Fundamentalist Christians believe the Bible to be the true and absolute word of God.

That is from the clipped article. This next gem is also from the clipped article:

I believe there is no place in our society for the teaching of narrow
Christian fundamentalist dogma particularly when, in the case of Creationists, most of
that dogma is presented as science.

No place in society? Am I (a Christian Fundamentalist as described by the above paragraph) not to be allowed to teach Creationism to my son? Will you come and take him away from me if I do? Is my church not to be allowed start a school that teaches creationism? Are we to be prohibited from publ...

Fundamentalist Christians believe the Bible to be the true and absolute word of God.

That is from the clipped article. This next gem is also from the clipped article:

I believe there is no place in our society for the teaching of narrow
Christian fundamentalist dogma particularly when, in the case of Creationists, most of
that dogma is presented as science.

No place in society? Am I (a Christian Fundamentalist as described by the above paragraph) not to be allowed to teach Creationism to my son? Will you come and take him away from me if I do? Is my church not to be allowed start a school that teaches creationism? Are we to be prohibited from publishing Creationist textbooks, or building Creationist museums?

Also note that the statement above deals with Creationism in particular--but does not limit itself there. So...am I no longer allowed to teach the deity or Virgin birth of Christ? What about His bodily resurrection, or future return?

Just what is the extent of "no place in society"?

That is not a rhetorical question.

Your earlier comment...

I find it fascinating to watch those who preach tolerance in one breath become quite intolerant in the next. The arguments presented here boil down to this: It is ok to believe anything you want, just as long as you don't believe the Bible.

...are you now accepting that the jump in logic here is monstrous as you appear to have gone off on a new tack about what you can teach your kid.

You can teach him what you want or rather not teach him at all. You can deprive him of scientific knowledge, or teach him that the world was created in 1/6/1000 days in the year dot or any other nonsense. Like father like son. It's when you attempt to impose your fa...

Your earlier comment...

I find it fascinating to watch those who preach tolerance in one breath become quite intolerant in the next. The arguments presented here boil down to this: It is ok to believe anything you want, just as long as you don't believe the Bible.

...are you now accepting that the jump in logic here is monstrous as you appear to have gone off on a new tack about what you can teach your kid.

You can teach him what you want or rather not teach him at all. You can deprive him of scientific knowledge, or teach him that the world was created in 1/6/1000 days in the year dot or any other nonsense. Like father like son. It's when you attempt to impose your fantasies/fallacies on society that there is a problem.

I don't understand how there is a leap in logic on my part--but if there is, it would not be the first time.

Nobody has answered my question: What is the extent of "no place in society".

The state has the right to make sure that the school your son attends teaches him what is in accordance to the state of science.

So...I can say what I want at home...but I have to send him to a state-approved school?

Jesus did not fight for an religious overthrow of the political system.

Of course. Jesus said "suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." As for Jesus' relationship with the state, he said "Give unto Cesar what is Ces...

I don't understand how there is a leap in logic on my part--but if there is, it would not be the first time.

Nobody has answered my question: What is the extent of "no place in society".

The state has the right to make sure that the school your son attends teaches him what is in accordance to the state of science.

So...I can say what I want at home...but I have to send him to a state-approved school?

Jesus did not fight for an religious overthrow of the political system.

Of course. Jesus said "suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of Heaven." As for Jesus' relationship with the state, he said "Give unto Cesar what is Cesar's, and give unto God what is God's"--thus establishing a difference that the state did not particularly like. He also told Pontius Pilate that he had no power over his except as it was given by God.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think any one religious group should be controlling the state. However, recent history shows that the state is quite willing to control religious life.

brazilnut72 said:

So...I can say what I want at home...but I have to send him to a state-approved school?

That might well be so, if school attendance is compulsory in Brazil. (In Germany, even the private schools are subject to the supervision by the ministry of education, and I am glad of it.)
The biblical quotings you've adduced, support my statement that "Jesus did not fight for an religious overthrow of the political system". Christianity and the Kingdom of Heaven are not matters of governmental structures but of spiritual, merciful life. Transforming the Jesuanic idea of the Kingdom of God directly into a political governance corrupts that idea (as it is historically demonstrat...

brazilnut72 said:

So...I can say what I want at home...but I have to send him to a state-approved school?

That might well be so, if school attendance is compulsory in Brazil. (In Germany, even the private schools are subject to the supervision by the ministry of education, and I am glad of it.)
The biblical quotings you've adduced, support my statement that "Jesus did not fight for an religious overthrow of the political system". Christianity and the Kingdom of Heaven are not matters of governmental structures but of spiritual, merciful life. Transforming the Jesuanic idea of the Kingdom of God directly into a political governance corrupts that idea (as it is historically demonstrated since Theodosius I, Emperor of the Imperium Romanum, had made Christianity the state religion in 380).

brazilnut72 said:

He [Jesus] also told Pontius Pilate that he had no power over his except as it was given by God.

