Tri-State Freethinkers warn Youngstown City School District: Intelligent Design has no place in classroom

Tri-State Freethinkers have issued the following press release:

Cincinnati, OH – Tri-State Freethinkers have written a letter to Interim Superintendent, Stephen Stohla, regarding a lesson plan discovered on their school district web server that directs students in the study of Intelligent Design and its contrast to Evolution. Both the Supreme Court and Federal Courts have repeatedly and consistently rejected the promotion of creationism and intelligent design in public schools, even when proposed as an “alternative theory” as it appears Youngstown City School District intends to do.

We owe it to our children to make sure they are educated in the most current, accepted, and peer reviewed scientific literature so that they can be prepared to make decisions and be productive members of society. To “teach the controversy” of Intelligent Design or Creationism in our public schools falsely elevates the credibility of these religious stories and encourages the suspension of reason and logic when weighing scientific information. To require students to learn about religious dogma in the classroom is a clear violation of the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

For more information regarding legal issues of teaching Creationism or Intelligent Design in public schools, please visit Freedom From Religion Foundation’s FAQ.

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Below is an excerpt from the letter sent to the interim superintendent of Youngstown City School district.

It is our understanding that Youngstown City School District (YCSD) has a document hosted on its web server titled “SCIENCE: BIOLOGY UNIT #4: DIVERSITY OF LIFE (4 WEEKS)”. This document has been attached for your review. The first section states:

SYNOPSIS: Students compare the basis for evolutionary ideas beyond the fossil record and morphological comparisons, including molecular sequence data. The students examine the content of evolution and intelligent design and consider the merits and flaws of both sides of the argument.

The curriculum is teaching a non-existent controversy by showing students the “flaws” in the widely tested and accepted theory of evolution and watching YouTube videos from companies such as “Illustra Media” which pander to religious beliefs of creationism and intelligent design.

The Supreme Court struck down teaching “scientific creationism” in public schools. Edwards v. Aguillard, 482 U.S. 578, (1987). Federal courts have consistently rejected the promotion of creationism and intelligent design in public schools:

• Peloza v. Capistrano Unified Sch. Dist., 37 F.3d 517 (9th Cir. 1994) (upholding school’s prohibition on teaching creationism because permitting a teacher “to discuss his religious beliefs with students during school time on school grounds would violate the Establishment Clause”);
• Webster v. New Lenox Sch. Dist. No. 122, 917 F.2d 1004 (7th Cir. 1990) (finding valid a school board’s prohibition on teaching “creation science” because the board has a responsibility to ensure that the teacher was not “injecting religious advocacy into the classroom”);
• Kitzmiller v. Dover Area Sch. Dist., 400 F. Supp. 2d 707 (M.D. Pa 2005) (holding that a policy requiring students to hear a statement that intelligent design is an alternative to Darwin’s theory of evolution violates the Establishment Clause);
• McLean v. Ark. Bd. of Educ., 529 F. Supp. 1255 (D.C. Ark., 1982) (permanently enjoining Board of Education from taking actions pursuant to a state statute mandating “balanced treatment for creation science and evolution science” because the statute violated the Establishment Clause).

The school district has a constitutional obligation to ensure that “teachers do not inculcate religion.” Lemon v. Kurtzman, 403 U.S. 602, 619 (1971). Time and again courts exposed these proposals as an attempt to foist religious beliefs onto vulnerable schoolchildren, often after a costly legal battle.
We request that you investigate this matter immediately. If these allegations are founded, the document must be removed from your web server and any use of curriculum involving intelligent design ceased. Please promptly inform us in writing of the steps you are taking to protect the rights of conscience of your students.

We hope that this matter will be addressed quickly and will follow up with the school as needed.

Action Alert: Do No Harm Act

This is an Action Alert received from FFRF. We have already seen the damage caused by a recent slew of “sincerely held belief” bills allowing individuals and businesses to discriminate and take away the rights of others. The Do Not Harm Act would limit their use in cases involving discrimination, child labor and abuse, wages and collective bargaining, access to health care, public accommodations and social services provided through government contract.

