I found the following joke while searching the interwebs. The little snippet that Google showed me on the results page was pretty telling, but I had to click through to check it out. It should come as no surprise that the site is titled Republican Operative.
FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY : In Florida , an atheist created a case against the Easter and Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians and Jews observances of their holy days. The argument was it was unfair that atheists had no such recognized day.
The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, “Case dismissed.”
The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter & others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah. Yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays.”
The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, “But you do. Counsel, your client is woefully ignorant.” The lawyer said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists.”
The judge said, “The calendar says April 1st is ‘April Fools Day.’ Psalm 14:1 states ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God.’ Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned.”
Is it even really worth the time to pick apart all of the things that are wrong with this? No? Well I’m doing it anyway.
- What atheist would be lobbying for a holiday? I know there are some crazy atheists out there, because atheists are human after all, despite what people who thought this joke was funny might think. I don’t think the main point on any atheist’s agenda is to petition for an officially recognized atheist holiday.
- Quite possibly the most disturbing part of this is that the judge used scripture in his decision, and no one is outraged!
If these “Republican Operatives” found themselves awake in a jail cell in the Middle East, how happy would they be if the judge cited the Quran in his decision? My guess is that they would not be very happy. However, Christians rarely take a moment and examine these sorts of things before turning an important issue, like atheists seeking a fair and secular society in which to live freely, and turning it into unfunny tripe to forward to their entire email address book.
I am surprised no one’s commented on this, so I’d just like to say, I see a wonderful appropriateness to the date.
On every other day, people tend to accept every piece of news without question. On April first, every piece of news is suspect, If someone famous dies on March 31st, the obituary is quite awkward. So for a short time, nearly everyone is a complete skeptic.
Dear Friends, Happy April Fool’s Day!!!
Two elderly couples were enjoying friendly conversation when one of the men asked the other, “Fred, how was the memory clinic you went to last month?”
“Outstanding,” Fred replied. “They taught us all the latest psychological techniques – visulization, association – it made a huge difference for me.”
“That’s great! What was the name of the clinic?”
Fred went blank. He thought and thought, but couldn’t remember. Then a smile broke across his face and he asked, “What do you call that flower with the long stem and thorns?”
“You mean a rose?”
“Yes, that’s it!”
He turned to his wife “Rose, what was the name of that clinic?”
Happy April Fool’s Day!