[extropy-chat] Atheists launch inquisition...

[Adrian Tymes]

--- Spike <spike66 at comcast.net> wrote:
> >...at Stevens Creek School in the
> > San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino...
> 
> I wonder how they figure Cupertino is a suburb of
> San Francisco?  It is closer to the more populated
> city of San Jose.  San Jose gets no respect.

There's SF, and then there's the SF Bay Area.  The
latter is far larger than the former, and happens to
include the name of the more famous major city.
Cupertino is indeed within the SF Bay Area, despite
not being a suburb of SF itself.

> Im waiting for some ballsy high school student to
> end 
> the customary invocation before the local football
> game 
> with "...we pray in the name of Satan amen..."
> 
> What do you suppose would happen?

He'd get kicked off, or at least given a stern talking
to about not invoking religion.  Despite the religious
"tolerance", mostly that extends to tolerance of
religions that don't have far more negative reputation
than positive - and especially not for religious
statements that are seen as singling out one religion
for special treatment (e.g., endorsing Satan can be
seen as rebuking Christians in particular); exceptions
usually consisting of public policy or scientific
issues (e.g., regulating animal slaughter is a public
health issue, even if members of certain religions
wish to practice it in ways that violate the regs).

His parents could legitimately sue for discrimination,
and might well win.  But the discrimination would
still happen, as the adults surrounding the kid try to
choose the "safest" course of action (and fail).

Of course, the safest course of action actually was
to remove that invocation, partly for that reason.  I
believe that most schools in the area have long since
done so, if they ever used it in the first place.
(Besides, school sports programs pray at the altar of
money anyway.  There's been major concern about how
professional things are getting, to the exclusion of
kids who just wanted to play - the original reason for
said programs - and how they often trump the academic
studies that the schools are supposed to establish.
More than one school has cancelled its sports programs
outright in response, finding no other way to keep
these effects from creeping in.)