You’d think my fellow scientist would understand the difference between hypothesis and causation:
Public schools mostly take religion for granted—it’s rife in athletics, in particular, but many of the ceremonies have prayers and ministers involved—so when a valedictorian speech damns her godless classmates to hell, it’s just a reflection of the culture.
It’s very strange that PZ should care one way or another over a young girl expressing her belief that [presumably] nonexistent souls will go to a [presumably] nonexistent place unless the individual acknowledges a [presumably] nonexistent being. Would he have been equally offended if she had said that her classmates’ auras would not go to fairyland if they refused to believe in Tinkerbell?
While Shannon Spaulding may be a valedictorian, neither she nor any other human being has the power to damn anyone anywhere. What she did was no different than warning someone that he is in the process of walking into a burning building and will burn to death if he does not modify his direction. To equate the delivery of such a warning with sending someone to a fiery death is an abuse of the English language.
No one sends anyone else to Hell. Objecting to an infernal afterlife is like complaining that driving south on Interstate 35 will take you to Texas. That’s where the road goes, so unless you take the exit provided, that’s where you’ll end up. No one’s going to make you turn off, your destination is your choice.