Tri-State Freethinkers support this Act and encourage everyone to contact their legislators and ask them to support it!

Find your State Legislator here: http://openstates.org/find_your_legislator/

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Statement by the Freedom From Religion Foundation

The Freedom From Religion Foundation welcomes the introduction today of the “Do No Harm Act” to amend the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, known as RFRA. FFRF applauds U.S. Reps. Bobbie Scott of Virginia and Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts for their leadership in seeking to reform a law that has protected religious privilege, at the expense of true religious freedom.

Scott and Kennedy contend that RFRA is being used as a weapon against liberty rather than as a shield to protect religious freedom. RFRA has been invoked to undermine Civil Rights Act protections, limit access to healthcare, and refuse service to minority populations.

The bill would limit the use of RFRA in cases involving discrimination, child labor and abuse, wages and collective bargaining, access to health care, public accommodations and social services provided through government contract.

Scott said the law, since being adopted in 1993, “has been misconstrued as allowing the sincerely-held religious beliefs of one person to trump the civil rights of others.”

“The right of Americans to freely and fully express our faith is sacred in this country,” said Kennedy. “But in order to guarantee that liberty for every citizen, our system must ensure that my religious freedom does not infringe on yours or do you harm.”
FFRF has been calling for the repeal of RFRA since the Supreme Court’s disastrous Hobby Lobby decision in 2014. That decision permitted for-profit corporations to invoke religion to deny women workers contraceptive health coverage. Along with leading RFRA critic Marci Hamilton, FFRF filed an amicus brief seeking RFRA’s repeal.

RFRA is a super-statute that effectively amends every other federal law, including laws meant to protect citizens from unfair treatment. The Do No Harm Act would limit which laws RFRA applies to. For instance, RFRA would no longer allow believers to be exempt from the Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Violence Against Women Act, or laws that require coverage for any health care item. The bill, if enacted, could undo some of the damage caused by the Hobby Lobby decision.

“Religious freedom is already protected in our nation. That protection is called the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution,” said Annie Laurie Gaylor, FFRF co-president.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation’s largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.

– See more at: http://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/26650-ffrf-welcomes-do-no-harm-act-to-amend-rfra#sthash.wLBpUaBV.dpuf

 

 

Freethought is not “Everyone is right” thought

One of the common responses to our billboard campaign from theists has been “Some “free” thinkers you are! You dismiss anyone who thinks differently than you!”. The irony of these statements is overwhelming. There seems to be some confusion as to what “freethought” is and what it means to be a “freethinker”. Let’s start with the definition:

FREETHOUGHT  noun (dictionary.com)
thought unrestrained by deference to authority, tradition, or established belief, especially in matters of religion.

 

Freethought is not, as many appear to think, the universal reverence and acceptance of any idea or belief system.  As freethinkers, we believe that every viewpoint should be rigorously tested, examined, and criticized. We believe that ideas conceived from sources that cannot be questioned, such as religion, authority, or dogma, are dangerous. When an idea or belief is above criticism, it cannot grow or change with how we see the world.

 

Philosopher Bertrand Russell in his 1957 essay “The Value of Free Thought” wrote:

“What makes a freethinker is not his beliefs but the way in which he holds them. If he holds them because his elders told him they were true when he was young, or if he holds them because if he did not he would be unhappy, his thought is not free; but if he holds them because, after careful thought he finds a balance of evidence in their favor, then his thought is free, however odd his conclusions may seem.”

Our criticism of the story of Noah’s Ark is the result of a pragmatic examination of the Bible, and not, as some would believe, out of hatred for Christianity. The story of Noah’s Ark is part of the Christian creation myth. Believing this story to be fact, despite overwhelming consensus from multiple disciplines of science, is not only wrong, but dangerous. Teaching children and adults to ignore scientific fact in favor of unquestionable dogma will prevent our society from progressing in areas of science, medicine, and human rights.

