Kentucky Calls Upon God to Protect Homeland

A 2006 piece of homeland security legislation passed by the Kentucky legislature stressed God’s role in protecting the state from evil-doers. The legislation contains a clause the dictates that a plaque be posted in the Office of Homeland Security that states that the state’s safety “cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.”

American Atheists has filed a lawsuit seeking to remove the offending verbiage. I don’t really care to discuss the actual legislation. What bothers me more are some of the comments posted by viewers of the WKYT website on this particular story.

Check out some of the bits of wisdom from the loving citizens of Kentucky:

This is Proposition 8 all over again. It isn’t a matter of 10% controlling the laws. It’s about 90% remembering that the 10% does, in fact, EXIST. We’ll work on respect for the 10% later. I’ll be satisfied with a recognition of existence for now. (Odd, huh? An atheist seeking recognition of existence.)

I don’t even have words.

Will it?

That’s interesting. I have a quote from Thomas Jefferson that says, “Shake off all fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God, because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.” What about one by James Madison that asks and answers an important question, “What has been Christianity’s fruits? Superstition, Bigotry and Persecution.”

I’ll leave you with that one. Please visit the site and read some more of the comments. Feel free to post a comment with your favorite reader nonsense.

Republicans Think They Are So Funny

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 & Passover holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians, 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 & Hanukkah. Yet my client & 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.

Sen. Dole (R-NC) Vilifies Atheists in Campaign Ad

UPDATE: Democratic challenger Kay Hagan defeated Libby Dole. Thankfully, the residents of North Carolina saw through the BS and recognized Dole’s ad for what it was: unfounded, bigoted tripe.

George H.W. Bush’s now-infamous quote regarding the patriotism of atheists is old news for most. At a 1987 campaign stop in Chicago, Bush 41 made a disgusting statement that should be offensive not only to atheists, but to theists as well. The shocking amount of judgment that he passed on an entire group of people should have been a career-ending soundbyte. Unfortunately, Americans were more disgusted by Michael Dukakis with a goofy helmet in a tank than this bigoted quote by the (then) Vice President of the United States. Here is the text of the statement:

Sherman: What will you do to win the votes of the Americans who are atheists?

Bush: I guess I’m pretty weak in the atheist community. Faith in God is important to me.

Sherman: Surely you recognize the equal citizenship and patriotism of Americans who are atheists?

Bush: No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.

Sherman (somewhat taken aback): Do you support as a sound constitutional principle the separation of state and church?

Bush: Yes, I support the separation of church and state. I’m just not very high on atheists.

It’s no secret that atheists are the most reviled minority in the United States. It’s no surprise that there are very few atheist elected officials in this country. So it certainly comes as no surprise when Senator Elizabeth Dole runs an attack ad attempting to draw a connection between her opponent, Kay Hagan, and… dun dun dun… ATHEISTS!! Never mind that the ad is completely false. It is attempting to create guilt by association and make viewers question the judgment of the opposing candidate simply because she may have known some atheists. I thought it was bad that most other attack ads focusing on guilt by association had to do with terrorists; I never thought I would be a member of a group referenced in one.

Check out the ad below before the cease and desist order goes through. While I don’t think that attempting to tie someone to atheists should be considered a defamation of character, insinuating that a candidate makes the quote at the end of the video when she did not, is a misrepresentation of the truth (a.k.a. LIE). If the video is taken down, I’m sure it will pop up somewhere else on YouTube. I’ll fix the link if and when that happens.