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I want to make it clear that it is not religious people I have problems
with, it is religious people who wish to force their viewpoint down
everyone's throat, ie. Fundamentalists. Whether they be Mormon, Jewish,
Islamic, or Christian is not the issue, but rather that they have a rigid
credo which seeks to force others to the same viewpoint. There are even
Roman Catholic fundamentalists.
I think I stated that I have never seen any persecution of students
because
of their beliefs, so I doubt that it is relevant issue. I believe there
are
already mechanisms to deal with faculty members who commit moral
turpitude.
I would classify punishing students who refuse to believe things that are
against their moral code as such an offense. But requiring students to
understand and know arguments for or against a particular issue is not
offensive. Indeed once they know the side they do not agree with, they
might be able to fashion better arguments for their side.
As a religious person who has seen religious intolerance first hand, I do
not like it one bit. And I do see such a subtext in this bill. I also
see
an anti-intellectual subtext along with an anti-science subtext. It
smacks
of censorship. We already have a rise of McCarthyism in this country, and
this is just another sign of it.
John M. Clement
Houston, TX