US Grants Asylum to ... Germans? For Home Schooling?

Political persecution is an awful thing, a sign of a corrupt government that can't stand on its own two feet, and has to kill or torture its critics rather than foster democracy. That's why the United States, and all civilized democracies, have a long and honorable tradition of granting asylum to victims of persecution.

It seems that in Tennessee, teaching science also qualifies, along side torture and murder, and the German Government is guilty of this awful crime!

A German family was granted political asylum in the United States, justified because of political "persecution" by the German government. This persecution consisted of nothing more than the government teaching science and history, things that every child should know.

It's a double insult: the asylum process, which was designed to foster open democracies, dialog and to spread knowledge, is now being used to prevent children from learning. How sad.

This is a recurring theme in conservative religions. People who believe in impossible things, like creationism, have to shun honest dialog and real knowledge, because with real knowledge, their beliefs don't hold up. Again and again, I find myself writing on this topic, but it seems to be a never-ending story. In Saudi Arabia, a university is censored. In Texas (and many other states), Christians try to suppress real science. And fundamentalists actively claim that rational thinking is misguided.

This German family has fallen victim to one of religions oldest memes, which teaches its victims to shun learning. It's ironic, that religions are, in a sense, doing the same thing as corrupt governments: They stifle dissent, and block real learning.

The Tennessee judge who granted asylum to these Germans is almost certainly a fundamentalist Christian, and has mixed his religion with the law. I hope his decision is appealed and overturned. It sets a dangerous precedent for American science, and trivializes the whole idea of political asylum, which should be reserved for real political dissidents who are in genuine danger.