Slashdot Mirror
Internet Deconstructing State Church in Finland
Agnostic writes "Freethinkers of the city of Tampere, who advocate separation of state and church in Finland, created a Web site
in 2003
to assist people in resigning from the church. The Web site soon became a big success in Finland. 39% of all resignations in 2004 went through the web site and 69% of all resignations in 2005. In the same process 22% more people resigned from the church in 2005 than in 2004. The most common reason cited for resigning from the church has been saving church income tax (1.3% on average)."
I guess you haven't heard of the White House office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. Praise the Lord (the Lord is a magic man who lives in the clouds who controls everything, in case you don't know)!
As I already wrote elsewhere: Too bad nobody, but nobody, ever actually uses it in that sense. Nevertheless, I took pains to include "almost" in "almost universally" specifically in hopes of appeasing dimwits such as yourself; a futile effort, I should have known.
"Hi, my name is scientific fact. I'm sure we haven't met, but you just called me bullshit, so I feel the need to interject here. You see, I'm formed by a series of rigorous studies that are repeatable--basically, when someone quotes me, they can't lie, otherwise they're not me. So, you see, when someone says: '11 weeks into the pregnancy, all body systems are functional,' and it's scientific fact (me) then you can't really call it bullshit, you know, because it's been proven. You may want to check out wikipedia for more on me with regards to pregnancy."
Now that my friend scientific fact has chimed in, I'll also note that you're a complete moron who's too much of a chickenshit to post under a real account. And I wasn't aware that something too weak to support itself, and yet created by the host (in the overwhelming majority through consensual sex), was immediately deserving of death. And don't try and pull the rape card; no one here is going to posit that a woman who's had a pregnancy forced on her is obligated to have the child.
Here, have a cookie; it's ok to be wrong.
You are a walking argument for retroactive abortion.
Done with slashdot, done with nerds, getting a life.
Actually, compulsory public education systems have pretty much always been implemented for the purpose of encouraging blind obedience to those in power (either the State or the Church), not for any particular economic advantage. Voluntary education programs are generally forced to remain politically and religiously neutral to maintain attendance; compulsory attendance was introduced mainly to get around that limitation on State power. A good reference on the history of compulsory public education programs can be found in Education: Free and Compulsory, by economist, historian and political theorist Murray N. Rothbard. It's quite an interesting read.
This is not to say that there aren't benefits to having an educated workforce, much less that education isn't beneficial on an individual level; both are generally true. Modern public schools, however, tend to do very little educating, in favor of "progressive" programs designed to eliminate all traces of individuality and creativity. Just look at the typical "curriculum" in most of our schools; it's clear that their function is to squeeze as many children as possible into a perfect conformist mould. What little education does occur is little more than an excuse to justify the continuation of the system to the (now relatively uneducated) taxpayers.
</end-rant> You may now return to your regularly scheduled life. Don't forget to stop by the clinic for your monthly mind purge -- if you let those yucky cynical thoughts build up you might just end up becoming a libertarian! You wouldn't want that to happen, would you? :-)
"The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat