the prospect of future employment seeming illusory. The top 1% of the American population controls vast amounts of the country’s wealth. http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4?op=1 Wages of average Americans have stagnated for the past 40 years to such an extent that our middle class is shrinking rapidly. The housing boom of years past has become a bust of monumental proportions and foreclosures are destroying formerly viable neighborhoods. Our once barely adequate “safety net” has been shredded and there are attempts to destroy both Social Security and Medicare as we know it. Despite a weak attempt at Medical reform millions of Americans find health care unaffordable, with many dying and others forced into bankruptcy to stay alive. Due to lack of money America’s once magnificent infrastructure is rotting and solutions are not on the horizon.
The collapse and bailout of our banking industry has cost us trillions and appears to have been brought about by fraudulent practices on the part of the industry, yet no one has been indicted. In fact the remuneration of top executives in this duplicitous industry has actually increased. Efforts to impose stiff controls ensuring that these artificial crises don’t happen again and that these huge financial entities do business ethically, have failed to pass the Congress. We see that the fallout from the American banking crisis has undercut the world’s economy and that economic crises in other industrialized nations appear regularly. Please notice I’m only referring to the economic problems we face and only producing a partial list of those economic problems.
We have seemingly come to the conclusion of an unnecessary war in Iraq, where trillions were spent and perhaps a million were killed, yet the withdrawal of troops is to bases that surround Iraq. We are leaving about 40,000 Americans in country, many as mercenaries (contractors is a euphemism) as we support the largest diplomatic infrastructure in any foreign nation. The war in Afghanistan still rages in a land that has never been significantly shaped by any outside empire, this despite the killing of Osama Bin Laden and the virtual destruction of Al Qaeda. Hundreds of billions are being spent and the lives of our troops are put in danger, in an exercise with little hope of success. Billions are going towards building Afghanistan’s infrastructure as ours is falling apart. Yet these instances fail to raise the broad spectrum of the military/foreign policy problems continuing to plague us. These issues include a military budget that far greater than that of all other nations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_military_expenditures
However, these three paragraphs still do not encompass the broad range of problems we Americans face. There is more to be touched on before we come to the conclusion that I’ve reached, that there is one problem that not only transcends all of these, but its need for immediate solution supersedes any of the others in importance. Continue reading “America’s Transcendent Issue”
Pat Robertson is back. This time he is revealing how God told him the name of the next president. Robertson, however, is not going to reveal the name. It appears that he is the only viewer on God’s cable punditry channel. Robertson explained “I think He showed me about the next president, but I’m not supposed to talk about that so I’ll leave you in the dark — probably just as well — but I think I know who it’s gonna be.”