Now what is important is that the final arbitrator of whether a person's soul is enhanced or damaged is the person whose soul is being affected. The recipient is the judge not the giver. Why this is important is history has shown much cruelty by people who believe they know what is right and then impose it often very cruelly and with much force on others. (Inquisition, Stalin, Iran, Mao ….)

This changes the debate to what do we as individuals have to do to enhance peoples' souls and not damage them. It's about giving and not just taking. It's about respect and not putting down. It's about freedom and not control.

This is not to disrespect Judaism nor christianity – I live in a half-
Jewish household.

Hostility to Christianity has existed in the American public school system for many years. Islam is the big favorite of elites, and is being aggressively promoted to school children, sometimes without parental knowledge and against the will of U.S. parents. Indoctrination of America's children into the military, totalitarian 'religion' of Islam must stop!

FOX NEWS RADIO

Second Graders Sing About Allah?
14 December 2009

A battle over religion is brewing in central Indiana after a public school wanted second graders to sing a song declaring, “Allah is God.” The phrase was removed just before the performance after a national conservative group launched a protest.

The principal of Lantern Road Elementary School in Fishers, IN, said they were trying to teach inclusiveness through their holiday production. It included references to Christmas, Hanukkah, Ramadan, Las Posadas and Kwanzaa. However, no other deity, other than Allah, was referenced in the show.

“It went off…without a hitch,” Danielle Thompson told the Indianapolis Star. “Several families thought it was a nice program.”

But others did not – especially David Hogan. His daughter came home with a copy of the lyrics just days before the production. Hogan, a Christian, told the American Family Association, a conservative advocacy group, that he was deeply concerned to learn that his daughter had been singing, “Allah is God.”

Here’s what the children were assigned to sing:

“Allah is God, we recall at dawn,
Praying ‘til night during Ramadan
At this joyful time we pray happiness for you,
Allah be with you all your life through.”

But when it came time to perform the “Christian” part of Christmas, children were assigned to say:

“I didn’t know there was a little boy at the manger. What child is this?
I’m not sure if there was a little boy or not.
Then why did you paint one on your nativity window?
I just thought if there was a little boy, I’d like to know exactly what he (sic) say.

Micah Clark, executive director of the Indiana AFA, launched an Internet protest once he heard about the allegations. “What surprised me here is that we’ve had a secular scrubbing of Christmas for so long and the school apparently didn’t see the problem with kids singing to Allah,” he told FOX News Radio. “You won’t even mention Jesus and you’re going to force my child to sing about Allah?
http://www.foxnewsradio.com/2009/12/14/public-s…

How is the US an amalgamation of Jewish and Christian cultures, let alone the only nation that is so? I didn't get time off for Chanukah last week. What US cities have Jewish names? Who was our last Jewish president? It's no more an amalgamation of Jewish and Christian than it is an amalgamation of Christian and Buddhist.

Poverty does not cause crime. But the vast majority of criminals happen to live in poor communities.

Prager's blustering stupidity is best illustrated by his insinuation that “conservatives” are more likely to fight bullies and sit next to overweight children in school cafeterias. That somehow, parents' political beliefs instill righteous behavior in their children. If that's the case, why was George W Bush an insufferable asshole to others when in school? Why was Al Gore considered a good guy? On the flip side, why were John Kerry and Bill Clinton seen as jerks?

Prager talks about individuals and responsibility, then turns it around and goes all groupthink (conservatives = good, pure, moral Liberals = hedonistic radicals). It's a common logical fallacy that permeates all of his work.

Good people come from good, caring backgrounds that are grounded in reality. The come from liberal parents, conservative parents, Jewish parents, Christian parents and agnostic parents. One group does not have a monopoly “good people.”

Ethics as a branch of philosophy, is a code of values to rationally guide man’s choices and actions, is an objective, metaphysical necessity for a man’s survival. A proper ethics gives practical guidance to help people think and direct their lives. Ethics aids a man in defining and attaining his values, goals, and happiness. A man needs ethics because he requires values to survive. The telos of ethics is a person’s own survival and happiness. The realm of ethics includes those matters that are potentially under a man’s control. A man’s uncoerced volition is necessary to have an objective theory of morality. He can discover values only through a volitional process of reason.

Rational moral principles guide us toward values and are essential for achieving moral integrity, character, and happiness. Living by rational principles tends to make principled thought and actions habitual. When we habitually act on sound moral principles we develop virtues and incorporate our moral orientation into our character. All virtues are connected to the objective requirements of man’s survival and flourishing. Moral principles are needed because the standard of survival and flourishing is too abstract. To act in a concrete situation, a man needs to have some basic view of what he is acting for and how he should act. Because actions are subsumed under principles, it is imperative to adopt and automatize good principles. Acting on principles cultivates corresponding virtues which, in turn, leads to value attainment, flourishing, and happiness.

A person uses his free will to determine his focus and how logical to be. Though the employment of his free will, a man forms and selects the principles that underlie his actions. Focusing one’s mind, staying in focus, thinking, and critically assessing one’s principles includes introspection to identify and assess the principles that one has automatized.

A man who thinks in principles makes himself aware of the best means of attaining his ends in the full context of his life. Moral principles are true in a delimited context. Recognizing the moral context of a situation precedes one’s chosen actions in that situation. A man should not evade relevant knowledge nor drop context when he acts. Moral principles are absolute within the context in which they are defined and applied. Of course, some cases will fall outside the context in which they are defined and applicable. It is therefore essential for a person to validate his principles and to understand the contexts that give rise to these principles.

Thinking is needed in order to understand the facts of a situation and to apply appropriate principles to the circumstances. For example, honesty, as a principle, states that it is immoral to misrepresent the truth in a context in which a person’s goal is to obtain values from others. It follows that in a different context in which a person is attempting to use deceit or force in order to gain values from an individual, it is appropriate for the wronged individual to select self-defense as his appropriate principle instead of honesty. The context is different from one calling for honesty on his part.

Honesty is an essential principle because the proper end of a man’s actions is his own objective flourishing. The moral appropriateness of honesty is grounded in metaphysics. A person must focus on what reality requires if he is to attain his ends. A person should tell the relevant truth. What the relevant truth is depends on the type of relationship a person has with the individual with whom he is dealing.

In Rand’s biocentric ethics moral behavior is judged in relation to achieving specific ends with the final end being an individual’s life or flourishing. The act of deciding necessitates the investigation of how an action pertains to what is best for one’s own life. This is not done in a duty-based ethic that is limited to precepts and rules. In a duty-oriented ethical system rules or duties are placed between a person and reality. In a biocentric ethics what is moral is the understood and the chosen rather than the imposed and the obeyed. Principles are valuable ethical concepts that do not require imperatives or obligations as their justification.

Altruist moralities hold that morality is painful and difficult and involves ideas such as self-abnegation and self-sacrifice. Contrariwise, an egoist morality, such as the one found in Objectivism, maintains that morality is natural, attractive, and enjoyable. Of course, there is work involved in staying in focus, acquiring knowledge, formulating moral principles, and applying them in the appropriate contexts. Morality is demanding but it is also indispensable and rewarding. Remember, the purpose of morality is to enjoy life, flourish, and be happy.