Such Christian Responses To The Atheist Monument

The first ever atheist monument to be on government property went up this weekend in Florida^[1].

[2]

Hemant covered the events quite well^[3].  And of course, there were protesters^[4].  I've been at plenty of atheist events that had protesters, but never one with such blatantly racist protesters.

I think I'll just leave the response to Amanda Knief's tweets^[5] on the matter since she said what I was thinking.

"Don't like Christian culture, go home!" What! Wait--I was born here; I am home. Where the hell should I go? #standmyground #StarkeContrast
— Amanda Knief (@mzdameanor) June 29, 2013

"The South is a Christian nation." Um, update: you lost that war a while ago & the South is NOT a nation. #realitycheck #StarkeContrast
— Amanda Knief (@mzdameanor) June 29, 2013

Only racists who don't know who won the Civil War could be the most ridiculous thing at a place Eric Hovind^[6] was.

[7]

I love this picture for a number of reasons.  It illustrates how disrespectful Eric Hovind is.  It would be rude stand up there if it was a random bench and it wasn't David Silverman sitting there.  No matter who was sitting there, it would be incredibly rude to stand right next to their head.

It being a monument that was making history and the person sitting there being the head of the organization who made it happen makes it that much more rude.  The fact that it's an extremely rare thing for any religious view that isn't Christianity to get any positive attention makes it even worse for him to be so brazenly arrogant.

And still, he has the right to do it.

I'm glad that @SyeTenB and @erichovind exercised their free speech. Might I suggest that you go ahead and wear that toilet seat as necklace?
— Matt Dillahunty (@Matt_Dillahunty) June 30, 2013

If only Christians were better able to show such respect^[8].

It's incredibly disturbing how often I see Christians portray the Bible commandment against murder as the only thing keeping people from killing.

I guess that's better.  He's only threatening to beat us up instead of kill us.  But one more had something to say about killing.

Instead of threatening us, he's pretending we did the threatening.  But, ...

Exactly.  So, I'll leave it at that and move on the more fun comments.

Chris is right.  Plus, regarding tolerance see the tweet of Matt Dillahunty's that I shared above^[9].

I wish I could expect that response to make the guy understand that being atheist doesn't make you a nihilist.

I also wish I could write off the hate as trolls.  But it's all consistent with what I see happen every time.  It happens online and in person.  Christian privilege in America leaves no room for anything else.  So they freak the fuck out^[10] anytime anyone else exercises their rights.

This last one is one I really hope is a Poe, but sadly, that kind of crazy shit is sometimes real too.

Just a hunch, but I suspect this guy might be a tad racist.  Either way, I'm sticking with the idea that the crazier they get, the more it means we're winning^[11].

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1.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/atheists-unveil-monument-next-to-ten-commandments-at-florida-courthouse/2013/06/29/f226a614-e10c-11e2-86b4-4efb8c53d62b_story.html
2.  https://twitter.com/AmericanAtheist/status/351024379854983168
3.  https://twitter.com/hemantmehta/status/351021011761762305
4.  https://twitter.com/jteberhard/status/351071613707485186
5.  https://twitter.com/mzdameanor
6.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2012/11/eric-hovind-i-have-question-for-you.html
7.  I lost track of who gets credit for the picture.
8.  https://twitter.com/Matt_Dillahunty/status/351327995878846465
9.  https://twitter.com/Matt_Dillahunty/status/351184669334716416
10.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2012/07/uncontroversial-billboard-is.html
11.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2013/06/bryan-fischer-being-unhappy-makes-me.html

Bryan Fischer Being Unhappy Makes Me Happy

Unless this is the first thing you're reading after spending the entire day in a cave, you already know that the Supreme Court struck down a key part of the Defense of Marriage Act^[1] and effectively upheld the previous overturning of California's ban on gay marriage, Prop 8^[2].

These are both good things.  Unless you're a bigot.  If you're a bigot, you had a bad day.  If you're Bryan Fischer, you had a really bad day^[3].

With the DOMA decision, we have ceased to be a constitutional republic. The words "We the People" are now meaningless.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 26, 2013

Yeah, equality is a real pain in the ass for the Constitution.

The DOMA ruling has now made the normalization of polygamy, pedophilia, incest and bestiality inevitable. Matter of time.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 26, 2013

I care about my dogs^[4].  The prospect of gays marrying does not make me want to fuck them.  It does not provoke any sexual attraction toward anyone I'm related to.  It also does nothing to change me from the complete lack of sexual desire I have toward children.  Maybe it's just Mr Fischer experiencing these changes.

Note, I didn't mention polygamy.  Because I'm cool with it.  So is the Bible, by the way^[5].

