5/8/03 - Suggested topics will include:

• Why do the majority of fundamental religious ideologies include the oppression and discrimination of women?
• Is religion more harmful than helpful?
• What is race and is it a valid category? Is there a single characteristic, trait - or even one gene - that can be used to distinguish all members of one race from all members of another? Certainly a few gene forms are more common in some populations than others, such as those controlling skin color and inherited diseases like Tay Sachs and sickle cell. But are these markers of "race?" We all know the myths and stereotypes - natural Black athletic superiority, musical ability among Asians - but are they really true on a biological level? If not, why do we continue to believe them? With the discoveries that 85% of all genetic variants can be found within any local population and that we are one of the most similar of all species, how will this affect our view of "race" as a category? Can society adapt and change to ever truly embrace "race" as not being a dividable category?
• It appears that the dispute over whether the words "under God" belong in the Pledge of Allegiance is headed to the U.S. Supreme Court. What is your opinion as to what the court should rule? Will the court send the public the unpopular message that "Under God" has to go? Why has it taken nearly 50 years for this issue to get to the Supreme Court?
• Would humans who are never introduced by other humans to the modern religious concepts, beliefs, practices,and teachings, still inevitability create the same ones? Aren't we all born Atheists? Isn't religion usually an accident of birth? If so, then aren't religious people victims of manipulation of human salesmanship and marketing techniques used to disseminate an ideology?
• Why Do Creationists Fear Evolution? Are evolution and religion complimentary or contradictory? Is evolution a religion?

Quote of the week: "When you are saying the pledge, you are not just reciting a nursery rhyme or passively handling a coin that has 'In God We Trust' on it. You are actively promising belief in and loyalty to a set of values that include, thanks to those two words, monotheism. Not everyone believes in that value. If the First Amendment means anything, those who don't should not feel compelled to state that they do." [Tony Mauro, Supreme Court correspondent for American Lawyer Media and Legal Times - source]

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