End Hereditary Religion » Child abuse

The Hitting Stops Here! A campaign for teaching kindness and respect in schools everywhere.

Richard Collins — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:41:50 +0000

Image via Wikipedia Corporal Punishment in USA schools are coded red.

The Hitting Stops Here! A campaign for teaching kindness and respect in schools everywhere.

www.TheHittingStopsHere.com! !

info@thehittingstopshere.com, 408.509.6835

September 29, 2011

New York Representative Carolyn McCarthy’s federal bill for banning USA school corporal punishment, HR 3027, news reports and PSA:

www.thehittingstopshere.com/McCarthyNewsBillPSA.pdf

REP CAROLYN McCARTHY’S PETITION

For Banning USA School Corporal Punishment: http://DontHitStudents.com/

American Civil Liberties Union Petition

Tell Congress to Support The Ending Corporal Punishment in Schools Act:

https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3669&s_sbsrc=110925_CorpPunishSchools_bor

What American Schoolchildren Can Do For Gaining Their

14th Amendment “protective” and “due process” rights :

By clicking on the following link and completing the simple form, an automated letter will be

sent to your Representatives in Congress urging them to Support H.R. 3027, “The Ending

Corporal Punishment in Schools Act,” which can be sent daily:

https://secure.aclu.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=3669&s_sbsrc=110925_CorpPunishSchools_bor

Additionally, it is important to know:

Where Does Governmental Power Exist For Ending USA “School Corporal Punishment”

“The Umbrella of U.S. Power,” p. 52, by Dr. Norm Chomsky, reveals that the US SenateHolds the Power to End All USA School Beatings and Other Forms of School Corporal Punishment:

“The U.S.A. accepted the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other forms of Cruel andInhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, BUT THE SENATE IMPOSED RESTRICTIONS, USING ITS POWER TO AMEND AND RATIFY TREATIES UNDER THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, to protect in part, the Supreme Court’s ruling ALLOWING CORPORAL PUNISHMENT IN SCHOOLS.”

Dr. Chomsky is an esteemed lecturer and professor of Government and International Politics at Harvard University.

Therefore, US Senator Education Committee Chairman Tom Harkin has the MOST influential power for ending USA school corporal punishment. While American schoolchildren of color, disadvantaged and special needs, primarily, face all

kinds of abusive punishment in USA schools, Tom Harkin has focused his attention on the following:

“…Tom is working to insure that the Middle Class has a bright future…” He has fought to

improve education in Iowa and across the country. He has worked to reduce class size, give

students better computer and Internet access, expand school counseling and safety programs and

improve teacher training. He has also led the effort to modernize America’s school infrastructure.

Each year he secures funding to help school districts in Iowa update and repair their facilities.

Please note: Iowa Senator Harkins resides in the top-performing state for education in America.

Do schoolchildren in US “paddling” states fit anywhere in his agenda?

Tom Harkin is the Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee that funds the USA Education school

system. These funds are those referred to in NY Rep Carolyn McCarthy’s bill. See news report, Bill for

Banning US School Corporal Punishment Introduced To Congress:

http://carolynmccarthy.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=155§iontree=189%2C155&itemid=1932.

Senator Tom Harkin’s biography:

http://harkin.senate.gov/

Image via Wikipedia

Senator Harkin has a, “Tell Tom how you Feel About a Bill” link at: http://harkin.senate.gov/contact.cfm

ALL U.S. SENATE EDUCATION COMMITTEE MEMBER names and contact information, to

be posted here soon.

