Shane Haven
Should Theology Be Taught in Public Institutions?
This semester I will be spending a lot of time with historical works on both sides of the spectrum regarding religion and science. I am taking a Senior Research Seminar on the crusades as well as taking a course on History of Science. Recently, I got some time to thumb through a book that I did not get to finish over the summer in The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. As I was thumbing through the work, a block of text seemed to jump out at me. The quote was from the great Thomas Jefferson. He was quoted as saying “A professorship of theology should have no place in our institution.”1 My topic today is related to this very quote. Should theology be taught in public schools?
On one hand, you have those who say that people should ban theological studies. Children would not be required to say “under God” during the Pledge of Allegiance. Furthermore they wouldn’t be required to have a class on Christianity, or the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, or even Muhammad ibn ‘Abdullāh for that matter. I do not think it is the right of a Government body to tell a student, you must learn this, and not that. However, I don’t think it is right for a public institution to force a child to learn their laws and rules if that child believes in science.
You also have to flip the coin on this question. What about a pious child learning evolution? How about a pious child learning about the Big Bang Theory? These are also interesting questions, because if a child is a believer of some religion, then should they be force fed facts about human evolution? Indeed it should. Unfortunately for them, I think the answer to this question is not laid in society’s ideals of what is right or wrong, rather than the U.S. Constitution.
This debate comes down to the question of the separation of church and state. Schools, at least public ones, are run by the local government. For example, high schools in the city of Los Angeles are run by the LAUSD, or the Los Angeles Unified School District. This nation is one that recognizes the separation of church and state. No where in the United States Constitution does it say that the citizens of the U.S. should subscribe to any particular religion. In fact, the first amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; …” By teaching the laws or rules of any particular religion would violate the Bill of Rights. In my opinion, it could be good to learn some of the rules and laws of any religion. There are good things to be had within those respective documents. However it is also wrong to make a “non-believer” to learn of it too. At least modern science has many of its discoveries rooted in facts.
If a child wants to go and learn about Christianity, Islam, Bhuddism, Hinduism, or any other religion then can take a particular course at a specific institution. Many people do this in colleges today. There should be no class at the public level of education (high school or middle school) that would allow for these to be taught. There are certain historical times where a basic portion of religion must be taught to have a proper understanding of the times. The crusades and the Salem Witch Trials would be one time where it would be acceptable to squeak in some religion. However, it would be for an understanding, not a chance to preach the lives and teaching of some prophet.
Ultimately Jefferson was correct, as it would infringe on the rights of man.
Notes
1. Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York: First Mariner Press, 2008), 100.
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Person of the Week: Hugh Laurie
Why does Hugh Laurie get this weeks honor? Laurie plays the character House on the television show of the same name. Last night’s episode proved to me just how good of an actor Laurie truly is. Laurie had a reduced role on House last night. Without giving too much of the plot away, Foreman, one of the main supporting cast members took House’s position at the hospital. With Foreman at the head of the hospital the show was fairly boring. The normal witty yet brash dialogue that House brings in solving a medical mystery was missing. Normally the medical mystery would be enough to keep one’s interest however the show really lacked without the presence of Hugh Laurie as House. Thankfully, it appears that House will be back in his traditional role soon enough. He is a true talent as an actor to one of my favorite shows; and that is why he is this weeks, person of the week.
