Lay Theism

Mr. Buckner, thank you for giving a thoughtful, intelligent “invocation” at the recent Cobb County Commission meeting. Well done.

Atheist gives invocation at Cobb meeting

By MARCUS K. GARNER
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

9:11 a.m. Thursday, July 30, 2009

No need to bow your heads, folks.

That’s what Smyrna atheist Edward Buckner told people before leading the invocation Tuesday night at the Cobb County Board of Commissioners meeting.

“It’s actually a protest against invocations,” the president of American Atheists said Wednesday night. “My goal is to get them to stop doing invocations.”

County board of commissioners chairman Sam Olens, reached by phone Wednesday night, said he was offended by Buckner’s actions.

“Did I find his comments repugnant and insulting? Yes,” Olens said. “He abused the process by giving an opinion … rather than providing inspiration.”

What Buckner did was thumb his nose at what he believed was an unconstitutional cross-section of religion and government, he admitted in his words Tuesday night.

Rather than any form of deity, he invoked “the 700,000 people who live in this county — especially the majority (yes, over half) of those 700,000 who are not members of any church, mosque, temple, or other religious organization,” he said.

“I speak as well for those political leaders who despair that success in politics cannot be achieved without hypocritical piety from politicians and who would prefer to run for office and to govern based on competence and political philosophy rather than on beliefs, real or pretended, in any supernatural beings.”

Olens, a candidate for state Attorney General, said he was surprised by Buckner’s tirade.

“I expected that it would be in the context of inspiration,” Olens said.

Buckner said he was disappointed that Olens made a “disclaimer” before he spoke, saying that federal law requires the county to let anyone who signs up make an invocation.

“This county is pro-religion and they act like anybody who isn’t is a second class citizen,” Buckner said.

Buckner is no stranger to protesting religion in government.

In 2005, he was one of seven Cobb residents who with the American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit to halt the practice of invocations before board of commissioners’ and planning commission’s meetings.

But last year, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed in a 2-1 ruling with a lawsuit’s contention that the Constitution permits only nonsectarian prayers.

And earlier this month, Buckner spoke out during public comment against the commissioners’ approval of a plan by the county’s development authority to issue up to $14 million in bonds to lend to North Cobb Christian School for renovations.

Olens said the county received an E-mail from Buckner requesting to do an invocation, and allowed it because of First Amendment laws.

“Had I stopped him before he started, he then would’ve had a federal action against the county,” Olens said. “That’s the price you pay for being American.”

Buckner had this to say for those he may have offended.

“Join me in asking Cobb County to stop having invocations,” he said.

Full video of the event here with a backup link here. Thank you to the Cobb County Commission for being respectful and polite during the proceedings. It’s just too bad that Olens is so chagrined by his fellow citizens exercising their rights that he had to go on record after the fact as being offended.  The price you pay…?  What an asshole…

Loved the smattering of applause at the end.  I only wish I knew what Ed said in place of “under God” during the pledge…  it obviously was not “under God”.  Cheers, Ed.

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What a trip…  Tonight I am resigned to declaring that Obama will win the election by popular vote.  I have been doing a lot of reading and thinking on the topic, and I think that McCain is up against too tough an economic disaster to win in the incumbent party.  Also, with Sarah Palin acting so folksy and clever while never really getting deep or taking chances, I think her value to the ticket continues to diminish. She was great tonight, but maybe not great enough to push through the morass to victory a month from now.

Anyway… that’s all I really have for now.  Just wanted to revisit in writing my thoughts from February prior to the complete economic meltdown we are in now.  As I have said before, I am very moderate in my views so I have no particular issue with either party winning the election as long as they do the least amount of damage (the dreaded, obsolete two party system is a topic for another day).

So, my thoughts have turned to Obama’s first 100 days in the White House.  What will he do… and will we like it?

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Now that I am not consuming a constant stream of right-leaning rhetoric via radio, TV, church, or otherwise, I don’t have the same knee-jerk reaction to “liberal” thinking as I used to.  I now seek a very wide variety of news and information sources (including the occasional conservative rant).  After reading for a while the other night, I ran across this passage by Robert B. Reich on his web site:

Liberalism is the opposite of fanaticism. We cherish tolerance. We value deliberation. We respect rational argument. We oppose all forms of tyranny. We have faith — and it is nothing but faith — that, in the end, they won’t be able to drown us out, because common sense and common decency are on our side.

What I find interesting about this quote is that it should apply to all people… this is not an extremist viewpoint owned by the left.  It’s a humanist point-of-view.  It’s the way it should be.

The older I get, and the more I study the human condition, the more tolerant I am… the more thoughtful. However, he is not quite right – replace Liberalism above with Humanism (or even Atheism) and then we are getting somewhere.  I think there are opportunists and idiots on both extremes of the left and right. I find that the folks in The Great Middle are the ones that respect human rights and liberty regardless of personal beliefs, ethnic background, or lifestyle.  The people that I know that strongly identify with either conservatives or liberals tend to be judgmental, closed-minded, dogmatic goofballs.

And, switching gears, I’ll go out on a limb and say that “The Great Middle” is the slice of our US population that is going to elect Senator John McCain as the next President of the United States.  Why a Mormon and an Evangelical Christian thought they were electable illustrates what a bubble they live in.  And on the left, Barack Obama is just too far to the left… and we won’t even talk about Hillary Clinton.  That leaves the most “moderate” candidate standing at the end of the day.

Congratulations extremists on both sides!  You’ve chosen our next Commander in Chief.

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Wouldn’t you know it, a few days after I ponder my Beliefometer, the Wall Street Journal publishes a commentary by Arthur C. Brooks that points out a common polling instrument called a Feeling Thermometer.

As we are dragged through another election season, it is worth critically reviewing these stereotypes. Do the data support the claim that conservatives are haters, while liberals are tolerant of others? A handy way to answer this question is with what political analysts call “feeling thermometers,” in which people are asked on a survey to rate others on a scale of 0-100. A zero is complete hatred, while 100 means adoration. In general, when presented with people or groups about which they have neutral feelings, respondents give temperatures of about 70. Forty is a cold temperature, and 20 is absolutely freezing.

Pretty interesting, but I’m not sure that’s entirely true. If the mean response for neutral feelings is 70, what does that mean for these public figures?

Giuliani is Highest Ranked U.S. Politician

I know it’s not quite the same thing, but the way they totally ripped off my scaling is uncanny. Furthermore, what if I am neither liberal nor conservative… what then polling people?

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