666 chip? Why a Texas student thinks her school ID is the "Mark of the Beast"

The theology behind a battle over RFID tags.

Read the whole story

 

[Titanium Dragon]

She is entitled to her beliefs, its a recognized religion based belief. Freedom of religion also includes protection against things that infringe upon or burden the practice of religion. It does not matter how many people write what ever explaining this or that, it does not matter how many people think she is right or wrong, its her belief and her practice of it is protected by the Constitution.

I forget where its at right now, but there was a case at one point I read about a while back, not dealing specifically with this matter, but something in a federal circuit court I think, where it was ruled the law, and any entitiy local, state, or federal may not burden the free exercise of religion simply for matters of convenience or accommodation. The school wants to do it to get money, thats a matter of convenience or accommodation for the school.

It actually depends on the principle of REASONABLE accommodation. In other words, if you could do it in a different way for that person, and it wouldn't cost an exorbinant amount of money, you do it. But if it DOES, then you don't have to, as long as the purpose in establishing the rule was not to oppress people's religious beliefs.

Moreover, you can argue that something is a mental health issue, and its pretty arguable in this case.

Remember - religious freedom does not give you the freedom to put undue burden upon others, nor does it exempt you from the law. Your religious beliefs don't protect you from having your picture taken, or your voice recorded, or from the need for photo ID or to pay taxes. If your religion believes that four is an evil number, everywhere doesn't have to have five steps instead of four.

My father-in-law, who is a Christian minister, thinks that the author of Revelation was high as a kite and crazy.

I'm pretty sure most educated Christians have similar beliefs.

A school REQUIRING students to carry an RFID tag or to not be allowed to attend is quite something else. Especially when implantation is such a logical next step to them being lost, etc..

Its pretty difficult to require people to have things implanted, but it could easily be done out of convenience.

It doesn't really change the crazy though.

I agree with you that it makes the most sense that Jesus existed. You would not invent that guy in the Gospels if you just wanted to promote Essene theology. And he is too different in his approach even from what you see in the later books of the New Testament to make much sense as a pure fiction. That's not to say everything in there is accurate, of course.

I have heard it argued that the strongest evidence for him existing is the "let he who is without sin throw the first stone" story, as well as the fable of the Good Samaritian, as both would have greatly annoyed the Jews that his followers were trying to convert.

That doesn't necessarily mean he is a historical figure, however, and its very probable that at least some of the Jesus stories are actually stories of John the Baptist which were reattributed to Jesus.

For the people predicting doom and gloom about forcing RFID implants as the next step; a student can't even be compelled to get vaccinations in the interests of public health.

This is soley because some idiots did that. We should require it unless there is a medical exemption. Period.

Additionally it is exceptionally simple to either block or disable an RFID chip. Simply apply a small "zap" in the microwave, or a little (please avoid the foil-hat comments) aluminum foil: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to- ... -RFID-tag/

Destroying government/school property is illegal, so zapping it in the microwave would be bad.

overall we plan to wait until they are older and then we will teach them about many different religions and let them make an informed decision. If they want to start going to church, that's fine. If they decide another religion (or no religion) is the answer, that's cool too.

Nothing destroys religiousity like all of the mythologies, old and new, being presented at once :3

1. It seems that the protest is missing the point entirely. The issue for me is quite secular, I don't see enough justification for using RFID tags to track schoolchildren, especially when they and their parents do not want them to be tracked, even if it is only in the school grounds, and even if it is because they believe in supernatural beings.

The right thing for the wrong reasons isn't right. And I disagree that it is actually right.

2. Since I was a kid in very conservative Greece I had heard of all sorts of things from nutcases talking about the number of the beast and connecting it to all sorts of unrelated things such as the EU open border policy, to the extent that when I was about 6 I was really afraid to dial 666 (which of course I did and nothing happened ). One thing I still do not understand though and this may be the right place to find an answer: does the fact that the most common barcode format encoding http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_ ... e#Encoding
has as a beginning, middle and end a symbol that coincides with the right encoding of 6, a coincidence or someone having a laugh at the fearful Christians expense?

Those aren't 6s, they're guard bars.

The authors are obviously biased against fundamental, evangelical Christians.

Reality is biased against these people, because they are, in fact, crazy. Period. So you know, depicting their craziness isn't bias. Its reality.

So let me get this straight.... It's OK to be against this for privacy concerns, but it's not "appropriate and understandable" to be against this for religious reasons.

Being nuts is never really helpful.

I thought the mark of the beast was 616?

Possibly. Its believed to be a coded reference to Nero (or Neron) in either case.

So the 2nd would be . . . ? I know gingers are the 1st cause that Southpark is really educational and completely true. Really.

If you can call them people.

 

[Titanium Dragon]

2. Why is the district being so f***ing stupid? If the parents don't want their kid to wear a chipped identity badge, make her an unchipped badge. Make the parents sign a form that says she can wear an unchipped badge but that since the school's primary means of taking attendance is by using the chips in the badges, she will have to go to the attendance office each day to sign in so she can be counted for tax purposes. If she doesn't sign in, she will be marked absent, whether she was really there or not. If she's marked absent too many times, the parents may be charged for truancy.

The district isn't. They made this offer. The parents refused it.

The parents are, quite clearly, lunatics or trying to make a point.

So we can't say prayers in school anymore or have reference to god in school. But Parents and kids can fall back on a religious belief? Folks you can't pick and choose religious exclusion. Rules are rules.

Uh, what?

Seriously, don't believe what the crazy fanatics who are of the same cut of people as those who blow up buildings and fight over the holy land have to say.

You most certainly are allowed to pray in school. What is not allowed is:

1) The school promoting religion of any sort. This is illegal. Period.

2) Any sort of activity that would be construed as the school promoting religion. This includes religious iconography put up by staff or encouraged by staff, teacher-led prayer, prayers by students that coerce other students into praying/interrupt class time, ect.

So, where are the Dragon and the first Beast?

Yo.

You may not agree with these people, but my original point is just: don't mock people for standing up for their rights.

We're mocking them for being insane fanatics who are either trying to make a point or who are just plain old crazy.

Its fine to mock people for having crazy religious beliefs. Remember that first amendment?

No, clearly you've already forgotten it.

Call a rake a rake.

There is a reason there are so many amendments to the Constitution and Bill of Rights and so many cases arguing violations of peoples' rights; there are many ways to interpret them.

Uh, no. There are VERY few Amendments to the Constitution. In over 200 years, we've changed it a whopping 18 times (the first 10 amendments were accepted simultaneously), and of those, 8 of them were basically administrative matters. There have been a mere 20 amendments to the constitution that were rights based, on 10 different occasions, and fully half of them happened in the 1700s.

We don't change it very often, and the last time the Constitution was meaningfully changed was 1971 - 40 years ago.

Schools have been forced to accommodate religion previously, such things as wearing traditional clothing, practicing prayer, etc. There's no reason to think that being forced to be electronically tracked should be any different, nor should you guys be so quick to accept such a thing or mock anyone for fighting against these violations.

Its pretty clear that these people are insane. Beyond it obviously not being the mark of the beast, they rejected a compromise without the RFID tag, which suggests the obvious - that they're just being idiots.