God defined marriage at the dawn of time as one man and one woman. What God has defined, the Supreme Court may not redefine.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 26, 2013

The Bible disagrees with what he claims his god defined^[6].

[7]

I agree @BryanJFischer! The Bible clearly defines marriage as an exchange of a female between a father and her new owner, as it should be.
— Mildred vonHildegard (@MildredVon) June 26, 2013

In our battle to defend marriage as God has defined it, we will never give in. We will never, never, never, never give in.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 26, 2013

That's fine.  They'll just have to lose the hard way then.

@BryanJFischer And you will lose. You will always, always, always lose. #DOMA #equality #bigotrywillnotstand
— Rebekah (@AtHomePundit) June 26, 2013

One man, Kennedy, has decided marriage policy for 315 million people. That is tyranny. All hail the king.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 26, 2013

Scalia right about DOMA: "We have no power under the Constitution to invalidate this democratically adopted legislation."
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 26, 2013

That wasn't his stance when the ACA ("Obamacare") was up for review by the Court^[8].  He called it tyranny when the Court upheld one law and tyranny when they didn't uphold another.  That's weird.  It's almost as if he's just calling everything he doesn't like tyranny.

[9]

SCOTUS today dehumanized supporters of natural marriage. Did the same thing to pro-family folks the Nazis did to Jews.
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 26, 2013

This one was inevitable^[10].  Apparently, to Bryan Fischer, having your ability to discriminate slightly diminished (but still left largely intact), is just like the systematic murder of millions.

And even after that, he got even more desperate in his ranting.

Did SCOTUS just discriminate against every homosexual couple who lives in a state that does not recognize gay marriage?
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 27, 2013

SCOTUS did discriminate against every gay couple in 38 states - not eligible for same benefits. Malice? Animus? Bigotry?
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 27, 2013

SCOTUS today disenfranchised every black voter who voted for Prop 8. Where's the outrage over minority vote suppression?
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanJFischer) June 27, 2013

The more desperate they get, the closer we are to winning.  They don't have a choice.  The baby will cry and cry, but eventually the baby goes to sleep.

[11]

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1.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court/2013/06/26/f0039814-d9ab-11e2-a016-92547bf094cc_story.html
2.  http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-prop-8-supreme-court-ruling-20130626,0,5931694.story
3.  https://twitter.com/BryanJFischer
4.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2013/06/i-still-hate-fourth-of-july.html
5.  http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/says_about/polygamy.html
6.  http://www.patheos.com/blogs/unreasonablefaith/2009/04/the-varieties-of-biblical-marriage/
7.  http://i.imgur.com/yXkyl.png
8.  http://www.renewamerica.com/columns/fischer/120327
9.  http://youtu.be/G2y8Sx4B2Sk
10.  http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/godwins-law
11.  http://youtu.be/PrWUU-jV-kc

Some Links On The DOMA Ruling

Here's a few stories from today on the death of DOMA.

Atheist Reactions:

Atheists Celebrate Supreme Court Decisions on Marriage Equality (via @StillRichEnough)

What Secular Groups Are Saying About the Supreme Court Rulings (via @hemantmehta)

Impact:

Minutes After Supreme Court Strikes Down DOMA, Immigration Judge Stops Deportation Of Married Gay Man (via @ChrisDStedman)

On Gay Marriage In Churches, Stances Vary Among Religions, Clergy, Members (via @HuffPostRelig)

Supreme Court ruling sets up new wave of gay marriage battles (via Perri)

On Right Wing Reactions:

The Five Craziest Reactions To The Marriage Equality Rulings (via Aaron & Science and Skepticism)

Westboro Baptist Church Freaks Over DOMA Ruling, Claims Hell Is Near (via Angie)

Religious leaders see tragedy and justice in Supreme Court gay marriage decisions (via @kathsstewart)

DOMA and Prop 8 are history. Tony Perkins is a sad panda. (via @jteberhard)

Head Of 'American Family Association' Says It's Now Inevitable That You Will Have Sex With Your Horse (via @BryanJFischer)

I Still Hate The Fourth of July

I love my country, but I hate the Fourth of July^[1].  Why would I hate a celebration of the Declaration of Independence for the world's first secular nation?

She doesn't like explosions

This is why I hate the Fourth of July.

Fireworks went on sale this week.  They've been going off all night, and if this year follows the trend, they'll be going off every night for weeks.  Which means this dog will be scared every night for weeks, just because my neighbors want to blow shit up.

And she's the calm one.  There's an even more scared Great Dane alternating between pacing all over the house and hiding under things you'd never think a 140 pound dog could fit under.

Last year, I donated to the Wounded Warrior Project^[2].  This year, I think it'll be the Nebraska Humane Society^[3].

