Comments on: Can Atheists Be Parents?

By: Isaac

Isaac — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 18:54:15 +0000

Good eye. I guess I just learned a lesson about reading dates closer, heh. I am going to leave the article as is, with the exception of adding an explanatory note at the top, because I think the flawed logic in the judge’s argument is not unique to 1970. Now your question about how a judge today would handle this is interesting. I would assume he/she would think the same thing and , as you suggested, try to find another way to prevent this from happening. And that’s really get to the core of my desire–I am not interested in just seeing people’s actions change, but in seeing them examine their own thinking (note: I did not say change… I am not so pretentious as to tell people what to think, only to ask them TO think).

Also, I do not know if I would call “suck my left nut” eloquent. :}

By: JohnR

JohnR — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 15:34:43 +0000

I caught the same article (I think through a del.icio.us) feed, and had a similar reaction (though the voices in my head were not quite as eloquent). Then I noticed that the date on the article was almost four decades old (unfortunately, this means that I, too, am almost four decades old).

I wonder how much of this is ancient history. I’m certain that such discrimination still occurs, but I suspect that much of it has gone underground (i.e. the judge or social worker might privately object to the atheism of the parents, but would find other reasons to reject them). Could the judge be as blatant today and get away with it?

On a happy note, an OC social worker absolutely loved two of my atheist friends (a professor couple at UCI) and worked hard to help them adopt two beautiful children.