Quotes: Religion Part 1

Here are some good quotes you should mull over.

Anyone who can worship a trinity and insist that his religion is a monotheism can believe anything just give him time to rationalize it. Forgive me for being blunt. ~ Robert Heinlein (in Job: A Comedy of Justice)

Government oppressed the body of the wage-slave, but Religion oppressed his mind, and poisoned the stream of progress at its source. ~ Upton Sinclair

I believe that religion, generally speaking, has been a curse to mankind — that its modest and greatly overestimated services on the ethical side have been more than overcome by the damage it has done to clear and honest thinking. ~ H. L. Mencken

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use. ~ Galileo Galilei

Incurably religious, that is the best way to describe the mental condition of so many people. ~ Thomas Edison

In the long run, nothing can withstand reason and experience, and the contradiction religion offers to both is palpable. ~ Sigmund Freud

Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love. ~ Butch Hancock

"In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters."
It's an oral history. It was passed down, word-of-mouth, father to son, from Adam to Seth, from Seth to Enos, from Enos to Cainan, for 40 generations, a growing, changing, story, it was handed down, word-of-mouth, father to son. Until Moses finally gets it down on lambskin. But lambskins wear out, and need to be recopied. Copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of copies of an oral history passed down through 40 generations.
From Hebrew it's translated into Arabic, from Arabic to Latin, from Latin to Greek, from Greek to Russian, from Russian to German, from German to an old form of English that you could not read. Through 400 years of evolution of the English language to the book we have today, which is: a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation of a translation of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of an oral history passed down through 40 generations.
You can't put a grocery list through that many translations, copies, and re-telling, and not expect to have some big changes in the dinner menu when the kids make it back from Kroger's.
And yet people are killing each other over this written word. Here's a tip: If you're killing someone in the name of God — you're missing the message. ~ Nick Annis in the preface to God is Good.

The WakeCARES Fuck-up

The idiocy of the American public has hit again, this time with damaging affects throughout the county. WakeCARES has decided, in all its infinite wisdom, that new Apex residents are MUCH smarter than any Wake County resident has ever been. The group that 3 Apex "soccer moms" has started managed to sue the School Board, trying to block the mandatory conversion of 22 schools to year round calenders. They were just lucky enough to get a judge who is big into changing the school system (Source: http://www.newsobserver.com/1061/story/207966.html). Judge Manning Jr. ruled for WakeCARES, who has a whopping, grand total of 10% of the parents in Wake County (Source: http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?SOSWAKE1). 10%. Thats all it takes? I would think that it would take at least 25% for the problem to even be considered. But of course anyone can win in the courts. What boggles the mind is, what makes these three moms, who just moved into the county, think that they can sue the school system to stop a change that NEEDS to be made? And with the support of only 10% of the parents in the system at that! Can you really be that delusional?

Lets just weigh in some of the facts shall we?

North Carolina has the 13th lowest property taxes. That is the tax that puts money into education.
Wake County is ranked 524 out of 775 counties in percentage property tax based on income.
(Above stats, courtesy of the Tax Foundation
Wake Country is 11 out of all school districts in the country in enrollment growth (http://www.ed.gov/pubs/bbecho00/table5.html)

Hmm. Lets see. 13th lowest property taxes..... 11th fastest growing? Anyone ELSE see a problem with that? Obviously something has to be done. God forbid they raise taxes, our children arn't THAT important. If we did that, one of them might beat out the current people and then where would we be? Probably better off than we are now but the people we have now would be out of a job, and we certainly can't let that happen. So obviously the only option is to do Mandatory Year-Round conversions. But wait. They can't do that now. WakeCARES says so. Oh well I guess we just get to either do the split scheduling and let students goto school from 1:30-7 every day... Or just shove an extra 10 children in every classroom and hope that fixes it. As many people have said now, I really feel sorry for the School Board. But not really, because they got themselves into this on their own. Maybe if the people had voted on the nice big cushy bond to begin with............. (Oh wait, we couldn't do that either. WakeCARES said so.)

A Letter to the Editor: Necessary Credits

Regarding the May 1 City & State article, “Building a better curriculum”:

As a senior at Southeast Raleigh High, I understand the importance of the CTE classes. Our school was founded to be a CTE school, designed to prepare students for the work force. The Career Focused Learning Communities (CFLCs) in our school, of which I am a member of the IT CFLC, help put students on track for a career. As such, the new CTE course requirements are a little disturbing. The article states that for the CTE requirements “Students can now also get a four-credit endorsement in foreign language, AP/IB or some other area.” This severely downplays the role of the CTE courses, allowing you to count your AP US History, French 3 and other such classes as CTE courses when they are not. This is unacceptable because it allows students to bypass the CTE credits, narrowing their mind instead of expanding it. Students should be required to dabble in CTE classes so that they can come away with the knowledge to do more than just math and writing. And who knows, maybe a few students will find that they like computers or construction or agriculture more than they first thought.

Sent 5/1/2007 to The News & Observer
Published 5/4/2007 http://www.newsobserver.com/580/story/570435.html