May 4 Is the National Day of Reason

Today, May 4, is the National Day of Reason. Secular organizations like the American Humanist Association have been promoting it for years. Have these efforts made a difference? Should they? Would you like to see more reason? Does it make sense to have a day reminding us all about why reason matters?

From the American Humanist Association's press release:

The National Day of Reason, celebrated annually on May 4th, honors the vital role that reason and critical thinking play in safeguarding secular democracy and upholding the separation of church and state. The resolution articulates the importance of reason in evidence-based policy making, protecting the separation of church and state, resisting the rise of authoritarianism in the US, and advancing civil and human rights.

Important to Keep Christian Nationalists Away From School Boards

Most of us would agree that context matters. Even the context in which someone delivers a bible quote matters. The same quote delivered in one context could have a different intent and impact than in another.

Consider Matthew 18:6 for a moment:

But whoever causes one of these little ones — who believe in me — to stumble and sin by leading him away from my teaching, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.

What does this mean? We need some context, so let's make some up.

An Accurate History Gives Us the Context to Understand Our World

While talking with my family recently, the topic of history came up. This was in the context of news about Republicans meddling in the teaching of history. I had said something about the importance of having an accurate history. Without it, children would grow up not understanding the context of their world.

How about a quick example? Consider the topic of police brutality in the United States. Focus on the problem of racial bias in policing and how it has led to the death of many Black men. Could anyone make sense of this problem without knowing something about our troubled history of race relations? And what if the only information they had about race relations was incomplete? What if racism was never mentioned in their history classes? What if they never learned why the Civil Rights movement was necessary?

A Complete History Lets Us Take Pride in Progress

In most contexts, we take pride in progress. When we see ourselves starting out at a lower level of mastery and advancing to a higher level, it feels good. We've learned something. We've grown. We're getting better.

Remember what it was like the first time you tried to drive a motor vehicle? It wasn't as easy as the adults around you made it look, was it? I remember stalling, grinding gears, running into a curb, and more. It felt like I'd never get it right. It doesn't feel that way today.

Secular Activists Cannot Allow Religious Parents to Steer Public Schools

Parents ought to have a voice in the education of their children. After all, parents are (or at least ought to be) sufficiently invested in their children as to care about what they are learning in school. And yet, having a voice does not mean being the sole or even a primary decision-maker, especially if we are talking about public education. In the context of public education, I believe the that educators (i.e., the teachers hired by the school) should be the primary decision-makers. They should listen to the parents and take the parents' wishes into consideration, but the decision of what to teach and how to teach it should ultimately be theirs. After all, public education is not about catering to parents, some of whom are dangerously misinformed, but about preparing all children to function as contributing members of our society.

I think this is a controversial position for at least two reasons. First, many people do not seem to understand that the mission of public education is to serve the public good and not anyone's individual interests. Many parents do understand this, but those who do not tend to cause significant problems. Second, far too many religious parents view education as a threat to their desire to indoctrinate their children into their preferred religion or to maintain control over whatever religious beliefs might afflict their children. Because of this second reason, it seems to me that public education is one of the primary domains where secularism and secular activism are needed. It is not just the future of these children we need to worry about; it is how they will impact the rest of us.

Let #ExposeChristianSchools Motivate Us to Take Action to End Religious Trauma

If you use Twitter or read atheist blogs, you are probably aware of at least some of the relevant hashtag campaigns that have taken place there. Examples include #WeExist, #AtheistVoter, and #AtheistsENGAGE. Most of them haven't caught on or been particularly effective. But there have been exceptions, and of the most interesting recent exceptions is #ExposeChristianSchools. I wholeheartedly support Chrissy Stroop for all she has been doing to promote this campaign.

The point of #ExposeChristianSchools is simple; people who attended Christian schools are encouraged to share their experience. And boy have they been sharing! If you are an atheist who attended public school (like me), you'll probably be horrified to read some of them, but I think it is important that we do. My overall assessment is a simple one: the problem is far worse than I could have imagined. It isn't that I was unaware that this stuff was going on, but I did not have a clear sense for how many people it affected or how it affected them. And yes, it is still happening. Children are being subjected to this stuff today. This kind of damage is still being inflicted on young minds and bodies.

Who is Qualified to Teach a Class on Atheism?

Suppose a public high school in the United States decided to offer a class on Islam and was careful to design it in such a way that it presented factual content and not pro- or anti-Islam material. Depending on where this school was located, I suspect many of the local Christians would be outraged. Additionally, I suspect that they would be outraged no matter who was teaching the course, as long as they thought it was presenting Islam as anything but a false religion.