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1.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-hate-4th-of-july.html
2.  http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org/
3.  http://www.nehumanesociety.org/

Christians Prove My Point About Secular Money

I've recently taken to saying that instead of contesting Ten Commandments monuments on public land, we should find a way to get Christians to fight with each other over which version^[1] is up.  Some Christians have recently done a good job of illustrating why I think that would work when one found something on their money that they did not like^[2].

The obvious guess is that this was done by a Muslim, but whoever did it appears to also have a problem with "In God We Trust" being on our money.  I'm one of those atheists who marks out "In God We Trust" from his money^[3], but I like this because it makes my point even better than I do with the Sharpie because of how much the Christians hate Allah being on their money.

These are starting to show up all around our country!

After dinner she took a $1 dollar bill out of her purse and displayed it on the table. Underneath the words "In God We Trust" someone had stamped the dollar bill in red ink---

NO GOD BUT ALLAH.

We asked her where she had gotten this dollar bill.  She said it was part of her change in Alamosa , CO .

We took a picture of her dollar bill. If anyone tries to give you one of these dollar bills as change, please refuse it and ask them to give you a dollar bill that has not been defaced.

Send this on to everyone you can. God bless our USA !

And, He'd better bless it quickly before what we know and love is forever gone!

They don't like someone else's religion being pushed on their money.  And, of course, some particularly despise Islam on their money.

Pity that so few of them get it.  The problem they have with Allah being on money is exactly why their god shouldn't be on it either.  At least one about a thousand people who found the post get it, even if it's less than the amount who liked the Islamophobic comment.

And that's why I only cross out the unconstitutional phrase instead of putting something atheist on it.  Because I'm not a hypocrite like the Christians whining about the wrong god being on their money.

It's supposed to be secular, with absolutely no mention of god, and this shit is why.

(Thanks to Meagan for the link.)

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1.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Commandments#Enumeration_of_the_Ten_Commandments
2.  https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4465897337273&set=a.1073276483872.2011172.1584985366&type=1&ref=nf
3.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-i-carry-sharpie.html

Petition To Restore The National Motto (Or Moto)

"In God We Trust" on our money is a minor thing to many.  Even many atheists don't care much about it.  I'm not among those people^[1].  It's something I care quite a bit about, because I don't think it's an inconsequential matter.  It's too often used by Christians as their evidence of the completely false claim that we're a Christian nation.

Getting it fixed is not an easy task, but persistence on such matters is what gets things done.  It's why I carry the Sharpie (and have successfully gotten other to do the same).  And it's why I've signed this petition on whitehouse.gov^[2].

Please restore the original moto "E Pluribus Unum" as well as placing in on currency again.

The current moto added to currency in 1864 and as the moto in 1965 only serves as to be a decisive point between different religions or the lack there of. The original moto meaning One From Many is much more fitting and celibates the cultural diversity that make the United States so unique.

Additionally this is a clear violation of the First Amendment which: "prohibits the making of any law respecting an establishment of religion"

Sure, it's got some spelling errors, and it's the wrong place to make such a request since it would require an act of Congress.  And, even if it were something within the President's power, it's not something we could realistically expect from Barack Obama^[3].

But that's not the point.  The point is to keep pushing to restore our country to the secular nation it was founded as instead of the place where Christians are so comfortable pushing their religion into government they pass laws to allow people to say "Merry Christmas"^[4] even though it wasn't at all illegal.  I'd rather be a secular nation than a nation that elects people into office who oppose abortion because they think fetuses masturbate^[5].  Little things like this can actually make a difference if done often enough, by enough of us.

If enough people signed these things, even the terribly written ones like this one^[6], they could have as much impact as atheist monuments^[7].  After all, these petitions do sometimes make news^[8].  Even for non-serious requests^[9].

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1.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2013/03/why-i-carry-sharpie.html
2.  https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/restore-national-moto-e-pluribus-unum/58JXzNBB
3.
4.  http://maddowblog.msnbc.com/_news/2013/06/14/18959929-freedom-from-religion
5.  http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/06/michael-burgess-fetus-masturbation/66345/
6.  We already know you don't need good grammar to get what you want from Washington.
7.  http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/north-fla-county-atheist-monument-19343424#.UcEqFPnVC8A
8.  http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/10/18886451-pardon-edward-snowden-petition-seeks-white-house-response
9.  http://theweek.com/article/index/238746/the-white-houses-nerd-delighting-death-star-petition-response

He Almost Became A Priest, Became Atheist Instead

Recent changes to /r/atheism^[1] have resulted in a group of people upset to monitor the new posts^[2] and downvote all posts that aren't complaining about the new changes.  A recent victim of the protests was a man who posted his story of almost becoming a priest and ending up atheist^[3].  He gave me permission to share his story, but has since deleted his account for unknown reasons.

I thought I'd give a short introduction since I'm fairly new here.

