Though I'm not a public figure by any stretch of the imagination, I've learned that it's a good idea to occasionally search the internet for my name, to see if anything posted out there was directed specifically towards me. It isn't a question of vanity as much as not wanting to demonstrate bad manners by ignoring a serious attempt to communicate with me. My most recent search turned up this article by author Dianna Narciso that was originally published over two years ago. She had responded to something I wrote during my time spent as the Atlanta Creationism Examiner. For whatever reason, her article never appeared in the first few pages of search results before now. Oh well. Better late than never, I guess... Ms. Narciso asserted that she is not a close-minded freethinker. We'll see. I don't get very far into her article before Ms. Narciso writes, "Mr. Leonard, I am very sorry to disappoint you. But you do, indeed, believe what you believe without rational thought." Really! That seems an incredibly presumptuous thing to say. What sources of information gave her such great insight? On what basis was her opinion formed? Without reading my books, or more than one article I've written, how on earth can Ms. Narciso possibly know what I believe? More importantly, does she even have a clue as to why I believe what I believe? Has she read Divine Evolution? If Ms. Narciso is actually interested in learning the science necessary to present a coherent argument for her atheism, the end notes of my book Counterargument for God might prove quite helpful. My … [Read more...]
Separation of church and state
This video is profoundly disturbing on a couple of levels. While an unglued, obviously deranged woman was busy assaulting innocent people, she was also claiming to teach children about a subject she clearly knows very little, if anything about -- the U.S. Constitution. It never ceases to amaze me, how many people can believe they know things with certainty, yet are absolutely, and often provably wrong. Take, for example, my atheist friends enamored with the phrase "separation of church and state," often citing it as their favorite part of the Constitution. The problem is that the phrase "separation of church and state" cannot be found in the U.S. Constitution, or in any of its amendments. Here's my most cynical offer -- I'll pay one thousand dollars reward to anyone who can show me where the exact words "separation of church and state" appear in the Constitution. No, I'm not being generous. I'm very confident I'll keep my money because I know where the phrase originated, verbatim; it came from a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to assure the Danbury Baptists in Connecticut that freedom of religion in our new nation would never be limited to one official church. And don't try to tell me they are in there somewhere, in spirit. If you're an atheist, you don't believe in spirits, do you? The words specifically in our Constitution guarantee freedom of, and certainly not from, religion. "Separation of church and state" only meant there will never be a state-sponsored church, like the Anglican Church was in England. That meant Catholics, Baptists, … [Read more...]