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Ahmadinejad Continues to show his Holocaust Denial Idealism
Mideast Iran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is at it again. The fanatical Iranian leader is further pushing the envelope on being one of the most hardcore contemporary Holocaust deniers. Of course you are unfamiliar with the likes of a ‘holocaust denier’ they contain the belief that no one ever attempted genocide on the Jewish population in Europe or the Middle East. According to the Associtated Press via Yahoo News, Ahmadinejad made a speech on Friday where he questioned whether or not the Holocaust actually happened. Nasser Karimi and Lee Keath of the AP writes:
During a speech Friday, he questioned whether the Holocaust was ‘a real event’ and called it a pretext used by Jews to trick the West into backing the creation of Israel. He said the Jewish state was created out of ‘a lie and a mythical claim.’1
To an extent, I wish I could meet the Iranian leader. I wouldn’t want to talk to him. I hold a passionate contempt for the man. I see him as one who has the potential for being a modern day Adolf Hitler. What I would do at this meeting would be to hand him a copy of Michael Shermer and Alex Grobman’s Denying History: Who says the holocaust never happened and why do they say it? I would implore him to read it. If he did, I would love to hear his refutation. I do not understand how anyone can still be alive and hold such ideals. We all know that I have commented on Ahmadinejad previously. I don’t want to rehash too much of the old posts. However, I think it is hard for anyone to truly attempt to deny how Ahmadinejad feels. He continuously speaks of how the holocaust apparently never happened, and how they deserve to be destroyed.
– END NOTES –
1. Nasser Karimi and Lee Keath, “Iran’s Ahmadinejad proud of Holocaust denial.” Associated Press, September 21, 2009, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090921/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran (accessed September 22, 2009).
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Tonight was the first night that Jay Leno returned from his three month retirement to do his new show, The Jay Leno Show. I am a huge fan of Leno. I can remember having lunch back in high school where my friends and I would argue over who was the better host – Jay Leno or Conan O’Brien. I would always argue for Jay and the rest of the group, about ten in all, would say Conan O’Brien. Still to this day, I think Leno was the better, more funny, and more entertaining host. I was quite sad when he went off the air of The Tonight Show and I was delighted to hear about his return at the 10pm time slot.
There was only one thing I did not like when I heard that he was coming back. Jay Leno expressed multiple times that his new show would be different, with only a taste of the old. Because of that, I had my reservations of the brand new show that Leno was going to pilot. Now to jump to tonight, the grand opening night of the Jay Leno Show.
Leno had a great guest list tonight. First, he interviewed Jerry Seinfeld. Seeing the two of them trade jokes, which some looked painfully scripted, was awesome. I was seriously cracking up. Leno also had that jerk, Kanye West, on for a more serious interview about Kanye’s not so classy actions at the Video Music Awards show. Leno got Kanye really good. At one point Kanye was at a loss for words after Leno asked him “what would your mother think of what you did?” Kanye actually cried. In addition to the great Seinfeld bit, and the jack-ass known as Kanye, there was the traditional: monologue, “headlines,” a couple taped joke sessions (interview with President Obama), and a musical number by three talented artists (Jay Z, Rihanna, and the jack-ass Kanye).1 The show seemed very Tonight Show-esque with a nice new fancy set.
Critics, such as Time, seem to be harping that Jay Leno was wrong in saying that it would be a different show, but I am glad it is not. Jay Leno was quite funny. I was cracking up most of the time. I found the whole show just great, and it is nice to have Jay Leno back on a nightly basis. Oh, and for those Kevin Eubanks fans, he, and his band, are back as well! Fantastic show Mr. Leno, keep it up and this will be a hit of a show.
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Memorial Day 2010
Thank you to the troops who gave their lives to create, preserve, and protect the United States. Today we honorably recognize your sacrifice and courage. Without these true heroes, the freedom which we enjoy today, could never be possible.
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Does the U.S. Have Presidential Term Limits Wrong?
I was listening to sports radio several weeks ago and Jesse Ventura was a guest. With a personality like the very opinionated Jesse Ventura, things quickly turned from sports talk to politics. I was about to switch the station when they began to talk about presidential term limits. I now no longer remember who said it, but I beveieve it was the radio host who suggested that Mexico’s term limits were better than that of the United States.
Mexico’s Presidential term limits are actually quite different than here in the US. We are used to Presidents having an opportunity for re-election after their first term which consists of four years. Only upon re-election is a president allowed to serve a second term of four years. In Mexico, the president only gets one term. There is no chance for re-election. The drawback is that the President gets elected for six years. That is equivalent to 1.5 terms here in the U.S.