FFRF runs full-page ads in Oklahoma & Kansas debunking anti-abortion claims

original post

One of the biggest challenges to promoting women’s access to healthcare and supporting reproductive rights is the stonewall response from Christians that the Bible says it’s all wrong. They will not hear statistics of how comprehensive sex education and access to contraception actually lowers abortion rates. They will not stop the harassment of women walking into a women’s center with disturbing signs and threats of eternal damnation. The Freedom From Religion Foundation is taking a different approach this weekend by placing a full page ad in two separate papers, one in Oklahoma and one in Kansas, pointing out Biblical references that contradict the common bible-belt stance to abortion.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation will be running a full-page ad in Sunday’s Tulsa (Okla.) World and Wichita (Kan.) Eagle asking the question, “What does the bible really say about abortion?”

The answer is (as the ad puts it): “There is no biblical justification for the assault on women’s reproductive rights.”

The advertisement features a compelling portrait of birth control crusader Margaret Sanger, and her quote: “No woman can call herself free who does not own and control her body.” It documents that the bible does not condemn abortion and, in fact, “shows an utter disregard for human life.” The ad reminds the reader: “We live under a secular Constitution that wisely separates religion from government, and protects women’s reproductive rights.”

The ad is funded and was largely written by Brian Bolton, a retired professor and Life Member of FFRF, in memory of FFRF’s principal founder Anne Nicol Gaylor (1926-2015), who was propelled into freethought activism by her experiences working to legalize abortion in the late 1960s and early ’70s. Gaylor observed that the battle for women’s rights “would never end” until the root cause of women’s oppression, “religion and its control of our government,” is challenged.

The ad refers the reader for more information to Bolton’s article, “God is So Not Pro-Life” and FFRF’s nontract “What Does the Bible Say About abortion?”

The ad first debuted earlier this spring in the Austin American-Statesman and will appear later this month in the Houston Chronicle.

FFRF warmly thanks Brian Bolton, who lives in Texas, for his generous support and commitment. Bolton additionally sponsors FFRF’s annual graduate student essay contest.

For more information on bible sexism and its reach into civil law, also see Woe to the Women: The Bible Tells Me So, by Annie Laurie Gaylor, published by FFRF

The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational charity, is the nation’s largest association of freethinkers (atheists, agnostics), and has been working since 1978 to keep religion and government separate.

– See more at: https://ffrf.org/news/news-releases/item/26622-ffrf-runs-full-page-ad-in-tulsa-wichita-debunking-anti-abortion-claims#sthash.cRLDQxkj.dpuf

Godless Billboards Blocked in Kentucky

Press Release by United Coalition of Reason

For Immediate Release

(Union, KY, May 10, 2016) “Genocide & Incest Park: Celebrating 2,000 Years of Myths”

These words are planned for a mobile billboard that will be driven around the Williamstown, KY area, placed with generous funding from an Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign (https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/genocide-incest-park#/), conducted by the Tri-State Freethinkers. The crowdfunding campaign was conducted as a protest against Ark Encounter—a water park based on a representation of Noah’s Ark. The Tri-State Freethinkers are concerned that Ark Encounter is receiving state tax incentives while maintaining discriminatory hiring practices. Scheduled to open in Williamstown, Kentucky on July 7, 2016, the park celebrates a Biblical parable of genocide and incest. While they have a legal right to celebrate their mythology, the Tri-State Freethinkers finds it immoral and highly inappropriate as family entertainment.

“We knew the IndieGoGo campaign would be big news in freethought and atheist communities. We also knew that once the billboard went up the mainstream press would pick it up and it would be a big story,” explained Jim G. Helton, President of the Tri-State Freethinkers. “However, we were surprised that the mainstream media covered the story of us simply stating that we were raising money to put up the billboard. When the story hit the local press, Lamar backed out. They were unwilling to work with me to try to find a solution that would have resembled anything close to our original concept for the billboard.”

