General
It’s the Constitution’s birthday! What’s your agency doing? (Washington Post)
Yes, indeed, Sept. 17 is the 226th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitution by the delegates meeting in Philadelphia in 1787.
Navy Yard Shooter, Buddhist Convert (Wall Street Journal)
Nutpisit Suthamtewakul, owner of the Happy Bowl Thai restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, said in an interview that he met Aaron Alexis, the suspect in the Navy Yard shootings, roughly three years ago at an area Buddhist temple. Mr. Alexis had recently converted from Christianity to Buddhism, he said.
Education
Evolution at center of new Texas education board debate over science textbooks and e-books (Dallas News)
More than two decades after Texas ended a virtual ban on coverage of evolution in science textbooks, the debate over how evolution should be taught to high school students goes on — and on. State Board of Education members will hold a public hearing Tuesday on proposed high school biology textbooks and e-books that will be used in schools for eight years beginning next fall.
Texas textbook wars stoke creationism fears (Fox Houston)
The next skirmish in the Texas textbook battle will be fought on Tuesday in Austin. That’s when members of the public get to sound off over proposed changes in the state’s public school textbooks. Some worry that conservative Christians on the State Board of Education will try to bend the science to fit their religious beliefs. Those fears were stoked recently when one state textbook reviewer criticized a biology textbook with this comment: “Creation science based on biblical principles should be incorporated into every biology book.”
Kansas GOP gives failing grade to Common Core (Education News)
Under the Kansas GOP resolution, Republicans declared the standards were adopted by the state Board of Education “without meaningful input from or even effective notice to Kansas parents, teachers and other taxpayers.” It calls upon the state to withdraw from Common Core standards on reading and math, and to prohibit new science standards from being embedded in the Common Core system.
Family Planning & Development Prevention
California and New York: A Tale of Two Abortion Expansions (National Catholic Register)
California abortion providers are getting ready for the biggest increase in their industry, if Gov. Jerry Brown signs the bill allowing nurses and midwives to perform first trimester abortions. But the win for abortion providers in California contrasts sharply with the recent loss in New York, where an inventive alliance of the Catholic Church, evangelical Protestants and pro-life groups thwarted another popular Democratic governor’s plans to expand abortion in that state.
Science & Politics
Most Depressing Brain Finding Ever (Huffington Post)
Kahan conducted some ingenious experiments about the impact of political passion on people’s ability to think clearly. His conclusion, in Mooney’s words: partisanship “can even undermine our very basic reasoning skills…. [People] who are otherwise very good at math may totally flunk a problem that they would otherwise probably be able to solve, simply because giving the right answer goes against their political beliefs.”
Public Deism
Atheists Lose Battle To Have ‘In God We Trust’ Removed From U.S. Currency (Huffington Post)
Atheists suing to have the “In God We Trust” phrase removed from U.S. currency were smacked down on Thursday, when a federal judge dismissed their lawsuit.
Religion
Pope not Catholic reports The Independent (Patheos)
The Independent is reporting that Pope Francis is a heretic. More precisely The Independent has insinuated that Francis has adopted a Pelagian view of salvation.
St. James congregation moves out after court ruling (LA Times)
Judge Kim G. Dunning’s ruling ended nine years of litigation after disputes between St. James members and the Episcopal Church about the ordination of a gay bishop and other issues that led to St. James disaffiliating with the Episcopal Church and aligning with the Anglican Church.
Can Judaism and Science Co-Exist? (Washington Post)
The great atheist and critic Christopher Hitchens suggested that all attempts to reconcile faith with science were “consigned to failure and ridicule.” With the increasing visibility of fundamentalism in some religions, the casual observer might conclude that Hitchens was correct. But my own study of the way in which Judaism responded to one of the most religiously challenging scientific theories of all time reaches a quite different conclusion. That theory was proposed by a Polish church official and astronomer named Nicholas Copernicus in 1543 and it suggested that the Earth was not the center of the universe, but rather only one of several planets that orbited the sun.
Mormon Neutrality Cannot Be Absolute (LDS Magazine)
And yet it is clear, on just a little reflection, that this wholesome distinction between religion and politics can never be an absolute separation, for the simple reason that certain common principles are essential to both. Tocqueville saw this with great clarity as well: religion and politics spring ultimately from the same source.
C.S. Lewis, From Atheist to Hot Christian Author (Investor’s Business Daily)
A confirmed atheist when he was 15, C.S. Lewis came around to believing in God when he was 31. “I knelt and prayed: perhaps, that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England,” he wrote in his autobiography, “Surprised by Joy.”
Atheism, Movement & Related
Five Atheism-Related Stories from the Past Week That Left Me Shaking My Head… (Friendly Atheist)
The video below, part of The Atheist Voice series, discusses five stories from the past week that left me shaking my head.
Civil Rights & Discrimination
Bills Let Agencies Refuse Adoptions Due to Morals (Associated Press)
Michigan Lawmakers could vote this week on bills letting faith-based agencies refuse to participate in adoptions that violate their beliefs, despite accusations that they would permit discrimination against gays and others. Critics say the bills would authorize discrimination by agencies receiving state funding for child placements. It is the latest dispute over “conscience” legislation, measures pushed by the Michigan Catholic Conference and other groups to protect their religious freedom. A bill that would let health workers and businesses object to providing contraception or other medical services on moral grounds has been pending on the floor of the Senate for five months.
We Just Want to Be a Family: Civil Marriage Is a Civil Right! (Huffington Post)
And then we went to apply for our marriage license in Harris County, Texas, where we live. We took several of the documents that the 2009 Family Code designates as forms of identification that are usable for obtaining a marriage license, including our birth certificates (his reads “male,” mine “female”), our passports (his reads “male,” mine “female”), and our driver’s licenses (his reads “male,” mine “female”), and I also included the court-order proof of my “sex change,” as it is referred to in this situation, which the 2009 Family Code designates as an acceptable proof of identification in order to obtain a marriage license in the state of Texas. And then, after we’d waited for an hour for a decision, Harris County Clerk Stan Stanart denied us.
World
At 90, Israel’s Uri Avnery still lobbies for peace (WKBN)
Avnery was perhaps the first prominent Israeli to promote the idea, taking on successive Israeli governments and once, in 1982, sneaking across four battle lines in Israeli-besieged Beirut to talk to Israel’s then-nemesis, PLO chairman Yasser Arafat.Avnery’s views are a measure of how far Israeli public opinion has come: Palestinian statehood was a fringe idea as recently as a generation ago, but is now a principle accepted by a majority. As a 10-year-old immigrant, he eagerly embraced Hebrew language and culture, but remains fluent in German and acknowledges also being shaped by the humanist traditions of pre-Nazi Germany.
Egypt offensive targets Islamists in central town (LA Times)
Christians have reported militant intimidation in the town of Dalga. Officials are reluctant to portray the operation as one launched in support of Copts. In what could presage a broader strike against Islamists who have been attacking Coptic Christians in the Nile Valley, Egyptian security forces on Monday swept into a community where supporters of deposed Islamist President Mohamed Morsi had in effect seized control.
Related articles:
Textbook Battle in Texas
SCA’s Morning Read for 9/3/13