Mid-west Humanists – An Irish Atheist Community

To Romania first and the news that the Romanian Ministry of Education has removed the teaching of Evolution from schools. This is apparently prompted by a growing conservative movement in the country.

Information on natural selection, how fish turned into lizards and, more or less, a summary of the first 4.5 billion years of the world until man walked the earth is now optional.
…
Meanwhile, in religious classes, pupils are taught that the world was created in seven days and God made plants on the third day and the sun on the fourth. Textbooks claim the first man was Adam, who was ‘made of ground’, and that Eve, the first woman, was made from one of her husband’s ribs.

In case you’ve forgotten Romania has been an EU member state since last year. Hooray we have our own Kansas now 😦
Romania please learn a lesson from Ireland, they only way a poor country can become a prosperous one is by throwing off the shackles of religious dogma and embracing science and technology.

via Bad Astronomy

In case that’s not depressing enough, news that the Vatican’s oft touted ‘Culture of Life’ apparently doesn’t extend to gay people. OK, maybe that doesn’t actually count as news.

When France proposed a resolution seeking all nations to decriminalise homosexuality, the Vatican immediately said it would oppose the resolution. This is despite the fact that up to 70 nations still have legal punishments for gay people including, in some instances, the death penalty. In a number of Islamic countries such as Afghanistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, homosexual acts are still a capital offence.

The UN resolution is due to be proposed by France later this month on behalf of the 27-nation European Union. But Archbishop Celestino Migliore said the Vatican opposed the resolution because it would “add new categories of those protected from discrimination” and could lead to reverse discrimination against traditional heterosexual marriage.

So to sum up, better that a few Gay people get killed than we risk “traditional heterosexual marriage”, you know where your parents chose your husband or wife. If we’re not careful you might end up with people who love each other making solemn life long commitments!

Last but not least, another in a long line of daft articles about European ‘Islamophobia’, all the usual canards are there – Islam is a race, no mention of the inherent sexism of Islam and of course no acknowledgement that Europe is open to those that embrace our values but is going to be pretty uncomfortable to those who want to follow idiotic tribal religions. The article itself is fairly weak stuff but some of the comments are on the money.

Anyway, I have to go and weep softly at the foolishness of man.

Filed under: religion | Tagged: gay rights, islam, news, romania, vatican |