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Hank Fox meditates on the sanctity of the uncoerced conscience at voting time. He reminds us of our willingness to ban campaigning at voting stations—which goes to the extent of banning us from wearing all campaign paraphernalia, even our “quiet campaign buttons”. And then shows us how his own local polling station greets voters : [...]
Archive for the ‘Separation of Church and State’ Category
Are Churches Appropriate Voting Stations?
September 4th, 2011 
Daniel Fincke Santorum’s Hypocrisy and Backwardness on Questions of Epistemic Authority
September 1st, 2011 Daniel Fincke My thoughts:
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethics, Faith, Faith, Free Speech, Free Speech, Gay Marriage, Gay Marriage, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, Hypocrisy, Hypocrisy, Law, Law, LGBTQAA, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Same Sex Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Teleology, Teleology, Theocracy, Theocracy, Theocrats, Theocrats, Videos 
Tags: Rick Santorum 
5 Comments »9 Vital Points About The Public Relevance of Political Candidates’ Religious Beliefs
September 1st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Last week, Bill Keller had a good piece in the New York Times in which he discussed the importance of “asking tougher questions about faith” to the presidential candidates and then offered to each of the current Republican candidates for president a set of specific questions, tailored uniquely to each candidate, about their faiths and their [...]
Posted in Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Faith, Faith, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Law, Law, News Discussion, News Discussion, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocracy, Theocracy, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: 1st Amendment, Bart Stupak, Bill Keller, John F. Kennedy, John Shimkus, Political Philosophy, Presidential Campaign 2012, Republican Presidential Candidates 4 Comments »Norwegian Imam Argues For Beheading Students Who Don't Fast For Ramadan
May 17th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Support Rock Beyond Belief
April 12th, 2011 Daniel Fincke An important message from an atheist who wants equal treatment in the military: Your Thoughts?
On The Conflict Over The Meaning And Cultural Influence of Political Secularism
March 22nd, 2011 Daniel Fincke In this post I just want to jot down some thoughts about a knotty issue. I probably will not make much progress in untangling all its strands but hopefully will stimulate a discussion that straightens things out at least a bit. Is political secularism inherently neutral or antagonistic to religiosity? There are a couple of [...]
Posted in Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: Political Philosophy, Political Pluralism 9 Comments »Bigoted Americans
March 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke This is some powerfully hateful hypocritical harassment and stupidity right here. It creeps me out to see the American flag, which I love in a deep way, look like a fascist symbol in these nativistic, jingoistic, authoritarian, theocratically Christian Americans’ hands: The YouTube description sums up the context of the above: (ANAHEIM, CA, 3/2/11) — [...]
Posted in Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Christianity, Christianity, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, News, Politics, Politics, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Congressman Gary Miller, Ed Royce 3 Comments »Why Atheists Should Not Give Up Challenging Theism And Theists
February 25th, 2011 Daniel Fincke GreenGeekGirl advises the atheist community (and she has a nice defense of the existence of an atheist community against those who do not believe one exists) that we should no longer bother arguing with theists, since this is supposedly futile, but should rather accept we have it pretty good in America and focus on protecting [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats 15 Comments »How Would Apostates, Adulterers, And Thieves Fare In A Democratic Egypt?
February 18th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Razib Kahn has a most disturbing chart: Kahn explains the above: On the x-axis you see the proportion who accept that adulterers should be stoned. On the y-axis you see the responses to amputation and apostasy. The red points are the proportion who agree with the death penalty for apostates, and the navy points those [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Civil Liberties, Civil Rights, Civil Rights, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Free Speech, Free Speech, Law, Law, News, News Discussion, News Discussion, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, World Affairs, World Affairs 3 Comments »Just How Much Control Over Their Children’s Thought Are Parents Entitled To?
January 31st, 2011 Daniel Fincke In reply to yesterday’s open philosophical question whether a Swedish law banning any school, even private ones, from indoctrinating students by teaching their religious tenets as truths (with the ulterior motive of undermining Islamic schools’ abilities to radicalize their students), Mary Young makes a rigorous and eloquent case against such bans well worth highlighting (and [...]
Posted in 'Nuff Said, 'Nuff Said, 'Nuff Said, Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Authority, Authority, Autonomy, Autonomy, Christianity, Christianity, Civil Liberties, Civil Liberties, Creationism, Creationism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Education, Featured, Free Speech, Free Speech, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Racism, Religion, Religion, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Dogma, Dogmatism, Homeschooling, Indoctrination, Islamophobia, Parents' Rights 21 Comments »Daily Hilarity: Bill Maher On The Founding Fathers Vs. The Tea Party
January 15th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Bill Maher, Bill Maher, Comedy, Comedy, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Hilarious, Political Satire, Political Satire, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Satire, Satire, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State No Comments »Who Cares About Atheists?
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke There are a lot of anti-atheistic responses to us that get indignant that we try to organize, have community, and make ourselves known as a public presence. A lot of people reflexively and unfairly respond to all of this by feeling it as inherently threatening and inherently rude and intolerant. The most upsetting part of [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Skepticism, Skepticism, Uncategorized Tags: Richard Wade 9 Comments »Against Accommodationism: Religion Has NO Rightful Claim To An Unencroachable “Magisterium” Of Its Own
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Chris Mooney is an accommodationist. In the conflict between science and faith, he is the sort of atheistic science defender who wants to minimize all appearance (and existence) of conflict between religious and scientific ideas because he thinks that vital public policy on matters like climate change hinges on scientists’ abilities to garner trust, cooperation, [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State 2 Comments »How Christian Beliefs And Values Are No More Creditable With America’s Founding Than Islamic Ones
December 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Gary Bauer displays a hilarious sense of grievance in his article “If Christians Were Treated Like Muslims”. I want to take a few posts to fully dissect all of its self-absorbed, phony, distorted victimhood. The first three sentences merited a full post themselves, so here we go. Bauer starts out with the following falsehood: Few [...]