Now suppose that instead of Islam, this same high school decided to offer a class on Christianity. I suspect many of the local Christians would be thrilled until they realized that the class was taught by a Muslim, a Jew, a Catholic, an atheist, or anyone else they perceived as being unlikely to teach the class in such a way that it promoted Christianity as more valid than other religions. That is to say, they'd probably not welcome anything less than pro-Christian content taught by someone they considered a real Christian or at least the right kind of Christian.

The Tyranny of the Minority

We're all familiar with the "tyranny of the majority" because this gets to the heart of what tyranny is all about. It refers to the scenario where those in power, due to their majority position, impose their will on everyone else. But if you have had any involvement in secular activism, regardless of whether you are an atheist, you have undoubtedly heard about the "tyranny of the minority" in that context. In the U.S., it is one of the most common complaints heard from Christians who are prohibited from imposing their religious beliefs on others.

Instead of just dismissing it as one more example of the common persecution claims we hear from (mostly) conservative Christians, I thought we might take a closer look at it and see if it has any merit at all. The best way to start is probably with one of the more common examples where we can expect to hear it. Consider the following:

A public school in a small town has had a Christmas play every year for the last 15 years. Although it is not the sort of thing one would expect to see at church, the play contains multiple references to Jesus and none to any other fictional deities. And yet, nobody has ever complained. That finally changes when a Hindu parent writes a letter to the principal explaining that her daughter is bullied by several of her Christian classmates each December and that much of it centers around this play. The letter goes on to describe how the play promotes Christianity while neglecting all other faiths, addresses how this is negatively impacting her daughter, and raises questions about the legality of this practice. The principal cancels the play.

Would Parental Licensure Help to Protect Children From Harm?

Raising a child is one of the greatest responsibilities humans undertake. A child might grow up to cure diseases, prevent wars, or a host of other great accomplishments. A child might instead grow up to be a psychopath, leaving a trail of pain and misery in his or her path. Of course, it would be naive to claim that what anybody does as a parent determines this. Parents do not have that much influence over their children. Still, it seems quite reasonable to think that society has a vested interest in making sure that parents are at least minimally competent to raise their children. This is why I am at least willing to consider the possibility of something like parental licensure.

Operating a motor vehicle is a tremendous responsibility. To ensure the safety of the individual driver and everyone else on the road, a system of licensing is required. We want to make sure the driver has at least some basic knowledge of the rules of the road and can demonstrate that they can safely operate a motor vehicle. We may complain about the inefficiency of this system, but there are few who would argue that we should abandon it completely.

Those Who Question Political Correctness Have Allies in Academia

It is much easier to complain about something one considers a problem than to offer solutions or to explore possible solutions. Since I've done my share of complaining about political correctness, identity politics, social justice warriorism, efforts to suppress the free expression of ideas, and the like, I figured it was time to consider some of what we might to do get closer to identifying possible solutions. For now, I am going to confine myself to universities in the United States. This is the environment I know best, having spent considerable time there as an undergraduate student, as a graduate student, and as one of the evil liberal professors about which you have heard so many complaints from political conservatives.

I have had a few recent conversations with conservatives about their perceptions regarding what is happening in academia. While I find myself in agreement with much of what they say, I'd like to suggest a change in strategy on their part. Specifically, I'd like to suggest that conservatives are making a mistake by characterizing the whole of academia as nauseatingly liberal, hostile to conservative views, and/or completely lost to identity politics. By making institutions of higher learning and all of us who work there the enemy, they are ignoring the fact that many of us agree with them about political correctness, identity politics, social justice warriorism, and the dangers of suppressing the free expression of ideas.

Tale of a Good Christian

I attended a Christian college not because I was Christian at the time (I was far more public about my atheism back then) but because the school had a great reputation in the region. I encountered my share of religiously-motivated bigotry, probably more than I would have at one of the state universities in the area. Some of the negative experiences I had did probably come about because most of the other students were Christian. Still, I suppose this ended up being good preparation for life in Mississippi. In fact, there is not much I would change about my college experience. It wasn't always pleasant, but it helped to make me who I am today.

Some of you who are on Twitter may have seen the recent tweets tagged with #ExposeChristianSchools. If not, many people have been using it to share their negative experiences attending Christian schools in the aftermath of Vice President Pence's comments about how Christian education should not be criticized because he and his wife (i.e., "Mother") are offended by such criticism. While I support the hashtag, my experiences attending a Christian college were far more positive than most of what I saw on Twitter. I feel very fortunate for that.

