1. The Afterlife for Scientologists

Comment #229341 by Zenith on August 13, 2008 at 11:44 am

His soul will be "born again into the flesh of another body," as the Scientology Press Office's FAQ puts it.

AND

When a body dies, its thetan forgets the details of the former life

SO WHY------

Members of the elite church cadre known as Sea Org, for example, sign contracts that pledge a billion years of service throughout successive lives

Why would you sign a pledge that can't mean anything when you 'return' because you won't remember it? I don't get it!!!

2. Texas State Board of Education approves Bible course for high schools

Comment #214100 by Zenith on July 19, 2008 at 2:27 pm

You know the people who want the bible in thier schools are the same people who would be banning and burning books that are a lot less racy then the bible if that still was in fashion.

Also, I worke for an East Texas School district (not a teacher, a computer tech) and 90% of the classrooms have religious posters, sayings, or pictures on the walls. Also about the same percentage of emails I receive from teachers have some sort of religious comment or pictures on them (crosses, hands folded in prayer, etc.)

Having a bible class in this area won't make much difference in what's going on out here. Even the school newsletters that go out to the entire campuses have prayer requests and blessings sections.

Yes, this is a PUBLIC school!

3. New legal threat to school science in the US

Comment #207293 by Zenith on July 9, 2008 at 1:07 pm

Because the law allows individual boards and teachers to make additions to the science curriculum without clearance from a state authority, the responsibility will lie with parents to mount a legal challenge to anything that appears to be an infringement of the separation of church and state.

Anything besides evolution or soemthing like Lamarckism would seem to me to have to be religous or supernatural.

I'm glad people like Barbara Forrest have the energy to keep up the 'good fight'.

4. Yoko Ono, Filmmakers Caught in 'Expelled' Flap

Comment #162755 by Zenith on April 17, 2008 at 12:04 pm

I think Quine is correct although I am no expert. I understood that you could use portions of someone elses copyrighted material if it was for criticism or commentary. And even then you have to be careful of how much of the material you use. (copyrighted material to commentary ratio) In other words you couldn't reprint an entire book and then at the end write a sentence at the end saying you didn't like it. So if the film is using the song to critize it that is one thing, but if they are using it for background music that is an entirely differnet thing.

5. Expelled Overview

Comment #149747 by Zenith on March 26, 2008 at 7:45 am

This is a win-win situation for the fundamentalists (or should I say spin-spin). If this doesn't get wide release they will say that that is proof that they are being persecuted. If it gets a wide release and nobody watches it because of bad reviews they will say the same. And if it is successful they will say that God helped them overcome the scientist's ridicule of their movie.

I may not have it exactly right on how it will be spun but I am sure it will be.