Charles Akben-Marchand sent me the following email which I will repost here to hopefully inspire further Pastafarian activism. -bobby
I would like to draw your attention to a letter to the editor I wrote that was printed in a major local paper, the Ottawa Citizen (text of letter below).
There is a small debate being carried out in the letters section as to the appropriateness of state funding to religious schools in Ontario. While my contribution to this discussion focuses more on the nature of atheism and the separation of church and state, I was amused that the editor retained the reference to FSM.
Sincerely,
Charles
Text of letter:
Accepting difference
The Ottawa Citizen
Letter-writer T. Edward Gardiner tries to paint atheism as an alternative “religion” and claims that “imposing atheism” in schools is tantamount to an unofficial state religion.
However, atheism literally means “not religion.” It is the absence of belief (in one God, many gods, or Flying Spaghetti Monsters). Unlike religions, atheism has no unifying text or system of beliefs, no membership, no place of worship, nor any recognition by the state through special tax exemptions.
For the public school system to “impose” atheism on schoolchildren, it would have to actively teach that there is no God. But public schools teach neither a presence nor an absence of a god.
Mr. Gardiner admits that a Protestant school probably wouldn’t teach the slice of Protestantism he prefers, but insists on being able to outsource his children’s moral education to a state-funded Protestant school anyway. Parents should be teaching their children the moral and religious values of their choice by sitting down and talking with their children, or by bringing their children along with them to religious services.
Public schooling is not an “everybody thinks the same” view; rather, it is a view that “everybody thinks differently, so let’s not take sides.” Otherwise, where would the division end? Separate schools for Liberals and Conservatives — and Greens?
Charles Akben-Marchand,
Ottawa