To a great extent, the decision turns on whether a business is a "person." This is the same minefield the court seeded in its infamous Citizens United case in 2010, when it held that campaign finance laws limiting corporate contributions violated corporations' free-speech rights. The detonation of those mines has laid waste to the electoral process, turning it into a playground for corporate interests. (More of a playground, anyway.)

Here the court's majority rules that a privately held company is, in effect, a "person" that can express religious convictions. Alito sugarcoats that finding, acknowledging that corporate personhood is a "fiction," but one designed to "provide protection for human beings."

Ginsburg also picks that assertion clean. "The exercise of religion is characteristic of natural persons, not artificial legal entities," she writes, quoting retired Justice John Paul Stevens as having observed in the Citizens United case that corporations "have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires."

http://www.latimes.com/business/hiltzik/la-fi-mh-corporations-can-pray-20140630-column.html

Prime Minister for Canyons wrote on Jul 4^th, 2014 at 10:30am:



It's funny in the way they don't realise the irony.

Final Thoughts on the Book of Ecclesiastes:

The author of Ecclesiastes is named only as “The Teacher” and as soon as we meet him, we realize that he’s having an existential crisis. After examining the world, the Teacher can’t help but come to the conclusion that everything is ultimately meaningless in this world.  Some of the thoughts or situations that the Teacher said made him start thinking about the meaninglessness of life were the following:

    The meaninglessness of working hard to build or create something, when none of that is going to matter after you die.
    That there is nothing new or original anymore in this world and that pretty much everything has already been done before.
    The meaninglessness of learning and becoming wise, as both the wise man and the fool die in the end.
    And the fact that bad things happen to good people, while bad people sometimes are very successful and live long lives.

The Teacher never changes his mind that life is ultimately meaningless, but he does formulate some conclusions about how we can cope with this meaninglessness in life. He does talk about God a little bit, saying things like, “This…is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment?” and “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man” but this part of his conclusions sort of feel out of place, as if someone later added the text to offset the secular feel of the rest of it.

Repeatedly though, the Teacher says, “There is nothing better than” to be happy, eat and drink, find satisfaction in and perform with all our might the work we do, enjoy our spouse, follow our heart, and to cast off any anxieties or fears. He basically concludes, “Look; if there is no meaning to life, that’s okay. Enjoy life as it is. Create your own meaning.” I appreciate this.

http://askepticsjourneythroughthebible.tumblr.com/day/2014/07/06/

In fact, historical evidence against the Bible, generally speaking, has proved most convincing. The Bible isn’t authoritative. Yahweh is an ancient war god belonging to a polytheist Judaic pantheon. The Christ of the Gospels simply didn’t exist; there was never a demon exorcising, ear pasting, water walking, water-to-wine turning, leper healing, resurrecting Jesus.

If Christianity is true, test its claims. Is the Bible infallible? Are its stories true? Does a god like the monster in the OT really exist? Did Jesus exist? If so, was he anything like the Christ in the Gospels? Did he resurrect? Is orthodoxy correct or is it simply the view that won over others?

http://academicatheism.tumblr.com/day/2014/07/6

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