The following link is to their main website containing their contacts:

http://help.senate.gov/issues/issue/?id=20c1298a-5186-4859-8488-a6731cf07a9e

__________

US House of Representative Education and Work force Committee Chairman John Kline was reelected to represent suburbs and rural Minnesota counties in the House of Representatives a fourth term in 2008. He has established himself as one of Congress’s foremost experts on defenseand veterans issues, a conservative voice on tax and budget policy, an advocate for education,and a champion for helping America become more energy independent. But ending US school beatings of disadvantaged American schoolchildren under his jurisdiction,

being targeted at them by American Educators who are under his command, appears to be for him, a daunting task. Fall 2011, the House of Representatives is expected to consider proposals to roll back FEDERAL INTRUSION in classrooms, eliminate wasteful education spending, improve accountability, support more effective teachers, and provide more flexibility to state and local education leaders.

Rep. John Kline’s contact information: MN Ofc: 952.808.1213, Wash. DC Ofc: 201.225.2271, email address for MN residents: http://kline.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=233

ALL U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVE EDUCATION COMMITTEE MEMBER names and contact information, to be posted here soon. The federal bill for banning USA school corporal punishment was introduced to the House by Representative Carolyn McCarthy on Thursday, Sept. 22, 2011.

See news report, Paddling is Bullying, Outlaw It, Says U.S. Congresswoman:

http://news.yahoo.com/paddling-bullying-outlaw-says-u-congresswoman-211100520.html

PLEASE POST!

REP CAROLYN McCARTHY’S PETITION FOR BANNING USA SCHOOL

CORPORAL PUNISHMENT:

http://DontHitStudents.com/

PSA ON BANNING USA SCHOOL CORPORAL PUNISHMENT:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SydswuSpWds

Other links worthy of attention:

Statistics on Children in America: www.brookings.edu/opinions/2011/0408_census_youth_frey.aspx

“Forced medication” in American schools: http://psychrights.org/kids/pizzuroforceddrugging.pdf

Harkin’s Education Bill Draft Shows A Federal Rollback (huffingtonpost.com)
Rare Bipartisan Accord on No Child Left Behind Revamp (usnews.com)
Bipartisan Rewrite Of Contentious Bush-Era Law Sparks Debate (huffingtonpost.com)
Corporal punishment cannot be practiced in the name of disciplining child: Shantha Sinha (equalityindia.wordpress.com)
SEN. TOM HARKIN: It was my understanding that there would be no math. Plus, from the comments: … (pjmedia.com)

End all physical punishment of children A raging argument has been going on for years over...

Robert Kunzman: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child vs. the Parental Rights Movement

Richard Collins — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 20:23:28 +0000

Today’s post is from Robert Kunzman, author of Write These Laws on Your Children: Inside the World of Conservative Christian Homeschooling. Kunzman spent ten years as a high school teacher, coach, and administrator and is currently an associate professor in the Indiana University School of Education. He is also the author of Grappling with the Good: Talking about Religion and Morality in Public Schools.

Quick—who are the only two nations who haven’t ratified the 1989 UN Convention on the Rights of the Child?

Somalia is one of them—no bonus points for that guess. Who else stands against the 193 nations who’ve ratified the treaty? None other than the United States of America. This may change under the Obama administration; U.N. ambassador Susan Rice recently proclaimed the situation a disgrace and indicated that U.S. ratification of the treaty was under active discussion.

But not if the Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) has their way. Calling the UNCRC “anti-family” and “anti-American,” they have urged their 80,000 members—as well as those who’ve joined ParentalRights.org, a “grassroots” organization founded by HSLDA—to voice their opposition. To further their cause, they have been a driving force in promoting a Parental Rights Amendment, which now has more than 110 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives.

Why does the most powerful and prominent homeschool advocacy organization in the world see the UNCRC as such a threat? Ultimately, it’s an argument about who should have a say in the raising and educating of children.

I’ve spent the past five years exploring the world of homeschooling from a variety of angles, traveling the country and visiting with families in their homes, observing their homeschooling practices and talking with them about what they’re doing and why they’re doing it. I quickly discovered that the range of philosophies, methods, and outcomes is vast indeed. But one fundamental conviction among homeschool parents emerges again and again: the state has no business telling them how to raise or educate their children.

