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Gilbert, AZ Censors Biology Books the Old-Fashioned Way
nbauman writes The Gilbert, AZ school board has voted to tear out a page from Campbell's Biology (a standard highly-recommended textbook that many doctors and scientists fondly remember), because it discusses contraception without also discussing adoption. Julie Smith, a member of the Gilbert Public Schools governing board, said that she was a Catholic and "we do not contracept." Smith convinced the board that Campbell's violates Arizona law to teach "preference, encouragement and support to childbirth and adoption" over abortion. The Arizona Education Department decided that the pages didn't violate Arizona law, but nevermind. Rachel Maddow generously risked hassles for copyright violation and posted the missing pages as a service to Arizona honors biology students.
Meanwhile, the Cathloic school I attended was more than happy to explain all forms of contraception, and making mention that there's a risk that it won't always work. The Catholic school also noted a form of contraception based around when the female partner has the period, a form of contraception fully sanctioned by the Catholic church.
It's been my experience that most self-professed Christians worship money and power far more than they worship any deity.
"Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right" - Salvor Hardin
Hush! Most christians don't know the winter solstice was expropriated by the early christian church! The early christian church was having difficulty converting people because the "pagan" faiths have better hollidays, so they just borrowed them with a bit of "Christian" window dressing thrown on top. What? You thought christmas trees are christian?
The morning after pill is not an abortifacient, point of fact.
It prevents pregnancy, it does not abort nor induce a miscarriage. Fertilization and implantation (ie, a pregnancy) does not always or even usually happen immediately after sex, it can take hours or days to happen which is why it "may" work -- the morning after pill prevents pregnancy from happening, it doesn't abort a pregnancy already established.
What I've been picking up is something of a schism within the Catholic church. You've had the pope give speeches about accepting gays, then all the bishops overrule him. So it seems that even if there are elements of the church that want to advance into the year 2000, by and large it still consists of a mound of idiots.
Believe me, Americans are baffled by the religious extreme in our country too. I dont think i will ever go to Utah, for any reason because of extreme theocratic control. Sure its still America, but your neighbors will be pricks if you arent one of them (mormon)
Good-bye
Catholics range from fundamentalist jerks like this woman to those like the Jesuits who are quite sophisticated philosophers and fully aware of the difficulties which arise aligning faith with reality. Unlike Protestants who are prone to start a new denomination when they have a disagreement, all Catholics tend to continue considering themselves Catholic but they build up cliques which can barely tolerate each other under the common umbrella of the main organization. I attended a Catholic high school even though my parents were Southern Baptist; this is not unusual in New Orleans where the Catholic schools have an excellent reputation for their secular education. They had a standard procedure for non-Catholics to opt-out of rituals like the Mass when those arose, although we did have to learn the major points of Catholic doctrine (which has turned out to be useful) and we also got a whole year of comparative religion hitting the main points of other world religions. I have to give it to the CSC that they weren't afraid to hold their own beliefs up for comparison with their competitors.
Brackets contain world's first nanosig, highly magnified:[.]