Come to the Centre for Inquiry's lecture by Edward Tabash.Friday, May 23, 7:00 - 9:00pm
Centre for Inquiry, 216 Beverley St., downtown Toronto (just south of College St. at St. George St.)
$6 general, $4 students, FREE for Friends of the Centre for Inquiry
Catered Reception exclusively for CFI members 6:00pm. Please contact us to join today!
The Threat of the Religious Right to the Core Liberties of the United States
Edward Tabash is a Los Angeles attorney and chair of the Center for Inquiry's First Amendment Task Force, on whose behalf he filed one of the briefs on the winning side of the California Supreme Court's split decision to allow same sex marriage on May 15. Tabash argued to California's high court that the ban on same sex marriage is grounded in religious dogma and violates the separation of church and state.
Tabash, a former two time runner up for a seat in the California Legislature, will be active in attempting to defeat a possible ballot by the religious right to overturn the decision by voters in November. In the meantime, the Center for Inquiry is celebrating this current victory for human rights and fundamental equality.
Tabash is a constitutional lawyer in the Los Angeles area. He is a specialist in the application of the United States Constitution to the controversies swirling round religion and government. An appointee of Congressman Brad Sherman to the State Central Committee of the California Democratic Party, he also chairs the national legal committee for Americans United for Separation of Church and State.
Tabash will be making his first election year presentation, outside of the United States, informing Canadians about the grave threat to the very fabric of American modern secular government that is at issue in the current presidential election.
I think that the religious "non-right" has an important role to play in defending liberty and challenging fundamentalism and theocracy.
ReplyDeleteFundamentalists are caught in a circular argument based on the Bible that is supposedly inerrant and which they supposedly believe in its entirety and take literally. Demonstrating that the Bible is not what they think it is, and that they don't believe it in the way they claim to, in a way that is nonetheless sympathetic to their religious sensibilities, is IMHO more likely to effectively challenge such thinking and change minds than is an attack from outside.
And then we convert them to atheists, right?
ReplyDeleteDemonstrating that the Bible is not what they think it is, and that they don't believe it in the way they claim to, in a way that is nonetheless sympathetic to their religious sensibilities, is IMHO more likely to effectively challenge such thinking and change minds than is an attack from outside.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with that. The Fundamentalists seem particularly immune to rational persuasion. Compilations of the numerous scientific, historical and self-contradictory errors of the Bible have readily available to anyone who might care to know about them for centuries.
Post-Diluvian Diaspora said...
ReplyDeleteAnd then we convert them to atheists, right?
You don't convert anyone to atheism, you just make them see sense!
A bit like walking around with a millstone chained around your neck, and then break the chain and get rid of the millstone.