This conviction is especially strong among conservative Christian homeschoolers, who most observers agree constitute the largest subset of the likely two million homeschoolers in the United States (HSLDA describes itself as a Christian organization). Not infrequently, parents pointed to the biblical passage of Deuteronomy 6:6-9 when explaining to me their motivation to homeschool. The Message, a popular Bible paraphrase, puts it this way: “Write these commandments that I’ve given you today on your hearts. Get them inside of you and then get them inside your children. Talk about them wherever you are, sitting at home or walking in the street; talk about them from the time you get up in the morning to when you fall into bed at night.”

This orientation toward parenting and education helps explain why homeschool parents are particularly resistant toward any government role or authority in the education of their children. Good parents (whether homeschoolers or not) see education, broadly construed, as part of their job description: raising a child involves constant teaching, and the most important lessons in life generally occur outside of school walls. But most homeschoolers take this a step further. They don’t see any real distinction between this broader notion of education and formal schooling itself—which makes sense, if homeschooling is just woven into the fabric of everyday family life. And if homeschooling is seen as simply part of parenting, then it becomes easier to understand why many homeschool parents view government oversight of education as an unjustifiable intrusion into their sacred domain.

For conservative Christian homeschoolers, educating their children is a God-given right and responsibility, and one they can delegate only at great moral and spiritual peril. Like many in the broader homeschool population, conservative Christians see homeschooling as a twenty-four-hour-a-day, all-encompassing endeavor. For them, perhaps more explicitly than other homeschoolers, homeschooling is a shaping not only of intellect but—even more crucially—character. This means more than just moral choices of right and wrong; character is developed through the inculcation of an overarching Christian worldview that guides those moral choices. These parents share a fierce determination to instill Christian character in their children, a process that entails protecting them from the corrupting influences of broader society. To accomplish this, the family becomes the defensive bulwark and sanctuary wherein children are prepared for eventual engagement with the world.

Parental interests aren’t the only ones at stake in the educational process, of course. A democracy depends upon the cultivation of informed citizens who can deliberate respectfully about the best ways to live together. And while most parents naturally believe that their efforts are dedicated to what’s best for their children, in reality this isn’t always the case; as the UNCRC asserts, children have their own educational interests at stake as well. But in the context of homeschooling—the ultimate in educational privatization—how to define and protect these various interests remains a complicated and contested question indeed.

http://www.beaconbroadside.com/broadside/2009/09/robert-kunzman-the-un-convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-vs-the-parental-rights-movement.html?cid=6a00e54ed2b7aa88330120a5bff906970c#comment-6a00e54ed2b7aa88330120a5bff906970c

Conservative Christian homeschoolers are creating an unnatural “bubble” to raise their children in, shielded from the larger society, which conservatives have learned they cannot control. They do a great disservice to their children by handicapping them from every living comfortably outside the bible. They are outcast from normal society and cannot flourish once they leave their bubble. They develop backward attitudes that make them unpopular among their peers. Those that suffer the most are the ones that attend a college that is not specifically religious.

Children’s Rights and the Parental Authority to Instill a Specific Value System Essays in Philosophy Volume 7 Issue 1 Liberalism, Feminism, Multiculturalism...

Child hatred is so common we never notice it

Richard Collins — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 08:45:51 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

It is not that some parents do not know how to love, there is actually an undercurrent of child hate and prejudice in our culture. Looking back at the history of children it is not hard to pick up the threads. Children have been battered, sexually molested and abused horribly in the past. The prejudice and hatred is so widespread I find it curious that we have no word for child hater. We have one for woman hater.

Here is an interesting critique of one of the leading parenting magazines:

When a Child-Hater Writes a Parenting Article

It warmed my heart yesterday to see all the wonderful feedback I got on Ten Ways To Confuse a Child. I am often upset by the hypocrisy and the double standards inflicted by adults on kids. But yesterday was a good day. A lot of people agreed with me. That made me feel good about the world.

