re: #95 realwest

Hello my friend! “The throat/forcing trope has been so overdone as to have no meaning.
How many actual throats have had actual atheist things forced down them?”
Well first of all, as you know, that throat forcing thing is simply a metaphor for things of religious value being no longer accepted in Public situations - see, e.g., all the “Christmas Pageants” that are now Winter Pageants, all the town squares where you can no longer decorate a Christmas Tree unless you also have a menorah, something from Islam (can’t remember what) and etc. And, of course the number of Christmas Plays that have been changed to Winter Holiday Plays in Public school is also fairly high.
I don’t have a number for you on that (and I know you didn’t expect one, either) but I fear that the problem is that we don’t seem to have civil discourse on these issues very much anymore. People on both sides of the “faith” v “science” issue have had major meltdowns or are so put off by the virulent language used by each side, that many simply don’t come onto these threads because of it.
And sometimes people get “carried away” with their own rhetoric to a point where I frequently find myself asking “What was the question again?”!
That Charles used to put Lalo Stinky’s axioms on each thread of this nature - felt, I suppose, it necessary to do so - says volumes about the level of rhetoric and name calling out here.
It’s really pretty simple for me: I believe in God. I also believe in Jesus Christ. I also believe in Evolution and science. And I believe VERY STRONGLY in our Constitution and specifically the First Amendment thereto “Congress shall make no law abridging the Freedom of …Religion”. But - and it’s a big but - I don’t think folks who want their Christmas trees put up on the Public Square should be mocked for wanting to do so. And there are some folks out here who enjoy mocking those people of faith who want religion included in public schools. I’m not one of them, but I truly regret that there are people on LGF who mock and make cruel fun of those who do.

I’ll agree with Maximus on one thing. This IS a Christian majority country; people can put up Christmas trees without having to put up a menorah or something else to “get all of the holidays”, lest they be offended. I resent people immigrating here and demanding that their faith be immediately recognized.

I’m Jewish, I don’t give a shit when I see a Christmas tree. Why should I? People are too damn sensitive.