http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A54366-2003Nov17.html Shocker, I know. Rich starts a religion thread. When are these people going to get over themselves and realize we live in a secular state? What kind of outcry can you imagine if Muslim groups wanted verses from the Koran put on public display everywhere?
As an atheist, I would be very much for this - as long as they use the real 10 Commandments and not the fake ones that are commonly printed.
Does this mean I can request that the following three fundamental laws be displayed as well? First Law. A robot may not injure a human being, or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. Second Law. A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. Third Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
2001: A Space Odessey is not a religion. However if it were, I would accept it over snake charming and anything associated with Pat Robertson.
I don't have any problems with religious displays if they have a historical significance. For example, if a 10 commandments monument was established during the 1850's on a public government building, the display could as much be considered a historical monument as much as a religious one. Despite arguments to the contrary, the majority of people who made up the USA in it's first century were from a judeo-Christian belief system. Those monuments reflect the beliefs held by the people who governed our country more than a century ago. They do hold some historical value. However, I don't believe that monuments that have been erected within the last 20-30 years qualify because of the pluralistic culture our country now represents. It does not represent the will of the people, as a minority of the public actually adhere to those beliefs, nor are all of them actually reflected in our current laws. I may have felt different about the Alabama judge and his decision regarding the 10 commandments if he was protecting a historical landmark, something that had been a part of the Alabama court house for a couple of centuries. But he clearly had a personal agenda, by ordering and placing the monuments himself within the past 10 years. They hold no historical value, nor do they reflect the collective will of the people of Alabama, regardless of how many actually support his actions. I realize that the law and the Constitution do not necessarily reflect or uphold this opinion, but that's just my 2 cents. What is currently being tried by many conservative organizations has more to do with the establishment and recognition of their contemporary Christian values than any real concern for preserving tradition or history.
Actually, I believe the 3 laws are Asimov, not Kubrick, although Kubrick may have based 2001 on some of Asimov's philosophy.
Sort of like during the 1950s and 1960s, when the Fraternal Order of the Eagles had a practice of donating monuments bearing the ten commandments to municipalities throughout the country, "to preserve the moral and religious heritage of the United States". Fortunately, many of those monuments, that are located in public parks, are being challenged. And at least the US District Court for the Western District in Wisconsin agrees that they must go.
If the right-wing Christians get their way, and we actually do have to adhere to the 10 commandments, do we destroy all our printed money since they contain "graven images?" If so, where do I go to turn in my dollars? Will we ban sports on Sunday, since the Lord blessed the Sabbath and it is holy? And how do we enforce my personal favorite, the one where my great-grandchildren shall be damned for all eternity because of my religious beliefs? If these nut-jobs think that US law is based on the 10 commandments, why don't we go back to the polygamist nomadic lifestyle from whence the commandments came?
I'm a Christian and agree with (and live by) the 10 commandments. They still have value in today's day and age. I just don't think they need to be plastered on every corner and in every building. They are accessible enough to anybody in this country, just stay in a hotel room. I don't know if this effort by the Christian right to uphold and erect these monuments is a reflection of their insecurity and panic over dwindling church attendance, or their desire to package God in a disposable and consummable box.
These idiots are no less a threat to the Constitution than people who want to put forth gun control laws.
I think it's more an intense will to power united with a generous helping of more or less unconscious psychopathologies of various sorts.
Well, only 5-6 of them are probably sueful, if you take to the original version and not the cartoon version put forward by the phony bible thumpers. Most folks swear, work or somehow participate in work on the Sabbath, use or create graven images, and covet others' possessions. At least these are all legal activities in the USA.
Well, back to the issue. What I mean was that, having lived in Oklahoma and Texas for much of my life, I've always put gun fanatics and religious fanatics in sort of the same boat...where I'm from they're kind of one in the same. Gun fanatics try to take the Constitution literally whenever someone tries to mess with their "right to bear arms", but like to act as if they don't understand what "separation of church and state" means. It's not meant to be a super profound statement, but I've always found a bit ironic.