1. Talk in Class Turns to God, Setting Off Public Debate on Rights

Comment #14021 by The_Iceman on December 20, 2006 at 6:51 pm

Almost everyone is aware of the failure of U.S. public education to produce students possessing even the most basic tools necessary for functioning in 21st Century society.

Totally absent are critical thinking and analysis skills, evidenced by student support for a teacher who is so clearly incompetent, and lacking in even the most basic understanding of his professional responsibilities to his students.

When we read that school administrators consider him an "excellent" teacher with no record of previous complaints, one has to wonder about the quality of instruction which the Kearny School District is capable of delivering.

Then, we read of years of school sanctioned cheating in the Camden, NJ schools (http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/special_packages/camden_schools/) and the perception of what is going on in New Jersey public schools becomes just plain scary.

2. O Come All Ye Unfaithful

Comment #11524 by The_Iceman on December 5, 2006 at 9:26 am

As a lifelong (71) atheist, I am constantly puzzled by this question: What serves to determine whether one becomes a believer whose attitudes cannot be changed, vs. those who find religious beliefs to be harmless fairy tales at best, and restrictive of human freedom and progress at worst?

Interestingly, I can think of not a single U.S. President, or for that matter, any Congressperson who has publicly rejected religion.

As a child, I was treated by my family as the "black cheep," having rejected their religious beliefs at roughly the point at which I gained skills in reading.

One theory, suggesting that religion is a "mirror-image" of autism holds much appeal for me. Found at,
http://discovermagazine.typepad.com/horganism/2006/11/is_religion_the.html#comment-25972053,

it offers some tantalizing suggestions as to how adherence to religious beliefs may, in fact, be a biogically determined phenomenenon.