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	<title>Atheism &#8211; Greg Laden&#039;s Blog</title>
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	<title>Atheism &#8211; Greg Laden&#039;s Blog</title>
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		<title>What do you think about the Satanic Temple?</title>
		<link>https://gregladen.com/blog/2017/10/26/think-satanic-temple/</link>
					<comments>https://gregladen.com/blog/2017/10/26/think-satanic-temple/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Greg Laden]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 26 Oct 2017 13:26:40 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Other]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atheism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[billboard]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Religion]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Satanic Temple]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://gregladen.com/blog/?p=27558</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;m seriously interested in your opinion. Here is a press release concerning their current activities in Texas: The Satanic Temple displays anti-corporal punishment billboard in Texas A billboard promoting Satanist organization’s campaign to protect children from violence was placed in Three Rivers, Texas, where school reinstated corporal punishment. October 26, 2017 &#8211; Commuters passing through &#8230; <a href="https://gregladen.com/blog/2017/10/26/think-satanic-temple/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">What do you think about the Satanic Temple?</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;m seriously interested in your opinion. Here is a press release concerning their current activities in Texas:<span id="more-27558"></span></p>
<blockquote><p><strong>The Satanic Temple displays anti-corporal punishment billboard in Texas</strong><br />
<em>A billboard promoting Satanist organization’s campaign to protect children from violence was placed in Three Rivers, Texas, where school reinstated corporal punishment.</em></p>
<p>October 26, 2017 &#8211; Commuters passing through Three Rivers, Texas on Route 281 will likely notice a new black billboard emblazoned with a red inverted pentagram framing a goat’s head underneath, which reads: “Paid for by The Satanic Temple.” More prominently, the primary message states: “Our religion doesn’t believe in hitting children.” A website is listed below: www.protectchildrenproject.com. It’s an advertisement for The Satanic Temple’s campaign to offer religious exemptions from corporal punishment and other forms of abuse in public schools such as the use of solitary confinement (aka seclusion rooms), physical restraints, and restricting access to the bathroom.</p>
<p>Placement of the billboard in Three Rivers is meant to draw attention to the Three Rivers Independent School District, where corporal punishment was just reinstated for use against Students.</p>
<p>“Hopefully, our billboard will give pause to passersby who will be forced to confront the fact that the school district is being operated by depraved and ignorant sadists who have no business being in education,” Greaves said. “The billboard should be a wakeup call that the school district trustees, who voted 6 &#8211; 0 for corporal punishment, need to be replaced by competent and humane members of the community who have children’s best interests at heart.”</p>
<p>According to The Satanic Temple spokesperson, Lucien Greaves, “There is no empirical support for the notion that punitive beatings delivered to children act as an effective corrective to problematic behavior. In fact, the opposite has been proven to be true. We find it sad and irresponsible that the Three Rivers Independent School District would be backward enough to re-introduce this barbaric and counterproductive practice into their schools.” According to the Department of Education, over 110,000 children are hit in schools each year. Remarkably, many people are unaware that this practice persists.</p>
<p>Greaves continues, “Three Rivers Elementary School’s campus behavior coordinator, Andrew Amaro, is reported to have proposed the new corporal punishment to district leaders, which suggests to us that he is grossly unqualified for his job or any job where he might have contact with children. The district claims that parents may opt out of having their children beaten, but courts have ruled that schools do not have to abide by those exemptions. In addition, some parents are abusive and have no problem with school officials who hit their kids. We offer children who share our religious beliefs to opt out of suffering physical abuse.”</p>
<p>“We hold among our tenets that ‘The body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone’. As such, we have launched a campaign to offer an exemption against corporal punishment and solitary confinement to any student who shares this deeply held belief. We have set up a website (www.protectchildrenproject.com) where students can register, whereupon The Satanic Temple will put the child’s school board on notice that subjecting that student to abuse is a violation of their civil rights. We are claiming a religious exemption on behalf of the student under First Amendment Protection.”</p></blockquote>
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			<slash:comments>13</slash:comments>
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">27558</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Intersection of Non-theism and Feminism</title>
		<link>https://gregladen.com/blog/2012/06/07/the-intersection-of-non-theism-and-feminism/</link>
					<comments>https://gregladen.com/blog/2012/06/07/the-intersection-of-non-theism-and-feminism/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Greg Laden]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jun 2012 16:00:07 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Atheism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[secularism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sexism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/?p=4094</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[This video from CFI&#8217;s Women in Secularism Conference was just posted by Melody Hensley. Thank you Melody!]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/xhYKlEggiNY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<p>This video from CFI&#8217;s Women in Secularism Conference was just posted by <a href="http://www.facebook.com/melody.hensley">Melody Hensley</a>.  Thank you Melody!</p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
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			<slash:comments>2</slash:comments>
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">4094</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Susan Jacoby: &#8220;The Dearth of Women in the Secular Movement&#8221;</title>
		<link>https://gregladen.com/blog/2012/06/07/susan-jacoby-the-dearth-of-women-in-the-secular-movement/</link>
