Sorry for the long hiatus, I’ve just been busy with work and other things, and to be honest, I haven’t had a whole lot new to say. But after the horrific school shooting in Connecticut, I feel like I should add my 2 cents worth.
One theme we’ve been hearing, from such people as Mike Huckabee, is that the reason for such shootings is that we’ve somehow managed to “take God out of the schools,” as if an omnipotent being could be kept out of them (some people have suggested that God is a “gentleman” who doesn’t go where He’s not wanted — but do they really think that when someone came in with a gun and started shooting children, not a single one of those kids was asking for God? Seems like they’re really saying that God’s not a weakling, He’s just a passive-aggressive dickhead. But I digress …)
Even though I’m generally loath to weaken our Constitution, I might be willing to make some compromises in the name of reconciliation and in scientific, empirical evaluation of methodologies.
Here’s my humble suggestion to religious types who think putting God back in schools makes more sense than, say, regulating guns or working harder to identify and treat mental illness:
First, we’ll try it your way. We’ll institute mandatory prayer in all public schools, and do absolutely nothing to ban or regulate guns or provide improved access to mental health diagnosis and treatment.
But if that doesn’t work — if there’s another school shooting, even with God on the job — then we’ll ban the prayers, ban the guns, and the fundamentalist fucktards will have to shut their goddamned mouths and keep them fucking shut.
Do we have a deal?
Atheist Etiquette 
Posted by Faith W. Reason on December 18, 2012 at 10:12 am
How about we set up blue-state killing fields with “gun-free zone” schools, malls, etc. and red-state concealed carry communities, with separation of school and state, where parents are free to raise their children their way, send them to a school, atheist or otherwise, that supports their worldview? Killings will still not be entirely eliminated in either, but my bet is the murders with guns will be reduced in the concealed carry states, and will have gone up everywhere there are “gun free zones.”
Posted by brachinus on December 19, 2012 at 7:48 am
We may disagree on what the right solution is (or if there even is one), but I’m glad we agree that school prayer isn’t it.
Posted by Ian Whatley on December 29, 2012 at 2:32 am
Another controlled experiment would be to protect all the atheist kids with bullet-proof vests and protect the Xstain kids with impenetrable magic fields of prayer from a parentally selected deity (or deities). After a few years, a count of how many bullets were deflected by god(s) and how many by kevlar might suggest something about god(s) and their alleged omnipotence.
Posted by Anonymous on December 29, 2012 at 5:39 pm
I’m not aware of any “Xstain” parent who claims that God has offered miraculous protection against bullets. Xtians will typically claim that the power of a vest to deflect bullets is an expression of God’s power. In general the Xtians will assert a doctrine of “omnipotence” that basically claims that all powers of natural materials are powers invested in them by God, i.e., that “all power” is God’s power. Hence omnipotence.
Obviously that doctrine is not subject to refutation, so the Xtian who takes that position is invulnerable on the point, though he must still answer on other questions his critic may have.