Where Is Bill Donohue When You Really Need Him?

From These religious clowns should scare you: GOP candidates’ gullible, lunatic faith is a massive character flaw by Jeffrey Tayler

(And where are all those annoying trigger-warning zealots when you need them? Why don’t they campaign to have the Bible stamped with “TRIGGER WARNING: contains multiple accounts of genocide, warfare, murder, enslavement, sexual abuse of women and underage girls, and ritual human and animal sacrifice”?)

Why is Bill Donohue more concerned with the evil secular humanists (especially their movies and TV shows that are way too sexy for him) than the evils of the Bible?

Bill likes to whip himself into a tizzy about evil secular humanists:

I've had it with mean-spirited secular activists out to turn our society and culture inside out and upside down. They will stop at nothing to smash our traditions, norms and values, making mince meat out of our Judeo-Christian heritage. Like termites, they eat away at the cultural edifice of our society. Some, perversely, are working to sabotage their own religion. They must be stopped because there is too much at stake. 

And of course the victim card must be played. Because this an important civil rights issue, because they say it is:

The Catholic League is the nation's largest Catholic civil rights organization. Founded in 1973 by the late Father Virgil C. Blum, S.J., the Catholic League defends the right of Catholics lay and clergy alike to participate in American public life without defamation or discrimination. It is led by its' President, William A. Donohue, Ph.D.

Get back to me on that defamation and discrimination thing after the United States elects an atheist president. Bill is immune to his own hypocrisy, isn't he? Oh the irony!

What Would Jesus Do To Celebrate His Birth?

Would Jesus celebrate his birth with a display of hate and destruction? Would some of those who claim to follow his teachings celebrate his birth with a display of hate and destruction? Of course they would!

From Approaching Holidays Prompt Atheist Campaign by Ian Urbina:

An unusual holiday message began appearing this week in the nation’s capital on the sides of buses and trains.

“No god? ... No problem!” reads the advertisement featuring the smiling faces of people wearing Santa Claus hats. “Be good for goodness’ sake.”

Last year, a similar campaign by the association drew strong reactions.

The head of the Catholic League linked secular humanists to figures like Hitler and the serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. The publisher of “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town” complained about the signs. In Cincinnati, a billboard that said “Don’t believe in God? You’re Not Alone” had to be moved after the owner of the billboard property said he had received threats. In Moscow, Idaho, a sign that said “Good without God. Millions of humanists are” was vandalized twice in three weeks.

Obviously the First Amendment does not apply during Christmastime.

“In Reason We Trust”

From More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops by Laurie Goodstein:

Two months after the local atheist organization here put up a billboard saying “Don’t Believe in God? You Are Not Alone,” the group’s 13 board members met in Laura and Alex Kasman’s living room to grapple with the fallout.

The problem was not that the group, the Secular Humanists of the Lowcountry, had attracted an outpouring of hostility. It was the opposite. An overflow audience of more than 100 had showed up for their most recent public symposium, and the board members discussed whether it was time to find a larger place.

And now parents were coming out of the woodwork asking for family-oriented programs where they could meet like-minded nonbelievers.

Read the rest here.

Godless Atheists Threaten Christian Civilization

The Godless Carders Association

Affirmations

It seems that the further right that you move on the political spectrum the more likely it is that you will find people who hate (yes, actually hate with a vengeance) the ACLU and secular humanists. As for the ACLU, why would anyone possibly be against civil liberties, freedom, and justice? As for secular humanists:

The Affirmations of Humanism:
A Statement of Principles

* We are committed to the application of reason and science to the understanding of the universe and to the solving of human problems.
* We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation.
* We believe that scientific discovery and technology can contribute to the betterment of human life.
* We believe in an open and pluralistic society and that democracy is the best guarantee of protecting human rights from authoritarian elites and repressive majorities.
* We are committed to the principle of the separation of church and state.
* We cultivate the arts of negotiation and compromise as a means of resolving differences and achieving mutual understanding.
* We are concerned with securing justice and fairness in society and with eliminating discrimination and intolerance.
* We believe in supporting the disadvantaged and the handicapped so that they will be able to help themselves.
* We attempt to transcend divisive parochial loyalties based on race, religion, gender, nationality, creed, class, sexual orientation, or ethnicity, and strive to work together for the common good of humanity.
* We want to protect and enhance the earth, to preserve it for future generations, and to avoid inflicting needless suffering on other species.
* We believe in enjoying life here and now and in developing our creative talents to their fullest.
* We believe in the cultivation of moral excellence.
* We respect the right to privacy. Mature adults should be allowed to fulfill their aspirations, to express their sexual preferences, to exercise reproductive freedom, to have access to comprehensive and informed health-care, and to die with dignity.
* We believe in the common moral decencies: altruism, integrity, honesty, truthfulness, responsibility. Humanist ethics is amenable to critical, rational guidance. There are normative standards that we discover together. Moral principles are tested by their consequences.
* We are deeply concerned with the moral education of our children. We want to nourish reason and compassion.
* We are engaged by the arts no less than by the sciences.
* We are citizens of the universe and are excited by discoveries still to be made in the cosmos.
* We are skeptical of untested claims to knowledge, and we are open to novel ideas and seek new departures in our thinking.
* We affirm humanism as a realistic alternative to theologies of despair and ideologies of violence and as a source of rich personal significance and genuine satisfaction in the service to others.
* We believe in optimism rather than pessimism, hope rather than despair, learning in the place of dogma, truth instead of ignorance, joy rather than guilt or sin, tolerance in the place of fear, love instead of hatred, compassion over selfishness, beauty instead of ugliness, and reason rather than blind faith or irrationality.
* We believe in the fullest realization of the best and noblest that we are capable of as human beings.

