By REED BRADEN
Added: Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:00:00 UTC

Reposted from the blogsite: I am an unorthodox atheist
http://unorthodoxatheism.blogspot.com/2007/04/censored.html

Censored

I recently had a conversation with a friend who identifies himself as an Atheist. He took a few stabs and guesses at the origin of the universe and the origin of life that were not too far off from pre-existing theories. I lent him The God Delusion with a sticky note on the chapter describing the anthropic principle in planets and possible universes. I wanted to see what he thought about the theories Dawkins describes and have a discussion about them.

His father found the book, took it from his son (censoring him from any literature clashing with his own personal beliefs), and called my cell phone number (written inside the cover) to tell me he was going to come over to my house to personally return it that night. It was already 11:00 PM. He read me my address (I assume he got it from the phonebook) and told me, "You made this too easy." I obsessively checked every lock in my house and went to sleep with a metal baseball bat held across my chest.

He sounded a bit drunk on the phone and I assumed he wouldn't drive across town to deliver my book in his state, so I called the school and left a message, asking to deny him a visitor's pass to the student areas of the building. He indeed came to school, and I assume he tried to visit me but was intercepted by the principal first. Whatever occurred, he ended up talking to my principal and demanded that I be punished for "handing out literature" and attempting to convert his already-Atheist son to Atheism.

Sidenote: The Gideons stopped cars in our parking lot a week ago to deliver Bibles to every person leaving the school... without school intervention.

My friend asked me to loan him the book and I did. The fact that I loaned him a book on school grounds does not mean this is a school issue. The issue is between me and my friend, and now the principal is at home "sleeping on the decision" to punish me or not.

Is there anyone reading this who does not find this story outrageously ridiculous? Even my conservative, right-wing, religious father said that this man sounds like a conservative, right-wing, religious whack-o.

I still don't have my book back.

Reposted from:
http://unorthodoxatheism.blogspot.com/2007/04/idiocy-revealed.html>

Idiocy Revealed!

In my dealings with my principal today, she gave no absolute affirmative or negative on punishing me for loaning another student my Dawkins book. She merely said she was "reviewing an ongoing investigation." She couldn't answer me why this was any business of the school at all. She did however give me a thousand half-assed reasons to punish me; the most interesting being violation of the establishment clause.

She told me that in loaning a religious book to another student, I was promulgating my religious beliefs and forcing the school into an establishment clause violation.

WHAT?!

This kid is an Atheist and I am an Atheist and this book is about Atheism. There doesn't seem to be much "promulgation" there. The God Delusion is also not a religious book. I explained to her that Atheism is not a religion, and so the topic of the book is more akin to philosophy and science. One other thing I don't understand is how what goes on between students violates a clause that states the government cannot sponsor a religion. If the school was handing out The God Delusion, it could be seen as an establishment clause violation, but not if it was solely between students.

She also said that since the book was not in line with the school's curriculum, it was inappropriate for school. I then asked her what she meant by this: if I were to be reading it by myself on campus, would I be breaking a rule? According to her, yes. My English class is not allowed to read Grapes of Wrath because it was deemed unsuitable for non-AP classes by the school board. I happen to be a Steinbeck fan. I asked her if it would be inappropriate to read Grapes of Wrath in school. Her answer was, in my case, yes.

In this sense, it is also against school rules to loan students extracurricular books of any kind. When I loaned Dante's Inferno to my friends Janel and Melissa, I was not spreading around a piece of literary excellency, I was breaking a rule. When I loaned Obama's Audacity of Hope to my friend Betsy, I was not doing a favour, I was breaking a rule. When I loaned Stephen King's Firestarter to my friend Lauren, I was not providing her with an entertaining short novel, I was breaking a rule. When I loaned Stephen King's Everything's Eventual to my English teacher, Mrs. Nichols, I was not helping her find a correlating short story to Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown," I was breaking a rule.

I asked her where these rules were written and she couldn't answer me. She instead set up an appointment for me to meet with one of the superintendent's office personnel. Everything about this roars wildly with censorship.

I'm just trying to graduate.

Reposted from:
http://richarddawkins.net/changes/insertnew.php

God Delusion

Well, persistence paid off.

When I was persistent with the school, I was able to have the "case" brought against me by the administration of Cave Spring High School dropped and the precedent it would have set wiped out of the books.

Over the past few weeks, I have been persistent with the father of the T_____ family who was still in possession of my book. I called his house every three days and it was absurdly obvious that he instructed his wife to help him avoid my calls. I eventually started leaving notes in his newspaper box (without stepping onto his property) asking about the book and eventually becoming more cordial and wishing for his mother-in-law's quick return to health.

He showed up at my door a few minutes ago and thrust the book into my hands, urging me to never go near his property or son again. I made no promises, but I thanked him for my book. Curiously, there was a saliva test for blood-alcohol-content and two business cards from my former school principal crammed into the front cover along with the hastily scrawled phone number of my former high school's computer technician. I don't know if he is trying to send me some sort of message or if he's just a very confused individual, but I'm fairly happy that I got my book back.

TAGGED: COMMENTARY, RELIGION