My relationship with religion has been a very stormy one. I enjoy some of the cultural aspects (I'm probably unique in that regard on this forum.) But that's because I'm a professional musician and performed pretty much the entire English Cathedral repertoire at some point in my life. (Random fact: most choristers are atheist anyway.)

The storminess comes from the imprint that the fear of hell had on my heart from a very young age. My parents were very strict fundamentalists and had no difficulty telling me that people who did not hear about Jesus were going to burn for all eternity. When you're 8 years old, that's a rather traumatizing thought. It bothered me the first time my parents told me this, and it never stopped bothering me since. Even after liberalizing and dropping the doctrine of hell from my belief system at age 16, the fear persisted. What if I'm wrong? Then there were the question of the OT genocides, which bothered me from a young age as well.

My parents told me to read the Bible and it would strengthen my faith. Well, It's more likely that advice is what has led me here today. In college, because of my active participation in the church (Anglo-Catholic by choice), I made the decision to enter the priesthood. This was the first of three times I would made this decision, but I aborted every time, THANKFULLY! So I began reading the Homilies on the Book of Romans by St John Crysostom. If you ever want to deconvert someone, Crysostom is really the way to go. The man is a vile, misogynistic, homophobic, antisemite, and lots of other not nice thing. And yet he's one of the Three Holy Hierarchs, one of the three most important theologians in all history. I had to stop reading after about the 7th homily because it was so disgusting. (I don't want to make excessive comparisons, but in this case, I'm not sure excessive comparisons can be made.)

At this point I had been approved for sponsorship by my third parish. It's a very presitigious parish (eg. the rector has a knighthood) and I felt honored that they had selected me. But I had to put my studies down or else I was going to lose my faith. A year later I came out as gay. This was not a problem to my parish, but it was a problem to my more Evanglical fundamnetalist family. No matter how much liberal theology I had imbibed, I could not escape the fear of hell.

And then one day my mind went into a loop. "I'm going to go to hell. I deserve to go to hell. How could I not go to hell. What a terrible human being I am. I deserve every bad thing that has ever happened and more. Hell is clearly where I'm going. I'm going to go to hell." This loop lasted for almost four weeks. I could not get my brain to stop repeating these and similar words over and over again. (I was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder which may explain the loop.) I dropped into the deepest depression imaginable, and I'm already used to depression. It became nearly impossible for me to go to work and stay anywhere near concentrated. I had been gripped by fear, and the fear seemed totally reasonable. I had failed. I had fallen short. I could have done a hundred times better and I would still deserve horrible things. Worst of all I was gay. And while I had theologically reasoned myself out of believing that being gay was a sin, that's not what I was taught and what I was taught was taking over.

At the end of four weeks I said the wone thing that got me out of the loop. I said it so meekly, and I was so scared. But I already knew that I believed it. My entirely theological understand of god and of the world had been eroded down. And so I said it, "I am an atheist."

"I am an atheist."

"I am an atheist."

I was still terrified. But the loop in my mind stopped. And I realized I hadn't believed in god in years. Everything I had been doing was trying to create an image of myself that my parents could be proud of. Also, there were those cultural aspects of Anglo-Catholicism that I could have fun doing, even if it was pointless motions and dressing up. I mean, I have a campy side. But all of that fell apart quickly when I finally accepted reality for the first time.

I had never read any Dawkins, or Harris, or Hitchens. I'm not even sure I knew there names at the time. But the entire super-structure of my theological beliefs came tumbling down. There was nothing I could do to hold them up. I didn't want to anymore. I am an atheist. :)

PS Even my screenname here is a referece to that past as Sarum Blue was my favorite liturgical color. The papists will say it's not liturgical color but I really dgaf.

If you're familiar with the stories of Teresa MacBain & Jerry DeWitt^[4], or any other graduates of The Clergy Project^[5], parts of his story probably sound familiar too.  It also reminded me a little of Matt Dillahunty's story .

I hope this guy wasn't scared off Reddit by the protest downvotes.  His story is quite common, our society is rough on people in his situation.  I hope he ended up using the link I gave him for Recovering From Religion^[7], as I think it would a great resource for him.

Studying religion has a way of turning people atheist, but disbelief is the expected outcome of people honestly investigating invalid claims.

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1.  http://mashable.com/2013/06/14/reddit-atheism-mods/
2.  http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/new/
3.  http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism/comments/1gb4w6/almost_became_a_priest_now_definitely_an_atheist/
4.  http://aparticularblogbyaparticularatheist.blogspot.com/2012/12/twelve-apostates-former-clergy.html
5.  http://www.clergyproject.org/
6.  http://youtu.be/uzlZVHPJ5n4
7.  http://www.recoveringfromreligion.org/