Texas student wins scholarship after outing teacher for comparing atheism to smoking

[cbayer]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/09/17/texas-student-wins-scholarship-after-outing-teacher-for-comparing-atheism-to-smoking/

By David Edwards
Tuesday, September 17, 2013 13:03 EDT



A student recently told a group of humanists in Texas in that she won a scholarship by standing up for her beliefs after her high school teacher compared atheism to smoking cigarettes.

At a Humanists of Houston meeting last week, 19-year-old Sara Elizabeth Sheppard explained that she decided to use her cell phone to record her high school economics professor after he “started to talk about religion in an inappropriate manner.”

During the one lecture, the teacher claimed that atheism was against human nature, and that “the mind rejects the concept of atheism” just like the body rejects smoking. The next week, he taught a lesson advocating prayer for a positive state of mind.

Sheppard provided the recordings to the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF), which contacted the Katy school district. The school superintendent replied with a letter thanking Sheppard and FFRF.

more at link

[darkangel218]

1. Good for her.

If more people would speak their mind, the world would be a better place.

Complacency and folowing the norms shouldnt be status quo. Follow what's right instead.

[SheilaT]

2. As opposed to smoking as I am,

there are far too many smokers out there to believe that the body rejects smoking.

I really, really wish that religious people would realize that if they want us to respect their beliefs, they need to respect our lack of belief.

[cbayer]

3. This guy went way over the line and the student showed courage in pursuing it.

I think students are often intimidated by this, and Texas is a hotbed of crossing this line in the public schools.

It's not just about respect, it's about the law.