At first look there does not seem to be much difference between the two. A “successful” U.S. president would theoretically be re-elected and continue to be “successful.” There is one big difference from my perspective. The Mexico president would never be running for re-election. He would implement the changes that he wanted never worrying about having to get re-elected. Presidents (and other political positions where there is the ability to be re-elected) are often criticized because the person will do enough to make people happy but he (or she) stops short of any true implementations that would be too controversial in fear of not being re-elected. Mexican system does not allow for political correctness that stems from running for re-election. Theoretically a Mexican president could then just focus on being president. The flip side is that if you have a bad president, he is stuck in there for six years instead of four.
The fact that this criticism was brought up was particularly interesting to me. I think the cost outweighs the benefit of the Mexican system though. If you have a bad president, six years is too long of a time to wait to elect a new one. I do like the idea of only a single term though. No playing politics to get re-elected. Bad presidents can get re-elected in the American system though when people believe two candidates both are bad one emerges as the “lesser of two evils.” Maybe the true best system would be one term for four years. No chance at re-election. The president would take office and get to work. Your term is short so you have to make smart decisions quickly. If you mess around history would not be kind. The only problem would be if a president wanted to implement something very delicate into the nation. It may take years to research, years to implement, and yes to fix the bugs. That would be something that could be done in an eight year term, but would require immense cooperation under my suggested one year system. I think it could be better than what we have though. What do you think?
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A Web Theory
For anyone who is wondering, I think just having a decent domain name, and a well designed website can indeed help your view count. My blog is still in the cellar of view counts and I am not pretending for it to be anything different. However, since I purchased a domain name, and my good friend over at smithscott.net design my site, my views have gone up. The main reason behind me embarking on this venture was in the hopes of my view count going up. I am not sure if this is the reason, but I’d like to think it is. If anyone comes across this post and is having problems with view counts, I would suggest trying this. Of course you need to know (and/or being willing to pay for a designer), much less have the means to purchase both hosting and a domain name. If you have these means, give it a try! Its my theory anyway. Now if I could just get more viewers than I have now.
Now that my Spring 2010 semester has come to a close, I will be returning to a regular posting rate. No I don’t have a schedule, but I am pondering making one. For now, just please check back daily. Most posts are published in late morning ready for lunchtime or evening viewing.
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The iPad!
Most people know about the craze of the iPad much less have probably read or watched reviews. Well my father decided to purchase himself one, and I got to monkey around with it a bit today. I love technology that is sleek so my first reaction was “awesome!” It truly is sleek looking, and the nice big touch screen is really fun to navigate and use. I have an iPod touch and I can see how much better touch applications will work with a much bigger screen. After my initial amazement was over, I asked what would I use this for if the device were mine?
My answer was for books, magazines, simple internet items that my laptop could take care of, and maybe some games or specialized apps. The book item was the most important however, because I read and work with books a lot. So I wanted to see if this could become my first e-reader. I was able to check out their ibooks app which is the reader app that Apple has been advertising so much. Would the app allow me to still be able to be a student though? By that I mean, can I highlight things? Can I flip to a specific page quickly? Can I book mark a page? Are the pages standard to the print edition of the book?
For the most part, the ibooks app can do all of that. It doesn’t allow for highlights, and the pages are not the same to the print edition of the book. In fact, the pages can change. If you decrease or increase the letter size, the page numbers change. Their is no consistency. Now, a normal reader would say, “who cares?” The academic would say, “this app sucks.” The academic uses the book to cite items. They make their arguments from it. If a student would use ibooks and the pages are not consistent if a teacher were to check the citation, then they wouldn’t be able to find it. The student would probably get in trouble for plagiarism until he could prove it. To me, this is a big problem. Now I understand this is the book application, and not the ipad. But because this is the most prominent app, and this is what I would probably use, unless someone develops a more academic friendly book app.
So is the iPad neat? Yes! Would I have a use for it? Maybe. Is it right for college students? No, you still have to carry around all your books, to and from class.
