Trust In Whom?

Out driving today I saw a car with a few interesting bumper stickers. Not too original but around the number plate of this car was a little frame saying, "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned."

Now, of course the number plate itself was one of those "In God We Trust" plates. That's right, here in Indiana separation of church and state means the Bureau of Motor Vehicles putting religious messages on vehicles. Of course not all plates are like that, that style is a personalised plate. Still, at first I couldn't work out why there were so many of them about if they are a special plate style. Then I was informed that this is the one type that costs no more than the standard plate. Now, as soon as they came out last year the ACLU challenged the constitutionality of the government subsidising religious messages. Of course this is appropriate, but I don't really understand how it can possibly succeed after the same phrase was declared kosher on currency. Apparently ceremonial deism is just fine, so long as there's no real religious exegesis. What's more, during the Cold War it was voted through congress as the official motto of the USA, so any campaing against this state law is useless while the federal motto stands.

Yet there is hope. Some vigilante groups are going around stamping out the phrase on bank notes. They claim that it's not illegal to do this so long as they're not purporting to change the face value of the currency. It reminds me of the introduction of the polymer banknotes in Australia, how people were erasing the Queen's face from the $5 note, until they changed the printing process to make the ink less soluble!

This phrase is so loaded that it has it's own Wikipedia page (which, surprisingly, doesn't have a PoV flag). Apparently, the campaign to put God on US currency started as far back as the Civil War. The most interesting point on that page is that Teddy Roosevelt opposed it for religious reasons, he didn't want the blasphemy of associating religion with filthy lucre. Sounds quite consistent with "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." (Mark 12:17)

What kind of name is "Mitt", anyway?

I really should stop just posting videos from Comedy Central. But this one raises some very important questions.

Is it worse to be irrational about more things? That is, are Mormons less rational because they believe in a nineteenth century hoax as well as having the same uncritical beliefs that normal Christians hold about Jesus' and other prophets' miracles? Or is it a matter of, "in for a penny, in for a pound"? Even if it's not a matter of number of unjustified beliefs, could it be less rational to believe in more recent miracles simply because they are less obscured in the sands of time? Or could it be vice-verse - is it inherently less plausible to believe that Joseph Smith really used Seer Stones to read from Golden Tablets even though no body saw them than to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, even though it's now impossible to contact the people supposed to have witnessed it.

And then there's questions about the religious prerogative to discriminate. Most people outside America don't know enough about Mormons to know that they had a no-blacks rule until the 70s. I don't understand how they got away with that in that decade following the Civil Rights Act. It sound abhorent that they had institutionalised racism, but what about other religions? Orthodox and Conservative Jews only allow descendents of Aaron to become Kohanim and give the priestly (Vulcan) blessing. Maybe it's a matter of spin, but to me it seems just as bad to give some group a privelege because their ancestor (Aaron) did something good as it is to deny a group because their ancestor (Ham) did something bad. And what about gender equity, that's enshrined in the laws of most Western countries these days (eg US Equal Rights Amendment) yet the Catholic Church (and the Sydney Archiocesse of the Anglican Church) won't let women be priests! (Oh, and again with Judaism, women can never be Rabbis.)

I shouldn't feign surprise that these prejudices abound. What's truly surprising is that all these bigoted establishments are revered and exempted from the laws of the land. And in Australia they are even given money to help them indoctrinate children with those same prejudices.

The Church of Atheism

Funny but true. This is why I've never joined an atheist society.