And then my sister-in-law sent me this article, republished from this month’s issue of Parents magazine, called 25 Manners Every Kid Should Know By Age 9. Brace yourselves. I have picked out some of the “manners” that were confusing or otherwise bothered me. And here they are, with my responses:

Manner #3 Do not interrupt grown-ups who are speaking with each other unless there is an emergency. They will notice you and respond when they are finished talking.
What makes an emergency? How does a child know when grown-ups are “finished” talking? Will it be like listening for microwave popcorn to be done, 1-2 seconds between responses? And why don’t children deserve this same courtesy? Adults have no problem interrupting children.

Manner #5 When you have any doubt about doing something, ask permission first. It can save you from many hours of grief later.
I guess this might be good advice for the child whose parents gives him “hours of grief” about things he has done without permission. I wouldn’t really call this one a manner though. Also, remember, it is usually easier to ask forgiveness than permission. Hours of grief may be a price worth paying if it means the child has already gotten to do what he wants.

Manner #6 The world is not interested in what you dislike. Keep negative opinions to yourself, or between you and your friends, and out of earshot of adults.
This is a joke, right? Never complain to adults? How about this one: don’t talk to anyone who isn’t interested enough in you to care about your dislikes. If anything, adults should take their own advice here, and stop complaining about kids so much.

Manner #7 Do not comment on other people’s physical characteristics unless, of course, it’s to compliment them, which is always welcome.
Wow, great rule. So as long as it’s a compliment, it’s ok? Is it always welcome to tell a woman she has nice breasts? And I can’t even count the number of times I have heard adults openly insult a child’s physical appearance, laughing at the way the his hair looks, or how his ears or his belly stick out, or anything else. Adults, please check yourselves on this one first.

Manner #13 Never use foul language in front of adults. Grown-ups already know all those words, and they find them boring and unpleasant.
Another joke, I’m assuming. If grown-ups find these words so boring and unpleasant, then why do they say them so much? Hey grown-ups, maybe don’t use foul language in front of kids if you don’t like it??

Continue reading here: http://demandeuphoria.blogspot.com/2011/05/when-child-hater-writes-parenting.html

There is definitely a double standard when it comes to people interacting with children. Not only are some people free with their hands, but they are also entirely too free with their mouths. At some level, maybe adults fear children because they cannot relate to them and we see from reading comments to this thread that many parents fear losing their authority unless they act aggressively towards their children at all times. Some parents think they must never let the facade drop.

Parents must learn at a deep level the importance of respecting their children even though children are lacking in all the refinements and knowledge of adults. Hey, they just arrived on the planet, cut them some slack! I suppose we have progressed somewhat. At least we no longer bury children alive in the foundations of our buildings for good luck.

Use them as soldiers? OK. Use them for sexual gratification? OK. Use them as slave labor? OK.

I think humans have a very long way to go before we can say we do more than pay lip service to the rights of our children.

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This beautiful young man was needlessly taken from us

Richard Collins — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 11:15:53 +0000

Reposted from the website Milkboys.

Last Sunday we lost another friend. Caio Lhennysson da Silva, 18, was found dead on a farm. He was half-naked; his mouth was full of sand and his body was showing signs of strangulation. He didn’t do anything to deserve that. He wasn’t involved with any criminal activity. He was a happy, beautiful teenager. What made him different from many people is that he was openly gay and androgynous.

He was loved by many people, but died without mercy. Every year, here in Brazil, more than 250 people die on gay-hate related crimes. I must say… I am afraid. I am afraid someone I know will be the next – Caio was a good friend of a friend of mine. I am afraid next time it could be a friend of mine, my best friend, maybe the boy I like, or even me. Today I am mourning over a stranger’s death. I mourn 250 times a year. It is ironic that the word “gay” also means happy…

On the other hand, there is some happy news. Finally homosexual civil unions are recognized here in Brazil. Now we have a lot of rights that make us a bit more equal to straight couples. There is still a lot to fight to, but it was a small victory among all our problems.