Indeed. But what does that mean for you? Do you take this saying as an appeal to accept the political system that exercises power over you? Then, all the more, is valid what I said: "Jesus did not fight for an religious overthrow of the political system." So it is throughout consistent when you say, "I don't think any one religious group should be controlling the state." I appreciate that and agree. And with you I complain any administration's endeavors to control religious life.

Is my church not to be allowed start a school that teaches creationism? Are we to be prohibited from publishing Creationist textbooks, or building Creationist museums?

It is sometimes argued that we need to respect other people’s beliefs. However, the idea that we should respect other beliefs also runs counter to the primary function of the school. Every time a teacher marks an answer as incorrect, and degrades (lowers the grade) of the student who gave that answer, he is showing a lack of respect for those who might hold that the answer is correct. Those who put down the answer marked wrong are, in some sense, of a lower grade than those who put down the correct answer.

If w...

Is my church not to be allowed start a school that teaches creationism? Are we to be prohibited from publishing Creationist textbooks, or building Creationist museums?

It is sometimes argued that we need to respect other people’s beliefs. However, the idea that we should respect other beliefs also runs counter to the primary function of the school. Every time a teacher marks an answer as incorrect, and degrades (lowers the grade) of the student who gave that answer, he is showing a lack of respect for those who might hold that the answer is correct. Those who put down the answer marked wrong are, in some sense, of a lower grade than those who put down the correct answer.

If we take the idea of ‘respecting’ other answers too seriously, we have teachers giving ‘respect’ to the students who believe that 12 * 12 = 140 and who think that the sum of the angles in a triangle equals 212 degrees.

There have to be some wrong answers in an education system (or there is no need for or purpose to education) – and those answers must remain wrong even if there is a parent out there who thinks that it is correct. Parents who think that these answers are correct must recognize that there is a distinction between believing something and holding it to be something that should be integrated into a school’s task of educating children.

Parliamentarians from the 47-nation Council of Europe have urged its member governments to “firmly oppose” the teaching of creationism – which denies the evolution of species through natural selection – as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution.
In a resolution passed by 48 votes to 25 during its plenary session in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) declared: “If we are not careful, creationism could become a threat to human rights.”
Presenting the report, Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE), a former Education Minister, said: “It is not a matter of opposing belief and science, but it is necessary to prevent belief from oppos...

Parliamentarians from the 47-nation Council of Europe have urged its member governments to “firmly oppose” the teaching of creationism – which denies the evolution of species through natural selection – as a scientific discipline on an equal footing with the theory of evolution.
In a resolution passed by 48 votes to 25 during its plenary session in Strasbourg, the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) declared: “If we are not careful, creationism could become a threat to human rights.”
Presenting the report, Anne Brasseur (Luxembourg, ALDE), a former Education Minister, said: “It is not a matter of opposing belief and science, but it is necessary to prevent belief from opposing science.”
“The prime target of present-day creationists, most of whom are Christian or Muslim, is education,” the parliamentarians said in the resolution. “Creationists are bent on ensuring that their ideas are included in the school science syllabus. Creationism cannot, however, lay claim to being a scientific discipline.”
The parliamentarians said there was “a real risk of a serious confusion” being introduced into children’s minds between conviction or belief and science. “The theory of evolution has nothing to do with divine revelation but is built on facts.”
“Intelligent design, presented in a more subtle way, seeks to portray its approach as scientific, and therein lies the danger,” they added.
“Creationism ... was for a long time an almost exclusively American phenomenon,” the parliamentarians pointed out. “Today creationist ideas are tending to find their way into Europe and their spread is affecting quite a few Council of Europe member states.”
The report cites examples from Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Council of Europe, Press Release - 656(2007), 04 October 2007

I'm glad to be a citizen of the European Union.

Melrond, I agree.

However, I'm not quite sure what the sentence "there is no place for XYZ in our(!?!) society" implied.
What is "our" society, and who is that mysterious "us" that claims a society to be their ("our") society?
And then: What will "us" do to those whose fundamentalism seems "us" to be too narrow to be taught in "our" society? What will "us" do to those who teach narrow fundamentalisms in "our" society? Will "us" do violence to them? Persecution? Banishment? Brain washing? Civil rights deprivation? Other forms of pogroms?
Isn't it a constitutive part of US-American history that Christian fundamentalists, having been expelled from their European homelands, searched a home ...

Melrond, I agree.

However, I'm not quite sure what the sentence "there is no place for XYZ in our(!?!) society" implied.
What is "our" society, and who is that mysterious "us" that claims a society to be their ("our") society?
And then: What will "us" do to those whose fundamentalism seems "us" to be too narrow to be taught in "our" society? What will "us" do to those who teach narrow fundamentalisms in "our" society? Will "us" do violence to them? Persecution? Banishment? Brain washing? Civil rights deprivation? Other forms of pogroms?
Isn't it a constitutive part of US-American history that Christian fundamentalists, having been expelled from their European homelands, searched a home for their way of life, belief and teaching? Where could today's Christian fundamentalists be supposed to emigrate?? To the moon? To inner emigration, i.e. underground (caution! there is a dangerous parallel in the Islamic world!)??

I'm stating these questions in earnest - although the abstrusities of the US-American socio-religious tapestry make me only shake my head.