On Tuesday, the Texas state senate overwhelmingly approved a bill that a) makes it mandatory to recite the pledge of allegiance in schools and b) forces kids to spend a minute every day in “silent prayer, meditation or reflection”. How did they get away with it? :

Students could be excused from the pledge recitals upon written notice from a parent or guardian, but they wouldn’t be able to opt out of a minute of silence. During the one-minute period, each student may, as the student chooses, reflect, pray, meditate, or engage in any other silent activity that is not likely to interfere with or distract another student,” the bill states.

So, in order to legally force children to pray and pledge allegiance, they built in a loopholes to allow people to get out of the pledge with a note from their parents (and thereby stifle any potential legal challenges from Jehova’s Witnesses) and used the vague terminology of a “moment of silence” when they’re really just want to make every child to pray to Jesus every morning. Nevermind the fact that this is all sneaky and underhanded, the real question is why is all this necessary? Aren’t schools supposed to be teaching children and not forcing their obediance to an invisible man who likes making frogs fall out of the sky and a spoon-fed retard (no offense meant towards actual retarded people) who can’t even pray without smirking? (see the Newsweek cover below)

And while we’re on the subject of people forcing their beliefs on others, what’s with religious right’s obsession with the ten commandments? People keep insisting on posting it in courthouses, schools, and jails. Hell, there’s even one group that was paying children ten bucks to bribe them to memorize the ten commandments.

Now, I’m no bible scholar (few athiests are), but wasn’t the whole point of the new testament that Jesus was coming to Earth to tell people to forget about all the crazy Hebrew laws in the old testament and for people to just love each other? As far as I can tell, the ten commandments only appear in the old testament. If that’s the case, then shouldn’t the ten commandments be held in the same regard as animal sacrifices, the monetary values of various people, or god disliking midgets and people with crushed testicles?

Since many religious people falsely believe that all moral codes are based on the ten commandments (which were in fact adapted from ancient Babylonian law), I can understand why they’re so intent on posting them everywhere. These people see any attempt to block the posting of the ten commandments as a rejection of their values (ie. thou shalt not kill, bear false witness, etc.), while those of us on the other side object to the overtly religious overtone of the first 3 or 4 commandments, depending on which version they’re trying to post.

Of course, people like me aren’t the only ones who aren’t too fond of the “god commandments”. Jesus was known to skip these commandments as well :

“Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, ” ‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.”

Not only did Jesus leave out all the “no graven images” crap, but he even went a step further and added one more commandment (which he later repeats as being his only commandment). These are the commandments that most of the Christians I’ve known follow (ie. the ones who keep their religion to themselves), so why aren’t they good enough for the right-wingers who want them posted everywhere?