My comment:

All the empty lip service we hear about protecting children is for naught. Nothing protected Caio from the barbarians that killed him.

Get them while they are young Subscribe to this blog to stay updated on the latest...

End all physical punishment of children

Richard Collins — Sun, 29 May 2011 19:44:01 +0000

A raging argument has been going on for years over the supposed need for hitting children as a means to gain their compliance. Child care professionals have largely reached consensus that spanking and verbal aggression pose serious risks to children, but parents strongly resist change. Many parents admit they do not like spanking their children but they do it anyway even though safer means are open to them.

Gradually the professional societies are changing their stance, convinced by the overwhelming scientific evidence. That will encourage more pediatricians, child development experts and therapists to officially adopt the zero tolerance position that eliminates the impasse that exists now on exactly how to define abuse. Current statutes are too loosly interpreted by the courts worldwide and there is never any accounting for the risk of depression or other mental problems. The message given parents must be unequivical. Never hit or humiliate a child for any reason.

Child rights advocates focus must shift to implementing needed cultural and political change. Like the laws against smoking that had such a demonstrable effect in helping smokers break the habit, a law against assaulting children will help many parents see that they really must reform. There is no legitimate reason to ever hit a vulnerable child for any circumstance.

CENTER FOR EFFECTIVE DISCIPLINE – online:
http://www.stophitting.com/index.php?page=poststatements

A Multi-pronged Approach to Ending Physical Punishment of Children in the United States

1. INDIVIDUALS HAVE A MORAL RESPONSIBILITY AND A ROLE IN ENDING PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.
a. We must resolve not to hit our own children and to be knowledgeable about positive alternatives to physical punishment.
b. We should use terms that reflect the real nature of physical punishment like “hitting” rather than euphemisms like “swats” or “pops”.
c. In our professional roles, we should tell parents and caretakers not to hit children and provide alternatives.
d. We should support legal and educational reforms that lead to ending physical punishment of children.

2. EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS ROLE IN ENDING PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.
a. Teacher Education, Social Work, Criminal Justice, Counseling, Nursing, medical education and all human services programs should integrate knowledge about the negative effects of physical punishment and the benefits of positive alternatives into the curricula.
b. All professional organizations should have a position statement opposing the physical punishment of children and work for and support public policy and legal reform which leads to the elimination of physical punishment of children.

3. STATES AND COMMUNITIES HAVE A ROLE IN ENDING PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.
a. Physical punishment in schools should be banned.
b. Programs on the negative effects of physical punishment and the benefits of positive alternatives should be part of required training for teachers, staff and students in public schools.
c. Programs on the negative effects of physical punishment and the benefits of positive alternatives should be available and accessible to all parents.
d. All professionals with mandated reporting responsibility for child abuse should have appropriate training in the negative effects of physical punishment of children and the benefits of positive alternatives.
e. State laws should be reformed to make it a misdemeanor to strike a child.

4. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN HELP END PHYSICAL PUNISHMENT OF CHILDREN.
a. The Senate should ratify the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.
b. The Surgeon General should establish a national blue ribbon task force on physical punishment of children and begin an educational campaign to end its use in all settings including homes.
c. Congress should require the prohibition of physical punishment in all laws regarding schools; foster care, institutional care and child care as a condition of federal funding.
d. All federally funded parent education programs should provide training on the negative effects of physical punishment and the benefits of positive alternatives.
e. Child abuse prevention grants should require that state programs focus activities on eliminating parental physical punishment of children and supporting positive alternatives.

-Adopted by the EPOCH-USA Advisory Board, June 2005.

Young human rights reporter of the year 2011 – lower secondary school runner up (guardian.co.uk)

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Get them while they are young

Richard Collins — Sun, 22 May 2011 15:26:44 +0000

Subscribe to this blog to stay updated on the latest in the international project to end hereditary religion.

