racoach

Of course, "Just Wondering", you have not wondered (concerning your questions). You well know such things do not happen. What does happen to an atheist, however, is something like a feeling of nausea brought about by the recognition that there are yet people in this society who do not seem to know or care what the valid questions are to ask when considering questions of superstition versus decisions of reality based on scientific methodology. The superstition would be that what you posed could or does happen. The reality even you will observe is that they do not. According to evidence based on scientific methodology, the events could not happen. That, my "surely you jest", friend is an example which those beholden to superstition, otherwise known as religion, would do themselves and society a service to expand into understanding what a human is and how it functions. And defining reality based on objective rather than subjective evidence is, I submit, the core of why atheists exist in as large a number as we do. U.S. atheists are no more all alike than are the superstitious, but one common thread will be their firm commitment to the U.S. Constitution and the Republic for which it stands. Of course one need not be atheist to feel the commitment nor superstitious to want a government for, of, and by the people - as opposed to the type government which existed during the Dark Ages, the church. Our government was founded on a principle that its duty is to protect the civil rights of minority citizens, not to further the personal cause(s) of the majority. Young Matthew has the civil right to his position, as do the superstitious, but not the civil right to enforce that position through government imposition, as is reflected in the status of his teacher as a representative of the government (School Board and State). Whether Matthew or his teacher is non-religious is of no import in this question at all. The only question is whether the government may or will endorse an attempt by one of its representatives to force superstition or personal cause onto the citizenry. If this society changes to the point that the bodies of governance will or do so endorse, we are no longer a democracy and have lost our claim to civil rights as defined by our Constitution. - Richard[/font]