Word: seculare
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...measure that would forbid the NEA to give money to "promote, disseminate or produce" anything "obscene or indecent" or derogatory of "the objects or beliefs of the adherents of a particular religion or non-religion" -- which, taken literally, comprises any image or belief of any kind, religious or secular...
Many ethicists have problems with the Louisiana law, which was designed with the laudable goal of protecting the embryo from experimental misuse or casual destruction. For example, does the statute's definition of the zygote as a juridical person mean that it has inheritance rights? Many secular experts argue that an embryo need not have the protection accorded human life until the fetus begins to take on recognizable features -- roughly, at the sixth week of pregnancy. But because of its human potential, these ethicists say, the frozen embryo should not be treated as mere tissue. Thus they see the donation...
...Nativity in the county courthouse one block away was not. The tenuous principle governing the decision seemed to be the so-called reindeer rule, suggested in 1984 by the court's decision that a government-owned creche in Pawtucket, R.I., was constitutional because it was flanked by such secular paraphernalia as Santa's house and reindeer and therefore would not be seen as an endorsement of a religious faith. Apparently, the Pittsburgh creche did not have enough secular camouflage...
Although Kennedy and company appear to defend religion, many legal scholars continue to maintain that faith is better protected by separation, since doing otherwise forces government to emphasize the secular. It would be better, contends law professor Douglas Laycock of the University of Texas, for the court to simply rule that "the government shouldn't celebrate religious holidays...
...possible for an obscure religious fanatic to lead one of the great revolutionary upheavals of this century? To begin with, the time was ripe. The Shah had pushed his feudal and devout country into the modern, secular world too far and too fast, using torture and execution to suppress dissent. In addition, Khomeini's place in the world of Shi'ite theology gave him a platform. Unlike Sunni Muslims, members of Islam's other, much larger branch, Shi'ites believe in an intermediary between God and man. In Shi'ism's first centuries, this role of mediator was played...