PZ Myers

Apparently this post by PZ Myers on "crackers" has caused a bit of a dust up. I think the post is hilarious.

Technorati Tags: PZ Myers, communion host, stupid religion

I Just Want to be Free

Why does the Pennsylvania State Constitution still have this very cramped view of religious freedom? (h/t Morbo at the Carpetbagger Report)

Religion
Section 4.

No person who acknowledges the being of a God and a future state of rewards and punishments shall, on account of his religious sentiments, be disqualified to hold any office or place of trust or profit under this Commonwealth.

In Pennsylvania only believers are guaranteed religious freedom. The rest of us, not so much. The fortunate thing is that a 1961 United States Supreme Court ruling (Torcaso v. Watkins) turned this section of our state constitution into the legal analog of an appendix.

“We repeat and again reaffirm that neither a State nor the Federal Government can constitutionally force a person ‘to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion.’ Neither can constitutionally pass laws or impose requirements which aid all religions as against nonbelievers, and neither can aid those religions based on a belief in the existence of God as against those religions founded on different beliefs.”

It no longer has a function, but certainly it may cause the body politic some pain. Therefore I think it would be wise, should there be a constitutional convention in Pennsylvania, to bring this section up to date. Extend religious freedom to all of us.


Technorati Tags: Pennsylvania, state constitution, religious freedom

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Maha: Essentially, “moral clarity” is about bullshitting yourself.

Mahablog has two excellent posts up on the illusion of moral clarity. The following passage comes from the second of these posts. I recommend, especially to my conservative readers, to read them both. They are here and here.

As I’ve written elsewhere, achieving moral clarity is remarkably easy.

First, take a firm and inflexible position on a moral question. Then, studiously ignore any factors that might call that opinion into question. If the factors refuse to go away, make up lies to neutralize them.

See? Nothin’ to it.

If you are foolish enough to take all facets of an issue into account, you risk not being clear. In fact, the more gut-level honest you are about a messy, unpleasant issue, the less clear you are likely to be. And this is a problem for conservatives, who by nature cannot stand ambiguity. One of the most basic traits of conservatives, in fact, is a compulsion to sort the world into rigid binary categories — right and wrong, good and evil, white and black. Any muddling of categories sends them into nervous fits. But once all things and all issues are properly sorted, they can relax and bask in their moral clarity.

The standard way to achieve moral clarity on the abortion issue, for example, is to completely disregard women. Examples of such “clear” moralizing include this op ed by Dean Barnett and this one by Michael Gerson.

Technorati Tags: Morality, Religion, BushCo.

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