It would appear as if there is a clear double-standard being applied against non-theistic customers in Kentucky. “In the past, Lamar put up Ark Encounter billboards that said ‘You can’t sink this ship,’ which targeted opponents to the park. We then found a small private mobile billboard company willing to drive around the park. After initially agreeing to drive the billboard around the park on multiple weekends during the summer, he recently backed out due to fear of his own personal safety,” Helton said. “If we find a company willing to put up our billboard, we are willing to allow other organizations to use our billboard to show their opposition to the Ark Encounter and to promote their local groups. We are in the early stages of trying to put together a protest on July 7, which is opening day and an after party to celebrate science and reason.”

“We secularists, agnostics and atheists are essentially like everyone else,” added Helton. “We’re your friends, neighbours, co-workers and family members. All we want is a place at the table for our ideas, too, and we are concerned that our voice and message is being denied in favor of religious messages.”

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Tri-State Freethinkers (www.tri-statefreethinkers.com) is a social, academic, and activist group with over 1,400 members in Kentucky, Indiana, and Ohio. They are advocates for equal rights and the separation of church and state. They empower their members to make positive change by giving back to our community. Tri-State Freethinkers make their decisions based on facts, logic and reason, not superstitions, myths, or dogma.

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For more information contact:
Jim G. Helton
Tri-State Freethinkers
859-835-5166
tsfreethinkers@gmail.com
www.tri-statefreethinkers.com

Freethinkers take the moral high ground on Ark Encounter

The month has flown by quickly since the launch of our Genocide & Incest Billboard Campaign. Many opinion articles have been written both in support of and criticizing our efforts to raise awareness about the unethical nature of the up and coming Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Kentucky this July.  Our organization never imagined such a welcoming, and supportive, response from our community, and our gratitude cannot be expressed enough for their generosity. But with the supporters come detractors, and we would like to respond specifically to a few questions and claims made by Ken Ham and the local Christian community regarding our activism and organization’s members. 

Genesis 6: 5-8 “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”

So, let’s start with what our beef is with regards to a theme park based on Noah’s story. Ham has claimed we are “…just using the Ark project as a way of shaking their fist at God.”

Plain and simply put: It’s immoral.  It hypocritically celebrates the story of Noah’s faith in God being rewarded and conveniently leaves out the part about God killing everyone. One might think this is an exaggeration of what is being promoted at the religiously based theme park. Many take offense to the billboard pointing out that their mythology celebrates genocide and incest.

By definition, the word genocide refers to the deliberate killing of a large group of people, particularly those belonging to specific nations or cultures.  It is considered to be one of the most heinous crimes that someone can commit or take part in as it inflicts such devastating losses upon humanity. 

In Genesis 6, God is quoted saying that he will wipe the human race from the earth. Every man, woman, and child had been judged as being wicked (with the exception of Noah), and were condemned to a violent and dramatic destruction by drowning in a flood, leaving the earth to be repopulated by incest  for the second time. This is mathematically impossible to accomplish when considering you only had a handful of people left to do all the multiplying. Read more about this from a mathematical point of view here.

As far as archaeological evidence, according to Ham there were dinosaurs and humans side by side and that the flood waters covered the entire globe. So, where are the human bones mixed in the same layer as dinosaur bones? There aren’t, because the global flood never happened.

“It’s interesting that atheists, who have no foundation for moral absolutes except their own opinion, are accusing the holy and just God—who as Creator has every right to punish sin—of being immoral. But how do they define immoral? Well, the only way to do. that is to appeal to moral absolutes—which are found in God’s Word.” – Ken Ham – April, 2016

Ham says atheists have no basis for absolute standards and that is correct. By absolute standard, Ham is referring to dogma, or a principle or set of principles laid down by an authority as incontrovertibly true. As atheists and freethinkers, we find dogma to be a dangerous source of ethics, as it leaves no room for discussion or improvement. We choose instead to look to philosophical principles, reason, and empathy. Utilitarianism holds that we should take actions that do the most good for the most people. Reason gives us the tools to see through things like superstition and cognitive biases when making ethical decisions. Empathy strengthens relationships by allowing us to see things from the perspective of another.