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‘Christianity stole my childhood’ – Katy Perry

Richard Collins — Sat, 07 May 2011 01:05:36 +0000

Image via Wikipedia

KATY Perry says she left her strict religious upbringing behind after her evangelical minister parents left her without a childhood.

The pop singer is on the cover of the June issue of Vanity Fair magazine, where she revealed the differences between hers and her parents’ way of thinking in an interview.

“I didn’t have a childhood,” she told the magazine. She said she was not allowed to use terms like “deviled eggs” or “Dirt Devil,” to listen to secular music or to read any books but the Bible.

In March, Perry’s mother revealed that she was shopping a book about the impact of her daughter’s career on her ministry. She said she was proud of Katy but disagreed with “a lot of choices she makes.”

“I think sometimes when children grow up, their parents grow up,” Katy Perry told Vanity Fair.

“Mine grew up with me. We co-exist. I don’t try to change them anymore, and I don’t think they try to change me. We agree to disagree. They’re excited about [my success]. They’re happy that things are going well for their three children and that they’re not on drugs. Or in prison.”

Perry credited her husband, actor Russell Brand, with opening her mind even more.

“I come from a very non-accepting family, but I’m very accepting,” Perry said of her current religious beliefs.

“Russell is into Hinduism, and I’m not [really] involved in it. He meditates in the morning and the evening; I’m starting to do it more because it really centres me. [But] I just let him be him, and he lets me be me.”

Katy Perry: “My Career Is Like An Artichoke” (wlte.radio.com)
Katy Perry On Strict Christian Upbringing: ‘I Didn’t Have A Childhood’ (huffingtonpost.com)
Katy Perry Covers Vanity Fair June 2011 (bittenandbound.com)
Katy Perry: Yes, I really kissed a girl (via The Marquee Blog) (thespiritportal.wordpress.com)

How powerful is childhood religious indoctrination? Mormonism would cease to exist in just a few generations...

You cannot end the religious indoctrination of vulnerable children

Richard Collins — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 18:47:11 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

People argue that parents and religious entities will not cease the practice of preying on vulnerable children to maintain their tribes. Religious indoctrination of children has been going on for centuries and is a universal phenomenon. Like child battering, it is a syndrome protected by an extensive protective meme complex. Parents were most likely indoctrinated, making them excellent practitioners of childhood religious grooming. They know all the techniques and evasions to use on their own kids. Likewise, adults who were physically punished will strenuously defend this cruel treatment and turn around and physically punish their own children.

Changing the status quo may be difficult, but let’s not diminish the power of an idea whose time has come. Women’s advocates met a lot of nay saying when they set out to end violence against women in the home and sexism in the work force. The battles are not completely over, but the status of women has greatly improved over the last several decades.

One factor that has helped is the strategy of encouraging intervention by compassionate witnesses who can see what is happening to a battered wife. The same thing will happen with children who are being forced into a religious practice. An older sibling or a rogue cousin, friend, aunt or uncle, who sees the light, will quietly take the child aside and explain that god is pretend in the same way that Superman, the Easter Bunny and Santa Clause are pretend. After reading them some stories from a book about myths, the child will have some intellectual ammunition. Kids as young as 7 or 8 figure out on their own that the entire religious edifice is a giant house of cards. However, they soon learn not to voice their opinions on what they have been told.

Once the seed of skepticism is planted it becomes harder and harder to maintain a facade of religious belief and the reality that religion is merely a social control mechanism becomes really evident. Just spend some time reading the personal narratives of people who have escaped the trap. Without doubt they all describe a moment of absolute clarity when it all made sense why the answers to their questions were so evasive or stood on such false logical ground. Why there were so many roadblocks to autonomy and self determination placed in their path.

Atheist and Humanist public educational campaigns in public spaces such as public transportation and billboards are also a tactic to reach young children. The goal is to explain there is an alternative to what they are being sold. Secular people have a moral imperative to spread the truth about childhood religious indoctrination, because no one else will and secularists represent the largest body of people who have examined religion with a jaundiced eye. Secularists possess the knowledge to push back against the fallout that is sure to come. Survey after survey shows that atheists know more about religion than believers.

