Word: secularity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Philosophically speaking, is it even possible to desecrate the U.S. flag? One can desecrate something that is sacred, holy or religious (which is just what desecrate primarily means, according to the Oxford English Dictionary). Is the U.S. flag sacred, holy or religious? Or is it a symbol of a secular state...
...flag is now a secular symbol, would an amendment against desecrating it transform it, by implication, into a sacred symbol? Would such an act approximate the founding of a state religion...
...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...
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...