Following the Bible as an absolute standard for society would be an incredibly difficult task, and sometimes we meet Christians that tend to pick and choose which parts they wish to follow as absolute. We see no protests being held outside of Red Lobster for eating shellfish (Leviticus 11:12), nor burning piles of shirts made from a polyester blend (Leviticus 19:19), and we thankfully do not require slaves to obey their masters (Ephesians 6:5) or stone to death disobedient children (Deuteronomy 21:18-21).

Ham, who inaccurately tells the story of Noah’s Ark to show how faith is rewarded, decides to rationalize away the part where God kills everyone, even the unborn in their mothers’ wombs. Justifying mass genocide because God can do whatever he wants, including acting like a petulant child who quits playing because no one is playing by the rules that he never clearly made publicly known.   And to question the irrational, and oddly human like qualities of this being, is sinful and wicked?

What Ken Ham does not understand is that this type of inflexibility causes stagnation within society. It also halts exploration of authority.  Ham makes the statement that :

“By exhibiting their intolerance of the Ark Encounter this time, this group highlights the open hostility and growing aggressiveness of atheists in attacking the Bible and the God who revealed Himself through its historical accounts. This particularly highlights the intolerance for the Bible, which itself was the moral framework and foundation of Western political philosophy of liberty and equality”. – Ken Ham March, 2016 

This is not growing aggressiveness. This is not intolerance for the Bible. This is a group of concerned citizens beseeching the general public to truly analyze the information being presented to them as fact when going to this facility for a family fun day. Ham confuses criticism for intolerance. As freethinkers, we believe that nothing should be above examination and critique, even a religious theme park.

If Ham’s claim of absolute standards of morality are truly the best way to make moral decisions, you would expect to see a higher standard of morality among the most religious societies. The United States is one of the most religious of the western nations and yet has the highest rates of murder, imprisonment, rape, and poverty. And since our country is majority Christian, you can deduce the majority of the perpetrators of crimes are Christian.  In contrast, more secular societies such as France, Germany, Sweden, and Japan have some of the lowest rates of crime. 

Our organization repeatedly stated that Ken Ham, along with all other theists, have every right to celebrate and express their mythology. We will fight for their first amendment right. As a non-profit organization, we have made it part of our mission to  fight for equal rights and educate the public regarding violations of the separation of church and state. We will unflinchingly call to the carpet those who seek to violate these values.

We will draw attention when theists try to inject religion into our public schools when passing out bibles, promoting sexual education based on religious dogma, and ignoring basic tenets of science. We will hold our elected officials accountable in their decision-making in regards to the civil rights of others, and the use of tax dollars to further religious agendas.

We do this because we are responsible citizens. We do this because we love our nation and all its diversity.

 

 

There is still time to support the campaign. Please visit our indiegogo page!

 

Abortion Clinics Are One Step Closer To Closing

UPDATE: It has been moved to Tuesday & we will be doing a phone bank on Monday with Planned Parenthood encouraging everyone to call the governor to tell him to VETO the amendment. Be respectful when you call:

Governor John Kasich – (614) 466-3555

This event is to pressure Ohio Governor Kasich to use his line-item veto power to remove the two anti-abortion amendments in the Ohio Budget that was passed by the Ohio Senate  We will rally and educate both the state government as well as Ohio voters on why these amendments are bad for Ohio.

Both anti-abortion amendments passed in the Senate version of the budget.  This includes the amendment that allows Ohio Department of Health (ODH) to ignore a variance request. If this budget is signed into law, all of southwest Ohio could be  

without an abortion provider. As part of the 2013 budget, abortion providers are required to have a transfer agreement with a hospital. This is a medically unnecessary provision, it is purely political. Abortion providers cannot have agreements with state hospitals and many private hospitals are Catholic. For providers that are unable to obtain a transfer agreement, they can apply to the ODH for a variance. The Senate version of the budget states that if ODH does not respond to a variance request within 60 days it is automatically declined.

Click the link below to register and stay up to date on this event:

http://www.meetup.com/Tri-State-Freethinkers/events/223500931/