The taboo against intervening in “sacred” family matters broke down over wife battering, and it will succumb again to advocates working to end child religious grooming. The current practice is grossly unethical and unwise because it can produce mental problems in certain susceptible youngsters. For some children the brutal horror story that lies at the heart of Christianity gives them nightmares. Islam still retains male chauvinism and rigid patriarchy that destroys the self esteem of girls and women not to mention making them sexual slaves. Fortunately most progressive churches have banished the gruesome crucifixion statues to a dusty warehouse. For shame they ever hung those revolting objects in their auditoriums.

Salvation is not a legitimate argument for indoctrinating children (endhereditaryreligion.com)
Who Cares About Atheists? (camelswithhammers.com)
Quiverfull Atheists (dangeroustalk.net)
Questions for Those Raising Their Kids Without Religion (atheistrev.com)
Indoctrinating Children In a Religious Faith is Abusive (atheistrev.com)
“Aha!” Moments (new.exchristian.net)

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How to tell your parents you are atheist/agnostic

Richard Collins — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 18:06:05 +0000

http://www.youtube.com/user/writcheyc?feature=mhsn

Have you stopped believing your parent’s religion? Many kids are questioning the religion of their parents. Some have stopped believing and don’t know how to tell their parents. This video is a guide to kids and teenagers in opening up to their parents.

In many respects, the advice in this video tracks the advice given to GLBT kids who want to be honest with their families and friends.

Hope For Young Atheists (anatheist.net)

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Superstition vs reason, which will triumph?

Richard Collins — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 17:51:04 +0000

: Image via Wikipedia

There are two ways of looking at the world – through faith and superstition or through the rigours of logic, observation and evidence – in other words, through reason. –Richard Dawkins

At the beginning of the 21st century we are experiencing a virtual war against reason that is happening due to at least two important reasons. Firstly, the religion virus has spread far and wide in recent decades capitalizing on doubt and confusion about modern intellectual achievements and cultural changes that have emancipated people from the grasp of religion. Secondly, science is advancing so rapidly that the common person cannot absorb all the new knowledge. Highly technical scientific reports are so numerous that even experts complain they are being swamped by information What chance do lay persons have? How many simply give up ever understanding.

To fill the void, peddlers of superstition have flooded in to offer bizarre alternatives to science that seem to make sense and don’t require rigor or careful thought. Purveyors advocate impossible untested schemes of quack medicine and psychics abound that have absolutely no logical grounding whatsoever. The most aggressive superstition peddlers attack the very notion that evidence and fact are critical in the search for truth. They cavalierly toss out epistemology backed by centuries of investigation and careful study. They claim one can “know” something through feelings, emotions, ephemeral insubstantial hunches. President George W. Bush, a proud born-again christian, claimed he went with his gut feeling to answer the most profound questions. According to him, what felt right is right. This is stupifying ignorance raised to the umpteenth power. If he used his gut to think with, one wonders if he used his brain to digest his food. The fool.

Richard Dawkins, a leading proponent of science education and a tireless advocate of using reason to seek the truth, stars in a two part television program, “The Enemies of Reason“, broadcast by Britain’s Channel 4 television. Here is part one.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7218293233140975017#

Part Two:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7218293233140975017#docid=6004927014381716642

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End Hereditary Religion » Child abuse

The Hitting Stops Here! A campaign for teaching kindness and respect in schools everywhere.

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Robert Kunzman: The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child vs. the Parental Rights Movement

Child hatred is so common we never notice it

This beautiful young man was needlessly taken from us

End all physical punishment of children

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Get them while they are young

‘Christianity stole my childhood’ – Katy Perry

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You cannot end the religious indoctrination of vulnerable children

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How to tell your parents you are atheist/agnostic

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