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Arizona’s SB1070 Law
After a few weeks of an intense amount of homework, I finally have some time to blog. I have had many thoughts for good posts over the past couple weeks, but I have forgotten most of them. Today however, I was reminded of the Arizona law, SB1070, and I felt like commenting on it. If you have not heard of the law that was signed into law by Arizona Governor Janet Brewer, there is a fact sheet prepared by the Arizona State Legislature which you can read here. This bill basically says that police now have the right to ask a suspected illegal immigrant to provide his or her papers if the police get a tip, or suspect a person to be an illegal immigrant.
Personally I have mixed feelings about this bill. On one hand it creates racial profiling. Anyone who is of Hispanic descent is going to be questioned, while illegal immigrants that are not from Mexico or South America will likely not be dealt with. Of course, there are also immigrants who are in the United States illegally from Asia and all around the world who are probably not going to be the focus of the police. There probably will be racial tensions growing out of this, and I would not be surprised to turn on the news at some point and catch a massive riot in Arizona over what is going on. There could be many unnecessarily hurt by this reform.
There also has been much opposition to the bill where protesters have been calling Arizona everything from simply unconstitutional and racist to that of a Nazi state. Now these are foolish accusations. I would suspect that most of those who oppose the bill, do not understand the entire issue at hand. They are looking at things through racially motivated goggles. While they do have a legitimate argument, they are also missing the big picture.
The reason this bill was turned into law was not because the people of Arizona wanted to oppress minorities. Arizona has a large problem with illegal immigrant crime. People have been raped, murdered, abducted, and taken back to Mexico. Drugs are also flooding Arizona based off of the drug trafficking system, and that isn’t even mentioning gangs. These are people who are coming into the country with gang rap sheets. Here is a website to raise awareness of illegal immigrants crime activity by posting the stories of those murdered by illegal immigrants.
This may not be the right bill, but if it helps Arizona, which is reported to be one of the worst states with illegal immigrant crime, then it makes their community safer. People may be embarrassed if they are asked to show ID, but those who have nothing to hide and are true good citizens do not have to worry. Its those who have come to this country illegally, and those that pose a threat to hurting others than are the ones who need to truly worry.
I suppose if I were to try to solve the issue I would send troops down to Mexico and South American in a position to aide the Mexican and South American militaries and police forces to fight gangs and the drug cartels. Although that too would have protest because the same people would be screaming “the US is trying to take over the world!” Of course that wouldn’t be the case, but people generally read what they want into any given situation.
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Michael Jackson Dead at Age 50
I must start out saying I am going to get a lot of shit for this post. If you are a uber fan of Michael Jackson I would highly advise not reading the rest of this post.
I am apalled by humanity today. Over the past decade I had started to discover a theory about how humanity is becoming weak. If anything the reaction to Michael Jackson’s death has helped to prove my theory true. People are shocked about Jackson’s death. To that, I can agree the man was only fifty years old, but the shock is not what I am getting at. People are actually extremely upset that he has passed away. Now I could understand if this man was Ghandi, Mother Theresa, or a person who was a genuinly good person but we are talking about Michael Jackson a man who slept with little children. He was a pedophile. There were multiple allegations of him sleeping with kids. Because of that, I can not understand why people are crying and even more so outlashing at Jackson’s critics. Did people cry when the news of Hitler died? How about Saddam Huessein? Ok, so their families and friends might have and I suppose they have the right to. But did the general public? No. And I know what those are going to say, that that comparison is not fair, Jackson was not a person who committed genocide nor was he a dictator. Fair enough. Well lets look at Blair Evans. Who is Blair Evans? Well he is a pedophile but he did not create any music. Do you think anyone outside of his family and friends would cry because he died? NO! They would not even care. But Michael Jackson created music, and for some reason that is supposed to give him a pass. Some have asked well what if Kobe Bryant were to die? That would be horrible BUT it wouldn’t make him any less of an adulterer. Humanity has become weak. I think I will go create a piece of music and sell it to 50,000 people so that way I can get away with stealing a penny from the penny jar, because if I create music apparently it lets you do anything you want. I do not wish death on people like Jackson, that is cruel, but excuse me if I don’t understand how people are extremely upset. Excuse me if I don’t feel sad to the point where I cry because I do not care that the world has lost a person who gets his jollies from sleeping with little kids. I am sorry if I am a monster for not feeling sympathy, but I think you are the monster for feeling sorrow for a man who died that the world is probably a better place for him being gone.
