The 3 R's: reading, 'riting and rampant, rabid religion

Outstanding! Various state legislatures and school boards (probably ones located in, oh, say perhaps the south?) are looking again at cramming religion down people's throats in public schools, under the guise of textbooks and courses that examine the Bible's "literary and historical importance."

Oh yeah...the Bible is extremely important in the literary sense. It's extremely well written. In fact, it makes Hemingway look like he's a staff writer for "JAG." Its skillfull use of syntax and remarkable ear for dialogue is obviously the reason it's the best-selling book of all time. And "historical importance?" This also makes perfect sense. I for one am positive that the Bible is nothing if not extremely accurate. How could a book that's written and transcribed by an army of different people over the course of centuries and features talking snakes and bushes be anything but?

This is all thanks the Supreme Court, who ruled in 1963 that even though ceremonial Bible readings in public schools would be banned, "objective" study of the text in a manner divorced from belief is fine. Now people are fighting over the chance to exploit this loophole.

Why are people so frickin' obssesed with pushing religion on others? It is and always has the been the cause of strife (The Crusades, The Inquisition, the Middle East...) in the world. Why are people determined to make something so nebulous and unprovable into law? If you want to believe in the aforementioned talking snake thing, then go ahead, but leave me out of it. And don't bother kids during taxpayer-supported school hours when they should be learning about something of actual value, like math, science, English, history...anything that could actually prepare them to compete in and hopefully improve this world we've fashioned for ourselves.

If you want your kids to learn about winged beings and magic 7 days of week, pay to send them to a parochial school. Problem solved. Or have Bible study every night after dinner. Your kids will most likely secretely detest you for this, but whatever.

And people make fun of me for believing in Bigfoot. I'll tell you what...there's more evidence supporting the existence of Bigfoot than there is for Noah's Ark. Or the Garden of Eden. Or Heaven. Or Hell. Or the AfterLife. And so on.

If you'd care to read the article, you may do so here.

NOTE: Blogfoot is not opposed to religion per se. Blogfoot believes heavily in the John Lennon axiom "whatever gets you through the night", and that people are free to worship who/whatever they choose. Blogfoot just wishes that people would keep whatever they practice in their houses and churches and out of everything else. If people want to believe that their God is the one true God, then fine, but there is no way for them to prove such a thing, and as such, their beliefs should not in any way influence public matters or policy. Just wanted to be clear.