Child Abuse in Schools & Homes (plus I believe in Latin License Plates)

Today there's several news stories I'd like to comment on.

1) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25284886/

All I have to say is GOOD RIDDANCE. I am so glad that this guy was ejected from the school. They ought to arrest him for physical assault and child abuse. What can I say? God and science definitely do NOT mix.

2) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25281287/

The jury may be out on whether religious indoctrination as such constitutes child abuse. After all, all children are immersed in their parents' ideologies from birth. The challenge to every individual is to grow out of those beliefs that one later finds to be false and to take the responsibility to re-engineer one's own psyche.

That having been said, what kind of parent sits and watches their child die of a curable disease right before their very eyes? What kind of human being could do such a thing? Could you imagine watching your baby girl sick with fever, with a scared and pleading look in her eyes? Could you look into those eyes everyday and NOT do everything in your power to save her? What kind of monster could be so cruel, so uncaring? Freedom of religion? Do the children have freedom of religion who are told that they must die by the will of god? Did they have a choice about the faith of their families? And must they pay the price for the arbitrary assertions of others?

If a child isn't protected by the same human rights as all of us, then where do we draw the line? Do parents have the right to murder their child, if their religion demands they do? Do they have the right to punish the child to extemes so that the child dies of exposure? Do they have the right to take sexual advantage of their children because their religion says so? Of course not. The reason is that children ARE entitled to the same human rights as we all are.

But as children they are also dependent on care and guidance. The kind of parenting exemplified by zealots who sit and watch their children die, when they CAN do something about it, is an act of gross negligence. It is an abdication of the responsibility of being a parent. It is little short of murder. And should be punished as such.

3) http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25270095/

I believe...that the answer to this problem is not to vote for Christian zealots. Period.

4) http://www.newsweek.com/id/142217

Who cares? Is God Roman? I suppose he can't understand properly unless they pray in Latin. Maybe the scientologists should start holding their ceremonies in ancient greek. At least then it may be harder to get new converts. Woohoo, Atheism!