Jessica Ahlquist is Victorious; Cranston School Committee Will Not Appeal Ruling to Take Down Prayer Banner

Now if only a few hundred others will take notice and make corrections before the year+ of time, effort, six-digit legal bills. etc – it would be really, really nice!

Really, you can make corrections before complaints and lawsuits!

 Hooray!

We should educate others, and use this as an example.

 I did learn one thing from Lisa French’s bizarre ramblings though, which is that the 1936 USSR constitution guaranteed Freedom of Conscience.  The next time that a Christian complains about their freedom of conscience being violated, I’m going to explain that although the 1936 Soviet Constitution contains such a protection, the US Constitution does not.  The First Amendment states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”  Neither of these clauses prohibits the government from adopting neutral laws of general applicability that offend the conscience of anyone.   We live in the United States, not in Stalinist USSR.

http://www.departments.bucknell.edu/russian/const/36cons04.html

by no means am i an atheist, but by no means do i condone the shoving of religion down other people’s throats, I applaud this, and believe that fighting for the right for this to be an open and accepting country is a wonderful thing GO jessica, and may your example be followed

 Bravo, Tom, bravo!! There is no group of people that I have more respect for than Canadian [I am Canadian] and American soldiers, sailors and airmen. 

As far as I am concerned, the people who were opposed to Ms. Ahlquist showed great disrespect to you and your brothers/sisters-in-arms.

At the risk of being melodramatic myself, I’ll close by saying thank you… thank you and your comrades for being willing to pay the ultimate price to keep me and my friends/family safe.

Meandering off topic here, but 

Women in the U.S.S.R. are accorded equal rights with men in all spheres of economic, state, cultural, social and political life.

And yet, we failed to pass the ERA.  I was a child at the time, and it boggled my mind that there was anything to debate.  Still does.

Unfortunately for the USSR, just because something was written in the Constitution didn’t make it a practical reality.  Although you were technically allowed to worship as you wished, in practice it had a detrimental affect on your livelihood.  So much so that kids were taught to not talk about the family’s religion outside of the home.

It’s a shame that the only (or main) reason for the non-appeal was legal costs. If money wasn’t an issue, this could have dragged on even longer…

aww… I wanted to see them try again.

The guy after him said that the attack on religion by Mr. Obama is the fulfillment of biblical prophecy.  Reading bible quotes now.  Oh and appeal or this is a communist country.

Think that’s some inconsequential nut?  Nope!  It’s Peter G. Palumbo, a state rep in Rhode Island, and a Democrat.  And they applaud!  FML.

Wait, what? Seriously? That’s actually quite inspiring. If you take a crazy homeless person preaching outside Walmart with a bucket on his head and put him in a nice suit, he can achieve anything!

And make sure there is no religious activity moving forward. No school activity can promote something religious… thus no mentioning of Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other religion… no Yoga, no Meditation, no Tai Chi, no anything… oh and no secular religion either where people put their beliefs in some sacred game. 

There has been Supreme Court cases which stated that as long as there was neutrality that something could be done/displayed/funded/etc.

Thus as long as the Muslims could put up something, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and so forth – thus neutral then it could be argued that under “free exercise” the prayer could continue to be placed. As such though a school club or individual would be cleaning and maintaining so that the school did not… 

I was at the meeting, and several things stood out. Among them:

* There were several parents who stood up and really gave it to the board via the economic aspect. This is always the most effective way to convince people not to do something stupid. Show them how it will hurt wallets and budgets. Sad, but true. It worked.

* There were rumblings, mumblings and soft-toned “hisses and” hate filled noises directed at Jessica. This was not overt, but you could hear hush tones, and I caught a couple of nasty names being shared between “good christians” about her.

* Peter Griffin is alive and well in Rhode Island. There were two fat-assed, mouthy Christian know-it-alls who used the time to point fingers and spew hate; distasteful. Now, the thing is, the majority of the people in the room essentially shut them down, even the hard core christer types…..maybe there is a little hope after all?

* Outside, after the meeting, in the atrium and foyer, I heard several conversations. The amount of hatred, vile and nastiness was intense. I mean, I guess I knew it was there, but to actually see it, hear it, and be around it first hand was a real eye opener. People, we are hated! I mean H-A-T-E-D! I was amazed at the vile words and suggestions being made.

It was an experience being there.

Right decision, wrong reason. If the school district had more money they wouldn’t have made this decision? Apparently they are still of the opinion that one religion should be  promoted in their schools — that hasn’t changed. So what if the banner is now down; what other things are they going to do to continue their preaching?

All you so called “Athiests” are some of the dumbest people I’ve ever had the misfortune to encounter. First of all I DO NOT believe in “God”. Let’s get that clear. But as a person more intelligent then you all I’ve realized that god is w very necessary factor in human evolution since day 1. We all have (scientifically proven) “god spots”in our brain. So all you “Athiests” have them too no matter what you say or else your not human then. Without hope in god the human species would be overcome with Anxiety at a level that would of never even made human life possible. For you to attack religious people and discredit their beliefs is absolutely disgusting. You keep saying you won. What did you win? Read what the science community is saying about all you morons. You may know more about the earth and universe then religious people but your still dumb and uneducated to us science people so to me you LOST.