					<comments>https://gregladen.com/blog/2012/06/07/susan-jacoby-the-dearth-of-women-in-the-secular-movement/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Greg Laden]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jun 2012 15:03:30 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Atheism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Feminism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[secularism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sexism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/?p=4091</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[This video from CFI&#8217;s Women in Secularism Conference was just posted by Melody Hensley. Thank you Melody!]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This video from CFI&#8217;s Women in Secularism Conference was just posted by <a href="http://www.facebook.com/melody.hensley">Melody Hensley</a>.  Thank you Melody!</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DjxKZFqPIZw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
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			<slash:comments>1</slash:comments>
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">4091</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Flying Spaghetti Monster Strikes Again!</title>
		<link>https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/12/21/flying-spaghetti-monster-strikes-again/</link>
					<comments>https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/12/21/flying-spaghetti-monster-strikes-again/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Greg Laden]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:07:24 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Atheism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Church State Separation]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Church-State]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[War on Christmas]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/?p=1742</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[This time, at the lawn in front of the Leesburg County Court House in Virginia: Beside a Christmas tree and creche sits a large banner with a nativity scene in which baby Jesus has been replaced by a plate of spaghetti with googly eyes. A crowd that includes pirates and gnomes surrounds Jesus. At the &#8230; <a href="https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/12/21/flying-spaghetti-monster-strikes-again/" class="more-link">Continue reading <span class="screen-reader-text">Flying Spaghetti Monster Strikes Again!</span> <span class="meta-nav">&#8594;</span></a>]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="lead">This time, at the lawn in front of the Leesburg County Court House in Virginia: </p>
<blockquote><p>Beside a Christmas tree and creche sits a large banner with a nativity scene in which baby Jesus has been replaced by a plate of spaghetti with googly eyes. A crowd that includes pirates and gnomes surrounds Jesus. At the bottom its message reads “Touched by an Angelhair.” The scene is the work of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monsters.</p>
<p>Near the courthouse fence is  another display whose sign reads ”Greetings From Your Friendly Local Atheists.” It’s message is about celebrating the Constitution and honoring the separation of church and state.</p>
<p>Elsewhere on the lawn, a skeleton in a Santa suit hangs on a cross.</p>
<p><a href="http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2011/12/virginia-holiday-battle-includes-church-of-the-flying-spaghetti-monster/">abc</a>
</p></blockquote>
<p>They killed Santa?<span id="more-5774"></span></p>
<figure id="attachment_1743" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1743" style="width: 300px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><a href="http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2011/12/21/flying-spaghetti-monster-strikes-again/nativity1/" rel="attachment wp-att-1743"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" src="https://i0.wp.com/freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/files/2011/12/nativity1-300x225.jpg?resize=300%2C225" alt="Nativity Scene wit Pasta" title="nativity1" width="300" height="225" class="size-medium wp-image-1743" data-recalc-dims="1" /></a><figcaption id="caption-attachment-1743" class="wp-caption-text">Noodley Nativity Scene (from http://goo.gl/n3Dtf) with Pirates. </figcaption></figure>
<p>A local politician who was just elected (but not yet installed) as County Supervisor, Kenneith Reid is apoplectic.  </p>
<p>Reid, who happens to be Jewish, claims that the Atheists have totally ruined Christmas, and that by putting their &#8220;beliefes&#8221; out in the open instead of just keeping their dirty godless mouths shut, they are forcing these &#8220;beliefs&#8221; on everyone else.  </p>
<blockquote><p>“Nobody is out there preaching like these guys. They’re out there in a blatant attempt to try to stamp out religion and ruin people’s Christmas,” Reid said. “The atheist groups over the past two years have used it as an opportunity to try to ban everything. It’s no longer sufficient to be an atheist, they have to go out there and proactively try to deny and make sure other people don’t believe in God.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The atheists have a different take on this:</p>
<blockquote><p>“The whole thing is a separation of church and state issue. We’ve been accused of trying to destroy Christmas, and that could not be further from the truth,” Rick Wingrove, the Virginia state director for American Atheists, told ABCNews.com. “There’s no war on Christmas. If there were a war on Christmas, I would have gotten a memo.”</p></blockquote>
<p>No War on Christmas indeed!!! </p>
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			<slash:comments>10</slash:comments>
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">5774</post-id>	</item>
		<item>
		<title>Are there any atheists on Google Plus?</title>
		<link>https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/09/10/are-there-any-atheists-on-google-plus/</link>
					<comments>https://gregladen.com/blog/2011/09/10/are-there-any-atheists-on-google-plus/#comments</comments>
		
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Greg Laden]]></dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Sat, 10 Sep 2011 16:55:54 +0000</pubDate>
				<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Atheism]]></category>
		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/?p=141</guid>

					<description><![CDATA[Zillions. And here is a list of them. Add yourself if you are not on it.]]></description>
										<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Zillions.</p>
<p><a href="http://gpc.fm/l/atheist">And here is a list of them. </a> Add yourself if you are not on it. </p>
]]></content:encoded>
					
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			<slash:comments>8</slash:comments>
		
		
		<post-id xmlns="com-wordpress:feed-additions:1">4832</post-id>	</item>
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