Merlyn_LeRoy

That's not what the CDC says; it has heterosexual transmission higher than IV drug use, and no notation that, somehow, they would put some IV drug use numbers under heterosexual transmission. It's AIDS and HIV transmission via heterosexual contact. Addendum: vol_scouter, you seem to be doing this: 1) hooker gets AIDS from IV drug use (1 case of IV drug use transmission) 2) hooker gives AIDS to customer via heterosex (1 case of heterosexual transmission) You seem to want to "blame" case 2 above on IV drug use, and state that IV drug use is one of the main modes of transmission; that's just not so. Case 2 is heterosexual transmission. You don't get to count that as IV drug transmission, because it isn't.(This message has been edited by Merlyn_LeRoy)

According to the CDC, heterosexual transmission is 31% of new HIV cases, while injection drug users are 16% (USA cases only).

NARTH continues to cite research done by long-discredited Paul Cameron. The Corporate Resource Council is a political front owned by the Alliance Defense Fund. It's a conservative Christian organization opposed to homosexuality for religious reasons.

For someone looking for "truth", you seem to stumble across known quacks pretty easily.

You don't have credibility quoting NARTH and Corporate Resource Council; Glenn Beck has more credibility than these organizations. (fix typo)(This message has been edited by Merlyn_LeRoy)

Welcome to my world, Ed.

I think Mr. Boyce has himself confused with "all heterosexuals." If you can't find heterosexuals willing to experiment with sex, you just aren't looking.

With atheist activism, just recently wasn't there a campaign last Christmas to do ads on the sides of buses in major American cities trying to water out Jesus from the holiday? Yes, and a lot of other billboard and bus ad campaigns. Did you have a point?

Coulda fooled me. Lots of people (Beavah, for example) made arguments that made it sound like they were entitled to having their public schools sponsor their private clubs, and that refusing to do so somehow violated their rights. Must be all that creeping socialism.

Would this topic be related to people feeling entitled to having their own public school charter a BSA unit?

Mr. Boyce writes: I don't doubt atheists would feel that way. That would seem to conflict with your earlier remark about how opposition is NOT based on religion; if religion wasn't a significant component of opposition, being an atheist shouldn't correlate with being on either side of gay issues.

Mr. Boyce writes: It seems to me that much of the reaction against homosexuality is intensely personal, emotional, visceral; repugnance, not religion. As a group, atheists appear to be waaay more tolerant regarding homosexuality compared to the general population. Plus, if you look at political issues like Prop. 8, nearly all the opposition to gay marriage is both financed by religious groups (Mormon and Catholic) and nearly all the arguments justifying opposition to civil gay marriage are religious arguments. The pro-Prop. 8 side couldn't come up with any convincing non-religious arguments when it was recently tossed out as unconstitutional.

http://www.foodnavigator.com/Science-Nutrition/US-military-creates-indestructible-sandwich

Trevorum, that's like saying the BSA allows Minnesotans to join. In the general case, yes, they do. However, I'm a Minnesotan, and I'm an honest atheist, so I would not be permitted to join. There ARE atheists who are also Taoists. They do not meet the BSA's requirements any more than an atheist Minnesotan.

Beavah, I can cite: 1) national BSA revoking someone's membership for being an atheist 2) BSA testimony in court that atheists don't meet their membership requirements 3) atheists writing on the web where they were kicked out for being atheists when the wrong people found out Now, can you offer any time when BSA national knew about an atheist and didn't revoke their membership? Can you find a BSA official stating in court that atheists can join?

Beavah, who's this "we"? Are you in charge of registration at BSA national? I doubt that.

You may not have noticed Eagledad, but the original post asked about Taoists, some of whom might have religious beliefs that don't mesh with the BSA's religious requirements. He wanted to know if there might be problems. I'd say it's pretty clear that there might be. Beavah seems to think atheists can join the BSA, and problems can never crop up from that.

Beavah, you may as well point to bank robberies and argue that, since citizens ultimately make & enforce the laws, showing that some citizens rob banks means that robbing banks is legal. The original post had this question: "If I encourage them to put their son in scouts will there be some time in the future when they feel "BSA doesn't want us?"" If the national BSA finds a member who's an atheist, they remove their membership. It can also happen at the troop level, because some troops enforce it and some ignore it. Pretending it isn't a problem doesn't make it so.

Hey vol_scouter, have you stopped killing dogs for fun yet? And by the way, the BSA only helps SOME youth. That's kind of the point.

Like I said Beavah, that's how people bend the rules. BSA officials have stated in court under oath that youth members who are atheists can't join. You can break that rule if you want, but it doesn't make it go away.

While still accepting young folks who were thinking of possibly getting a car, Which doesn't match their stated policy of not accepting kids without cars, nor their court battles where they stated that kids without cars can't join. or at least were politely agreeable to car talk. Which doesn't match their stated policy in any way, shape, or form, as you need to have a car, not be open to "car talk." But that would match how local units bend the rules (depending on how much they feel like bending them) and try to pretend that they really aren't discriminating against kids without cars.

Scoutfish writes: You ever consider that it's not a club of scouting people who exclude athiests, but rather a club of people who believe in a god who like scouting stuff? Isn't that the nature of all clubs? Corvette clubs do not exclude other cars..it's a club for people who like corvettes instead of other cars. I think a closer analogy would be a car club that prohibited leaders from advocating their favorite cars, and instead left that up to the kid's family & dealership -- and then kicked out kids who don't have cars. And had pointless discussions on what sort of vehicles qualify as cars or not-cars, so there'd be some kind of way to determine if a kid had an "acceptable" car or not. And the club never did anything that actually required owning a car, since all the car-connected activities are optional. And said only members who own cars can be the best kinds of citizens.

Kahuna writes: Regarding this discussion in general, you should all refrain from interacting with Merlyn, who so far has added nothing at all to the initial question of Taoist Scouts. I'd like to point out that only the BSA gets these kinds of insanely stupid questions in the first place; nobody asks if Taoists can join Campfire Boys & Girls because only the BSA is known to exclude people based on their religious views. It's less than a non-issue anywhere else.

vol_scouter, the BSA states who can be the best kinds of citizens, and atheists can't be in that set. I consider that denigration towards atheists. The BSA has first amendment rights, and so do I. I can certainly use my rights to criticize how the BSA uses its rights.

Scoutfish writes: Merlyn asked: "Which James Dale do you mean? The gay one?" So only for clarification's sake, I ask Merlyn: Why do you say "the gay one" ? How do you know he's gay? I don't, because I don't know which James Dale. But if it's the gay one, I think he's gay. vol_scouter writes: The BSA does not allow atheist members but that is not defaming or denying the importance or validity of the views of atheists. When the BSA says "Boy Scouts of America believes that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God," that's denigrating atheists. DeaconLance writes: So you don't believe in freedom of association? I haven't stopped the BSA's freedom of association; I criticize the BSA. So you don't believe in free speech?