 What in the hell are you talking about? The Ahlquist case is a political and constitutional issue, not scientific. But besides that:
-Why is it ‘absolutely disgusting’ for us to discredit religious beliefs that we see as untrue and harmful? Do you prefer untrue dogmas driving political discourse and governmental decision making?
-If the ‘science community’ is saying anything particular about atheists as morons it would probably be helpful to your case to provide specific references instead of vague assertions.
-The ‘god spot’ research, besides being blown out of proportion by a media in search of headlines, does nothing but suggest that religious feelings physically manifest in the human brain, and in no way does it suggest the reality of god. In fact, if anything, it does the exact opposite.
-When you say ‘your still dumb’ you are using ‘your’ incorrectly. ‘Your” is a possessive, as in ‘your bicycle’, or ‘your dogma’. You should have used ‘you’re’ which is a contraction that means ‘you are’.
PROTIP: Before you post on threads, learn to spell, punctuate, construct a coherent sentence, and a coherent argument. Also: sober up first. 

He was receiving a shit load of handshakes and “attaboys” after the show too. He is a gross and distasteful human and you could just see his pandering for votes. It was so obvious even someone with an IQ of 70 could figure that out.

Jon, Jon, Jon – you really like to overgeneralize, don’t you? Do you really think that all “Atheists” think exactly the same? Of course we do not. As to your intelligence relative to mine (or anyone else), let’s agree to disagree about that for the time being.  

As I understand the research, the so-called “god spots’ in human brains are said to be an underlying reason why people generally create supernatural explanations for things that they do not understand.  Nothing at all about the research suggests that the ‘spots’ are evidence of the existence of any deity.

The core of this case (and most of the discussion around it) have nothing to do with the beliefs of anyone. This case was based on a challenge to the idea that government (in the form of the Cranston PUBLIC Schools) is allowed to promote any religious beliefs.  If the “Prayer Banner” had mentioned Allah, or Yahweh (or Zeus, etc.), would that have been acceptable to you or any of its other defenders? Of course not. 

In the end, atheists didn’t win this case – Americans who respect the Constitution won.

Of potential interest; over at the Boston Atheists blog, at http://bostonatheists.blogspot.com/2012/02/tweets-from-cranston-school-committee.html,
I’ve posted a report of the tweets I sent from my seat last night in
the Cranston High School East auditorium. I intend to write a fuller
account of my impressions of the evening — the flashes of good will,
the disturbing spectacle of hostility — but it was a long night and
that will have to wait.

Certain parts of the brain also light up if you’re watching a game of football. This implies that football is a biological necessity?

Well stated, Michael.

 If you don’t believe in god then you are Atheist. So your whole spiel is moot. You only insult yourself. Brilliant.

Oh the other hand. Maybe you’re just insane.

I’ve run across this type of commenter before. They usually claim to be agnostic and fail to understand that one can be atheist and agnostic. There was a lot of ridiculous in that comment so I think it might be a Christian pretending to be non-christian to earn some credibility points. There are however some agnostics on the edge of insane.

Trying to fake being an atheist who hates atheism only makes you sound insane. When you say that you do not believe in god you are claiming to be an atheist, yet you also claim not to be one. Then you call us stupid, but of course you are calling yourself stupid at the same time since you *are* one.

If I have a “god spot” in my brain then why am I an atheist? Why would lacking one render me not human? Do you mean that we nonhuman atheists cannot area different species that cannot successfully impregnate Christian ladies. Should we stop wearing condoms? Should I suspect my atheist children by my Christian wife are illegitimate. Perhaps they are sterile mules?

I looked at that research and it merely showed that humans use a particular area of the brain to process moral questions. Labeling it the “god spot” is silly since atheists use the same area to process questions of morality without believing in any god. All that shows is that atheists can do moral reasoning (use this area of the brain) without believing in god. It is even more evidence against religious claims that atheist lack morality.

That was probably because you were still an ignorant child and didn’t understand all the legal ramifications, for existing female and male privileges. For example the female privilege of being exempt from the draft and selective service. Look up the Hayden rider. It read “The provisions of this article shall not be construed to impair any rights, benefits, or exemptions now or hereafter conferred by law upon persons of the female sex.”

The issues weren’t as simple as you understood as a child.

The Canadian charter has the flaw of any positive list. Rights such as those to self defense have been left off. It also explicitly allows for draconian policies to be put in place such as the ones Mark Stein and Ezra Levin got caught up in. It explicitly allows theft of the property of non guilty party’s to redistribute as the government sees fit.

You think the USSR constitution was clear? Perhaps as clear as any Owellian newspeak, where freedom means the act of doing what the state tells you to.

 Outstanding Tom,
I am a former member of the U.S. Navy’s River Assault Teams, with two tours in Vietnam and would like to let you know, that at the age of 65, my oath to ‘support and defend The U.S. constitution’, did not come with an expiration date. I’m sure yours didn’t either, and this fight will need you for the rest of your life. Thank you……

Another poor soul that will burn in the lake of fire…for eternity.