With that said, I do feel sorry for the Jackson family and his friends. They would feel a loss and that is a horrible thing. My sympathy does go out to them.
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The U.S. gets the Biggest Victory Ever
Today has been an interesting day in both domestic and international sports. The United States has never been known as the nation that has embraced the most popular sport in the world. Due to the lack of local interest in the game, the U.S. can not produce that many amazing athletes to compete in the top sporting event in the world – the World Cup. Today things might have changed as the U.S. upset the number one ranked team in the world, Spain. I have to admit, I did not watch the game. I was busy dealing with other important buisness, and honestly I figured the U.S. would lose. Contrary to sports reporters’ predictions the U.S. scored two goals winning the match 2-0. So what does this mean? Well according to ESPN the U.S. is 0-3-0 all time against Spain and Spain had won 35 straight international matches. The United States is going to now be competing in its first FIFA final since 1960. It is important to note, as I may have worded it poorly earlier, that this FIFA tournament is not the World Cup it is actually the Confederation Cup. The fact still remains that the U.S. is making grounds by defeating Spain and that they are now in the finals of the said tournament. As of right now it is unclear as to who the U.S. will face in the final. There is another game that will determine who faces the U.S. in the final between Brazil and South Africa. Just in case you are interested, the game will air on ESPN at 2:25 ET, or alternativley you can check it out on ESPN360.com
Without a doubt this is an important historical victory for the United States and a historic moment for the world of soccer world wide, however I doubt it will change much on the homefront where soccer is not even considered a major sport. Why do I feel this way? Well, the U.S. already imported the most popular soccer player in David Beckham. When that took place in 2007, it seemed that sports fans that were not already soccer fans tuned into a few games at the most. After Beckham’s first games, no one really cared about soccer anymore. The same thing will happen for the end of this tournament, and then a year from now when the world cup arrives everyone will watch soccer until that event is over. In conclusion this is a historic moment for soccer fans, and for the sport internationally, however on the homefront it may not mean anything because people here just do not care.
As a sports sidenote, Shaquille O’neal has been traded to the Cavs where they just became a even greater force to deal with in the Eastern conference.
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I’m Back!!! Command and Conquer 4!?
I have been back from Alaska for a good week and a couple days. I have declined from posting because I just wanted a break from posting for a little while. I have had some thoughts on certain current events, especially the possible Iranian Revolution, and it was quite difficult to not post the ideas running through my head. I spent that week trying to bat around ideas on how to make posts better and I came to a couple conclusions as to how to go about doing that. I will address those at a later date however. As for today, I just want to point out something cool to Command and Conquer fans, THERE WILL BE A COMMAND AND CONQUER 4! Before you start smiling like a giddy little girl about this announcement, there is one big thing to be aware about, and that is there is going to be some facet of MMORPGs in there. If you don’t know what an MMORPG is, well it is basically World of Warcraft, and if that is the form that Command and Conquer is going to take, I will drop the series faster than I would if I grabbed a hot pan with my bare hand. Anyway, if you would like you can check out the source from which this information was gathered from.
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Off to the Land of the Midnight Sun
I am going on vacation right now. No updates until at least the 14th. I will be getting back some where around the 14th to the 17th so look for new posts, as well as photos then.
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June 6th – D-Day Rememberance
June 6th 1944 was a day that brought about major CHANGE in the world. A war was waginging throughout the planet it this day helped bringing about the beginning of the end; the day is better known as D-Day. Allied forces invaded the shores of Normandy to fight the evil Nazi Regime. The war that was waging may have been the biggest good versus evil war in human history. I would hope that people around the world take a second to say thanks for the sacrifices the allies took in defeating the evil of the second world war.