In this post, I'd like to tell you about a particularly outstanding Christian professor who I admired and respected a great deal. If nothing else, this may serve as a reminder that even devout Christians at Christian colleges can sometimes be wonderful teachers and good people. The professor in question had his appointment in the departments of philosophy and held degrees in both religion and philosophy. The course I took with him was an upper-level philosophy course on the philosophy of religion. I ended up minoring in philosophy after being unable to figure out what I would do with a philosophy major.

It is Hard to Learn Responsibility Without Freedom

You are a parent with a son or daughter who is about to turn 16 and begin driving. Assuming that you could afford a concealable GPS tracker and monitoring plan, would you use it? Would you affix it to your kid's vehicle so you'd always know where they were and where they had been?

I'm not a parent, so I'm asking mostly out of curiosity. I'm wondering whether parents these days would view this as an indispensable tool, an invasion of privacy, or something else. I am glad that my parents did not have this technology available when I was 16, as it would have meant that I missed out on all sorts of things I enjoyed at the time. I also think that it would have been a serious blow to trust in the sense that it would have told me that they did not trust me and might have raised questions about how I could trust others.

I am also glad that my parents did not make me wear a bicycle helmet when I was a kid. I am sure I would feel differently had I fallen off my bike, hit my head, and sustained permanent damage. Had that been the case, I'd probably be very upset with them for not pushing bike helmets. But somehow, a GPS tracker seems like a very different scenario. It seems like it would have been far less about protecting me and far more about controlling me. But from a parent's perspective, I wonder if the two might not seem that different.

Preventing Negative Attitudes Toward Science

By Agecom Bahia [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

It is no secret that some people have negative attitudes toward science. These attitudes can be harmful to our progress, especially when we continue to elect politicians who hold them and place them in charge of making funding decisions. Reversing these attitudes once they are in place is very difficult. We are probably better off trying to prevent them from forming in the first place. To do so, we need to acknowledge that negative attitudes toward science may develop for many different reasons.

Atheists in the U.S. are fond of pointing the finger at evangelical fundamentalist Christianity. I think we are right to do so. Much of the hostility toward science originates from those who fear "evilution" and are confused by the existence of monkeys. At the same time, this is only one of the factors driving these attitudes. Even if we somehow managed to stamp out this toxic form of Christianity in the next decade or two, I think we'd still have negative attitudes toward science.

No More Christian Proselytizing for One Louisiana School District

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and ACLU of Louisiana bring us news of a recent legal victory in the form of a consent decree in Webster Parish that will end a practice that never should have been happening in the first place:

Webster Parish School District will no longer subject students to school-sponsored Christian prayer, proselytizing, and other religious rituals under the terms of a consent decree approved Friday by a federal judge.

While this is undeniably good news, I can't help feeling disappointed that it took a federal judge to stop this practice. I'm also disappointed that a child and her family had to go through everything I'm sure they had to go through to put a stop to this nonsense.

Celebrating Secular Public Education

Americans United for Separation of Church and State reminds us that this is Public Schools Week, a perfect opportunity to express support for our public schools and our public school teachers. I think that most atheists would agree that secular public education is important, but we need to do more to defend it, promote it, and yes, even celebrate it.

The state where I grew up had a somewhat unusual system for funding public schools. At least, it was different from anything I've experienced in the other states in which I've lived since then. Essentially, funding for public schools was an item on the ballot during many elections. Depending on how the vote turned out, schools would receive needed funds (usually through a bond issue) or not. If they did not, cuts would often take place. And sadly, this was often the outcome.

There seemed to be a real disconnect in that most of the parents who had children in public school voted to fund the schools while many others did not. I found it sad that so many of the non-parents didn't seem to understand how the presence of better-educated children benefitted them. I remember that the editorial page of the local newspaper was often filled with angry letters arguing about how "I shouldn't have to pay for your kid's education" and other nonsense. The authors of these letters failed to understand that we all benefit from quality public education.

Prayer in College Classrooms

Mary Magdalene, in a dramatic 19th-century popular image of penitence painted by Ary Scheffer. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An early version of this post appeared at Atheist Revolution back in 2005. It has been revised and expanded.

