President Obama's Inaugural
Address -- Science, Disbelief, Islam
(Top Posts - Social/Legal - 012009)

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  http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.politics/
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Excerpts/highlights, highlighting the following
-3- statements:

On Science:

"We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield
technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and
lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds
and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And
we will transform our schools and colleges and uni-
versities to meet the demands of a new age. All this
we can do. All this we will do."

On Disbelief:

"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews
and Hindus - and non-believers."

Comment: Radical idea, actually daring to mention
that this great nation includes non-believers, not that
he had anything positive to say about that, but it is
notable that he included non-believers as part of this
nation, something rare among Presidents since I was
born. Not to worry, religious types, as he included
plenty of positive God and faith statements.

Buddhists, since they don't believe in God, I suppose
he included them with the rest of us non-believers. As
for all the innumerable faiths left out, those with smaller
followings, I suppose he would have been well-advised
to included a mention of "other faiths" after his mention
of "Hindus".

Another mention of Islam:

"To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward,
based on mutual interest and mutual respect."

Well, ecumenists are fond of using the word 'respect'
when it comes to religious faith, but the anti-human
elements of religious faiths, that's the aspect that the
religious have yet to let go of, and that's one aspect
that clings to religion and yields it far short of merit-
ing "respect" (IMO), however much the religious
yearn to have their religious views, even the anti-
human ones, "respected".

As for open-minded search for truth, religions aren't
particularly strong in that area, and as such, fall
short of meriting "respect" (IMO), but hey, that's just
the opinion of one of the American "non-believers"
Obama referenced above, and as such, likely to be
"disrespected"  by much (but not all) of the religious
crowd.

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