The week in fundie . . .
- The mind-virus that is creationism has infected British schools, 40 of which are teaching in science classes that evolution is a “myth” and creationism a “fact,” according to a survey of Islamic, Jewish and Christian Evangelical schools. 1000 of the students being lied to about the scientific status of creationism attend schools wholly funded by the British taxpayer. (Ekklesia)
- Demonstrating its firm commitment to religious freedom, the Indonesian government has told Ahmadi Muslims in that country to convert to mainstream Islam or face 5 years in jail. (Online News)
- In Cheshire, UK, two schoolboys were given detention after refusing to pray to Allah during an RE lesson. (Telegraph)
- In Herefordshire, a student will have to take four separate buses to travel to school after the local council banned non-Catholic students from using the subsidised bus service it provides to St Mary’s school. (Telegraph)
- A 23-year-old woman in Mexico strangled to death a 16-year-old mother, and also killed her 3-month-old baby, because she thought the mother was practicing witchcraft against her. (PR-Inside)
- A professor of Christian theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary blames the phenomenon of spousal abuse on women who refuse to submit to their husbands’ “God-given authority.” Those mouthy bitches, Bruce Ware maintains, “desire to have their own way instead of submitting to their husbands because of sin.” (via Fundies Say the Darndest Things)
- Haredi Jews in Jerusalem vandalised and razed shops selling MP4 devices, which have been banned by the Orthodox Righteous Court of Law because they are apparently “the devil’s way to try and gain entrance to our protected homes and yeshivas, disguised as something you can listen to Torah lessons through.” (via Fundies Say the Darndest Things)
- In Romania, where abortion is outlawed, an 11-year old girl who was raped by her uncle will be allowed to abort her foetus, despite threats by 20 Orthodox Christian groups to press charges if the abortion goes ahead. (via Fundies Say the Darndest Things)
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I don’t really understand why you’re using “Salt Lake City” in the title of this series on religious fundamentalists. It’s true that SLC is the capital of the LDS (Mormon) church, and Mormons have some generally freaky and illogical beliefs, but they’re not the sort of Biblical Literalists that you find in the Bible Belt and they’re not out strapping bombs onto themselves or stoning witches. Most Mormons don’t have any problem with topics like Evolution and the Big Bang – they just think “God did it”.
Basically, I’m an Atheist who lives in Salt Lake City and I don’t see how any of the stories you summarize here would get any arouse any interest at all from the majority population here. Mormons think they’re the only correct church on the face of the Earth, so most Mormons wouldn’t have any problem believing that the actions of other religious people around the world are nonsensical. They just don’t apply that same sense of skepticism to themselves.
Don’t take the title too seriously, Justin: it’s a Douglas Adams reference.
Just reading Last Chance to see by Adams. Such a pity he died so young.