Why would anyone possibly be against secular humanists?

Does Reason Injure Spirit?

From No Reason for the Season by Torie Bosch:

Most of the classic songs and movies that celebrate Christmas don't even mention God or Jesus. Santa doesn't check church attendance to decide whether he's going to give a child a present—he checks whether she's been naughty or nice. He's the perfect secular judge of moral fiber. To say that the secularists injure the Christmas spirit is much like the claim that two men getting hitched will besmirch the sanctity of marriage. Why should the way I mark Christmas bother anyone?

Reason's Greetings

I don’t care much for the term HumanLight. It sounds like a beer.

From Atheists Reach Out -- Just Don't Call It Proselytizing by Stephanie Simon:

Late next month, atheists, humanists, freethinkers, secularists -- in short, nonbelievers of every description -- will gather in dozens of cities to mark the holiday they call HumanLight.

Whether by singing from a Humanist Hymnal, decorating a winter wreath or lighting candles dedicated to personal heroes, they'll celebrate what has been an exhilarating ride for the faithless -- a surge in recognition that has many convinced they're on the brink of making a mark on mainstream America.

During the past three years, membership has grown in local and national associations of nonbelievers. Books attacking faith as a delusion shot up best-seller lists. For the first time, the faithless even raised enough funds to hire a congressional lobbyist.

Building on that momentum, nonbelievers have begun a very public campaign to win broad acceptance. On billboards and bus ads, radio commercials and the Internet, atheists are coming forward to declare, quite simply: We're here. And we're just like you.

Read the rest here.

Those Damn Humanist Braggarts

From UN Affiliated Atheist Group Launches Ad Campaign Targeting God and Christmas:

The national advocacy group In God We Trust today blasted the atheist American Humanist Association for its ad campaign mocking the Christmas holiday and American's who believe in God. The ad campaign asks, "Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake," and will be placed on Washington, DC city buses.

"These ads are a deliberate attack on American traditions, beliefs and customs by a United Nation's affiliated group that espouses a radical anti-American agenda and is funded by a zealot who believes that the U.S. is a backwards nation full of imbeciles," says In God We Trust Chairman Council Nedd.

The American Humanist Association brags on its website that it is an official U.N. Non Governmental Organization (NGO) and works with the U.N.'s Department of Public Information. According to the AHA, its mission is to, "Support and promote the work of the United Nations, actively engage in lobbying for the UN and our own organization's objectives with our national governments . . ."

Does God tell these people to resort to name calling? Or do they think of that particular Christian value all on their own?

"This ad campaign is yet another attempt by America-hating snobs to mock and attack our nation's traditions and culture" says Nedd. "The AHA is not some harmless little atheist group. These people hate America and they are working with our nation's enemies to attack our heritage."

Oh ye of little faith. Oh ye of so much fear.

Summer Camp

From Camp Offers Training Ground For Little Skeptics by Barbara Bradley Hagerty:

Camp Inquiry in upstate New York seems at first like an ordinary summer camp: the campfire blazes as camp-goers in shorts and sandals toast marshmallows in anticipation of s'mores. A few yards away, some teenagers take turns squinting into a telescope to see Saturn.

As 12-year-old Chloe Morgan gazes at the stars, she says she does not see the handiwork of God.

"It seems kind of like an accident almost, like the Big Bang that created the universe was an accident," Morgan says. "It was a beautiful mistake or something."

Chloe and a dozen other campers begin discussing God, the planets and humanity's place in the universe. But at Camp Inquiry, which has a secular humanist focus, God takes a back seat to reason. Of course, the camp schedules familiar camp activities like hiking and swimming and arts and crafts for kids ages 7 to 16; but the thrust of the camp is to teach children to think skeptically about everything, including religion and the supernatural.

Read the rest here.

Visit Camp Inquiry.

Paul Kurtz - Community Leader And Critic Of Faith

From Paul Kurtz: The Local Leader Who Happens to Be an Atheist by Matthew C. Nisbet:

Now notice the train of thought for readers in the Buffalo News article. The focus is on Kurtz as a community leader, someone who is dedicated to Buffalo and its people, and who has been successful locally and internationally. A secondary message is that he is a critic of faith but that he also stands for something else: living life to the fullest in an ethical manner. If every local newspaper in the country were to run a profile of a local atheist, the movement couldn't ask for better publicity than this type of message.

What Gives Mainstream Americans The Creeps?

From Why The "A" Word Won't Go Away by Tom Flynn:

If I’m right that secular humanists can’t avoid the atheist label, we should be honest with ourselves about the trouble it brings. Atheism gives mainstream Americans the creeps. They recoil viscerally from the seeming emptiness of living in an authorless cosmos and from what they imagine the absence of God would mean for morality. Mainstreamers tend to interpret all atheism, positive or negative, as harsh positive atheism. Many frighten themselves by imagining how horrible it would be (they think) if they lost their own faith. In the grip of such revulsion, few will hear what we have to say about the things besides atheism that secular humanism stands for. Bad as this is, it’s only bigotry. It can be resisted.