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.

Atheism, Politics, Religion, Video belief, conservative, government, liberty, local, reason, secular, skeptic

How can one possibly see a video like this and believe that it was a Creator’s plan to create humans via a 4 billion year “designed” process?  Listen to it several times if you must.  Looking back from the vantage point we have now, it seems obvious that primitive men with a limited understanding of the world would invent God.

What we have learned in the past several thousand years is that we were not created at all, but evolved along a convoluted, haphazard, unpredictable line.  We understand more about our origin now than ever, we shape our living environments, we control the atom, we are driving the earth to it’s next global crisis (and that only took a couple of hundred years).  If we WERE created (say 6,000ish years ago), then why were we created in a fairly primitive state only to be allowed the recent advances to enhance our lives and destroy ourselves over the long haul?  If that were the idea of our genesis, then god naturally knew the outcome, so then… why the hell would he do that?  It makes no sense.

If you want to start to understand the world you live it, watch this video: Carl Sagan – Evolution Explained in Six Minutes.  Then, move on to Carl Sagan – Pale Blue Dot and other mind-expanding ideas — you’ll see how tiny and insignificant we are in the universe… and how fragile.

Science, Video, evolution astronomy, evolution, inspiration, reason, Science

In my latest snail mail from Free Inquiry, I noticed this insert from Richard Dawkins. I thought it was worth republishing since I could not find it in its entirety on the web. I am not suggesting you subscribe to Free Inquiry (I don’t) although it is a quality publication that I enjoy from time to time. I just really like the way Mr. Dawkins phrases several things here. I have reproduced exactly as it appears in the insert including British spelling (I added the hyperlinks as paper-based hyperlinks are still elusive).

Enjoy.

Dear Friend,

If you live in America, the chances are good that your next door neighbours believe the following: the Inventor of the laws of physics and the Programmer of the DNA code decided to enter the uterus of a Jewish virgin, got himself born, then deliberately had himself tortured and executed because he couldn’t think of a better way to forgive the theft of an apple, committed at the instigation of a talking snake. As Creator of the majestically expanding universe, he not only understands relativistic gravity and quantum mechanics but actually designed them. Yet what he really cares about is “sin”, abortion, how often you go to church, and whether gay people should marry. Statistically, the chances are that your neighbours believe all that – and they can vote.

In other parts of the world, there is a good chance that your neighbours believe you should be beheaded if you draw a cartoon of a desert warlord who copulated with a child and flew into the sky on a winged horse. In other places, there’s a good chance that your neighbors think their wishes will be granted if they pray to a human figure with an elephant’s trunk.

Even if your neighbours don’t hold any of those mutually contradictory beliefs, they probably take it for granted that we should unquestioningly respect those who do. And a huge majority of American and British newspapers and periodicals go along with this abject kow-towing to what their educated editorial staff must know, in their heart of hearts, is nonsense.

In all this darkness we discern occasional pinpoints of light, beacons of evidence-based intelligence. There are just a few publications that serve as light-houses in a dark, foggy ocean, and of these my favourite in all the English-speaking free world is Free Inquiry. In keeping with my pessimistic opening, its circulation is not large, but it is growing. Free Inquiry’s list of regular columnists is as star-studded as any in America. Free Inquiry is committed to piercing the darkness, rolling back the fog, and restoring the Enlightenment values that inspired the founders of this great Republic.

I think it is clear that we are gaining ground, and I believe our pace is accelerating. Free Inquiry is in the vanguard of this exhilarating adventure in critical thinking. Please subscribe to, and join me in celebrating, a magazine that believes all ideas are open to rational debate and critical examination, a magazine that is not afraid to speak out in language that flashes as clear as a light-house on a dark night.

Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins is a world-renowned evolutionary biologist and the author of bestselling books including The Selfish Gene, The Blind Watchmaker, and The God Delusion. His writing frequently appears in Free Inquiry.

Agnostic, Atheism, Religion, Science belief, doubt, faith, freedom, muhammad, reason, secular, skeptic

Sam Harris – Misconceptions About Atheism

This is so well stated, and so profound, I don’t know how a religious person could hear it and not be swayed. I have to assume they have not seen it.

See the entire video here: Clash Between Faith and Reason

Agnostic, Atheism, History, Religion, Science, Video faith, inspiration, reason, sam harris, secular, skeptic, speech, Video

I think this came from Playboy (might have been Penthouse), but it seemed worth sharing.  It’s a collection of the best and worst of Christian Consumerism, although I could only glean the worst from this particular collection… you might think I made up the descriptions.  I did not.  They are directly from the manufacturer’s materials with minor editorial commentary.

Click the picture for a larger view

Ranked in order from least offensive/ridiculous to most:

- Follow the Son sandals (flip-flops where I’m from) stamp “Follow Jesus” into the sand with every step. When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 He also supposedly died for our sins and cried about his father forsaking him the entire time.

- Gospel Golf Balls have a verse imprinted on the ball so that a even a lost ball can proselytize and save a lost soul. Set of three top quality golf balls, each inscribed with Scripture quotation from John 3:16, makes a unique witness opportunity on the green, and a terrific gift for the Christian golfer! For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

- For every lame parody for products such as Mountain Dew, there are also the lame religious parodies.  Believers call it witness wear.  Rather than having the effect the wearer intends, I would expect that it serves to deter most conversations. So, in a sideways reference to Jesus (not Judaism) the shirt implores you to “Do the Jew”… strictly in a religious sense I assume.

- Align is a men’s magazine that contains the complete New Testament.  According to the publisher, it makes the Bible as easy to pick up as your favorite magazine? The new BibleZine™ created with today’s modern guy in mind. With an edgy, techo-savvy style and content that makes Biblical truth fresh and relevant, it might just make Bible reading the best part of your day. By putting one of the most readable versions of the Bible, the New Century Version®, together with articles about the topics you face everyday, we’ve created a ‘zine that will help you get deeper in the Bible, find out what God has to say for your life, and grow in your faith.  Looks like there is just the one issue so far.

- Scripture Candy is reported by the CEO of the company to allow kids to “get a Christian message into schools without getting into trouble.” We take the best tasting candies and wrap them in Scriptures so that they can be passed out to everyone. It’s a great way to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. A single piece of Scripture Candy is like that seed planted by the sower in the parable spoken by Jesus in Matthew 13; it has the potential of producing a tremendous harvest. As you go along in your day-to-day routine, you can be one of the few workers Jesus was talking about by simply offering a piece of candy to everyone you meet, because they might be the next person the angels rejoice over in heaven for coming to know Jesus Christ as their Savior. Seriously?.

-  Bibleman, originally played by Willie Aames (also of Charles in Charge fame), is the hero of a long-running, brainwashing TV series.  The toy shown is wielding the Sword of the Spirit. Now kids and adult Bibleman fans alike can create their own adventures at home with these collectible, high-quality, detailed action figures. No fan of the Bibleman series can live without these hand-held replicas of the Caped One and his faithful sidekick. How else to practice intricate light-sword moves and snappy Bible-verse quotations?The Bibleman action figure is approximately 6″ tall and comparable in quality to action figures found in general market toy stores. Each figure is hand-painted and comes with accessories to allow for more intractivity. These toys will cleverly extend the number of available hours for aspiring young superheroes to train for their eventual audition. As Richard Dawkins says, this is basically child abuse.

There you have it.  The best and worst (primarily) of Christian Crap.

Atheism, Graphics, Religion crap, garbage, gift ideas, gifts, jesus, parody, reason