We hear an awful lot about the dire consequences of not allowing prayer in school from Christians who must not realize that prayer in school is alive and well. There has been prayer in school as long as there have been schools. Unless religious believers stop attending school, I think we can be confident that there will continue to be prayer in school. And there's nothing wrong with that.

At three different universities (two state universities and one private liberal arts school), I have witnessed college students praying during class. Despite claims from conservative Christians about liberal college professors attempting to destroy the faith of their precious children, the reality is that prayer thrives in these environments.

I have observed college students praying in many contexts (e.g., prayer meetings in the dorms, religious functions on campus, before meals in the dining hall), but the most common one seems to take place in a classroom right before an examination. It typically happens while the professor is preparing to distribute exams to the class. And I have yet to see any praying student face any negative consequences for praying.

Should Children Learn About Religion in Public School?

By Starfunker226 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link

I have mixed feelings about this report of a Bristol, Connecticut, middle school canceling a Muslim speaker after the community freaked out. On one hand, I can see the merits of the school trying to teach students about world religions. Bringing in representatives of various religions seems like a good way to do that. On the other hand, I'm not sure that public schools ought to be exposing students to representatives of any religion as part of their curriculum. It isn't like representatives of various religions can be expected to be objective about their own religion, after all.

It is unfortunate but not surprising that the community freak out in this case appears to have involved social media outrage, which raised safety concerns. I have to agree with the statement from the Council on American Islamic Relations that canceling speakers in this manner rewards those who freaked out. And so, it probably would have been better for the school to have anticipated the outrage and either not issued the invitation at all or sought to involve the community in the planning phase.

Anti-Intellectualism Affects Quality of Education

An early version of this post appeared on the Mississippi Atheists blog in 2010. It has been updated and expanded.

Although I enjoyed Susan Jacoby's The Age of American Unreason very much, I did find much of it to be rather depressing. The role of anti-intellectualism in undermining education is quite clear, both historically and in modern times. Moreover, it is clear that the presence and impact of anti-intellectualism varies considerably from region to region and over time. It has long been a problem here in the South, and I have not seen much evidence lately to make me think it is getting any better.

The state of Mississippi leads the U.S. on many indicators of religiosity, and those of us who live here know that it is not just some abstract form of religion that pervades the local culture but evangelical fundamentalist Christianity. Thus, it seems reasonable to speculate that our state would come out near the top on a per capita measure of biblical literalists. Is it any wonder that our system of public education is in shambles?

Campus Political Correctness and the Consumerist Model of Higher Education

I'll be the first to admit that Camille Paglia's lengthy article in The Smart Set, Free Speech & the Modern Campus, did not exactly resonate with me. Her experience with political correctness as a faculty member is fairly different from my own, which is to be expected given that we work in different fields. Moreover, I disagree with her suggestion that faculty bear the primary responsibility for where we are today. And while I appreciate the historical context she brings to her understanding of how political correctness infiltrated academia, I did not find her recipe for undoing the damage to be terribly compelling.

Gripes aside, Paglia's final paragraph deserves to be unpacked, as it highlights a crucial point that is rarely made in discussions of political correctness on modern college and university campuses: the situation in which we find ourselves today is, at least in part, a consequence of our refusal to adequately fund higher education. Here's how she put it:

As tuition costs rose stratospherically over the past quarter century, American colleges and universities shifted into a consumerist mode and have now become more like shopping malls than educational institutions — they don’t want to upset the paying customers! But the entire college experience should be based on confronting new and disruptive ideas. Students must accept personal responsibility for their own choices and behavior, and university administrators must stop behaving like substitute parents and hovering therapists. The ultimate values at any university should be free thought and free speech.

Teaching Your Children About Christian Mythology

Ancient Greek buildings and structures in Athens (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If you are a parent with young children residing in a predominately Christian country such as the United States, you can be sure of one thing: it is only a matter of time until your children hear about Christianity. They will hear about it from their peers and from other adults. Much of what they hear will be markedly inconsistent with your views on the subject. Perhaps it would be a good idea for you to tell them about Christianity before they hear the "good news" from those who actually believe it.

Secular parents do not have many resources available to them to help with these sorts of conversations. Where should a secular parent point a curious child for the purpose of learning more about Christianity?

Chrystine Trooien is raising money on Kickstarter for an interesting project: an illustrated children's book on Christian mythology. She describes Christian Mythology for Kids as "a paraphrase of the bible and other christian myths from an unbiased secular viewpoint." It sounds like it could be a useful way for secular parents to teach their children about Christianity from a reality-based perspective.