Posted in Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Islam, Koran, Koran, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: American History, Declaration of Independence, Dr. Gary Bauer, Gary Bauer, Intolerance, Persecution Complex, Tolerance 2 Comments »Roman Catholic Adoption Agency In Britain Not Allowed To Refuse To Place Kids With Gays
August 22nd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Great news: LONDON (RNS) A Roman Catholic adoption agency has lost its fight for the right to continue its policy of refusing to place children with same-sex couples based on religious principles. The agency, Catholic Care, saw its battle to limit its adoption services to heterosexual-only parents collapse in a ruling Thursday (August 19) by [...]
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Homophobia, Homophobia, Homosexuality, Homosexuality, LGBTQAA, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Gay Adoption No Comments »Richard Dawkins: “Faith School Menace?”
August 22nd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Jerry Coyne relays this truly eye-opening new documentary from Richard Dawkins which aired in the UK last week: Here’s a link (thanks to Johann Hari) for donating to the cause of abolishing state funding of faith schools in the UK. Your Thoughts?
True Religion?
August 17th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Many a religious person defending her own religious beliefs will argue that a given politically, morally, or intellectually unflattering interpretation of her faith is simply not a true representation of her faith. While the question of who has the right or the adequate means to decisively determine with any rational clarity which competing interpretation of any [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Authoritarianism, Authoritarianism, Bible, Bible, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, History, Judaism, Law, Law, Law & Politics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Philosophy of Science, Philosophy of Science, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Politics, Politics, Pseudoscience, Rationalism, Religion, Religion, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Science, Science, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State, Theocrats, Theocrats Tags: Literalism, Philosophy of Science, Primitivism, Ronald Dworkin 12 Comments »Hitchens On Crass Responses To The Proposed Ground Zero Islamic Center
August 12th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Noting the shadiness and creepiness of public remarks by Feisal Abdul Rauf, the imam behind the plan to build a mosque blocks away from the former site of the Twin Towers, Christopher Hitchens is nonetheless repulsed by the tactics adopted by his opposition. Starting with Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, he writes: [...]
Posted in Christopher Hitchens, Christopher Hitchens, History, Islam, Islam, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Sarah Palin, Sarah Palin, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: 9/11 Victims, Abraham Foxman, Andalusia, Cordoba House, Feisal Abdul Rauf, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, María Rosa Menocal, mosque, Mosque Near Ground Zero, Newt Gingrigh, Spain, The Ornament of the World, The Weekly Standard 1 Comment »Dying British Church Prone To Whining
August 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Johann Hari does a little pre-mortem dancing on the foreseeable grave of British Christianity: And now congregation, put your hands together and give thanks, for I come bearing Good News. Britain is now the most irreligious country on earth. This island has shed superstition faster and more completely than anywhere else. Some 63 percent of [...]
Posted in Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Political Secularism, Political Secularism, Religion, Religious Secularism, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: Johann Hari No Comments »ProfMTH Pwns William Lane Craig Over Ignorant Demand For “Strict Constructionism”
July 14th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Free Speech, Free Speech, Gay Rights, Gay Rights, Law, Law, Religion, Religion, Religious Rights, Religious Rights, Right Wing Politics, Right Wing Politics, Separation of Church and State, Separation of Church and State Tags: 1st Amendment, Christian Legal Society v. Martinez, Justice Antonin Scalia, ProfMTH, Strict Constructionism, William Lane Craig No Comments »Sundaily Hilarity: Permission Slip
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I have been hearing numerous appalling stories of late of public school districts incorporating field trips to churches into their activities. On Facebook, in reply to my friend Jessica’s anxiety about what to do about a proposed trip for her own son, another friend, Glynis pointed to an e-mail exchange presenting one approach for dealing [...]
The Latitude Offered For Claims Of Religious Exemptions To Laws On A State By State Basis
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke What do the distinctions in the map mean in specific legal terms? This post runs down the history and present kinds of religious exemptions in American law. (The map comes from the same blog, The Volokh Conspiracy) Your Thoughts?
The Treaty Of Tripoli
July 4th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Article 11: Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion,—as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquility, of Mussulmen,—and as the said States never entered into any war or act of hostility against any Mahometan [...]
George Washington’s Letter To Touro Synagogue
July 4th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The first president of our secular republic writes: To the Hebrew Congregation in Newport Rhode Island. Gentlemen, While I receive, with much satisfaction, your Address replete with expressions of affection and esteem; I rejoice in the opportunity of assuring you, that I shall always retain a grateful remembrance of the cordial welcome I experienced in [...]
Bursting The Chains Of Monkish Ignorance And Superstition
July 4th, 2010 Daniel Fincke I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them [...]
Posted in Atheism, Cultural Secularism, Political Secularism, Rationalism, Religion, Religious Secularism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State Tags: Enlightenment Values, Founding Fathers Against Religion, Our Country's Founders, The Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's Last Letter No Comments »
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