Re: 25 Classic Books That Have Been Banned

On 31/05/2025 16:56, Paul S Person wrote:

On Sat, 31 May 2025 02:06:47 +0100, Peter Fairbrother
<peter@tsto.co.uk> wrote:
 

On 30/05/2025 17:05, Paul S Person wrote:
>

"Freedom from religion" is a dogma of one or another of the religions
that deny their own nature.

>
I don't really understand that, but I think it's freedom _of_ religion,
in the Constitution.  However, at least to some extent, one implies the
other.

 The part you removed without notice distinguished between the two.
"Freedom from religion" is quite commonly heard from certain groups.
 

Take the Supreme Court decision on abortion as an example. Perhaps those
judges with strong religious views in the subject should have recused
themselves.

 /That/ is a very hard question. The actual issue was whether abortion
was allowed under a particular Amendment. At the time, some pointed
out that it might still be allowed under a different Amendment, but
that legal theory has yet to be tested.
 

The rest of us * now have to comply with their religion. Is that not
forced participation?

 Only in Republican-controlled States. In the sane States, we have to
comply with a secular religion that allows abortion -- with whatever
limits, if any, that religion desires.
 

IMO you can't have freedom of religion without freedom from religion.

 If you check back, you will see that my assertion is that pretty much
everying has a religion. Some have a religion that denies it's own
nature, so they believe (as an article of their religion) that they do
not have one.
 The bigger point is that, when these people try to convince people
acting and believing explicitly based on religion by claiming to
produce "facts" instead of "fantasies", it doesn't work because
religious people recognize religion, even when it denies itself, and
resist conversion.
 I am, IOW, trying to determine /why/ all those efforts to convince
people of really good ideas fail. And I think I have found it.

"Opinions" are not the same as "religion".
Even unreasonably firmly held opinions.
Most but not quite all religions consist of
systems of behaviour to appease gods and
obtain favourable treatment from them.
Individual religious leaders differ on
whether that leaves concerns such as climate
change, pandemic disease, economics, and
abortion laws as problems for us to deal
with, or whether those matters are reserved
to the gods, as well.  Gods whose ideas
are unavoidably old-fashioned.