What Is It About Georgia?

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sure has been busy lately. I'm impressed.

Atheist Group Accuses Georgia Football Coach of Forcing Christianity on Players in 'Pray to Play' Report:

Mark Richt, the head football coach at the University of Georgia, responded to an allegation made by the Freedom From Religion Foundation group that he and his brother-in-law Kevin "Chappy" Hynes, a chaplain for the team, force their Christian beliefs onto the football players.

"We're at a secular university, I understand that. I don't try to make anyone believe a certain way at all,"The Telegraph quoted Richt as saying. "Anything that has to do with the spirit is strictly voluntary and never has any bearing on someone's availability to play at Georgia. It's always been that way."

FFRF has accused the coach of using his position to impose Christianity on the college team players and thereby violating church-state separation. "Some coaches think that students need to be Christian in order to be good people," FFRF stated in a report titled, Pray to Play, on coaches and chaplains who allegedly force their faith on players at U.S. public universities.

I blame Tim Tebow for all of this. WWJD? Jesus would play football, and Jesus would have a website with the URL jesus.com if he could manage to buy the domain name from the people who beat him to it. WWFSMD?

Believe it or not, there is a radio station with the call letters WWJD. It broadcasts in a Contemporary Christian music format.

All Christians Are In Jail

The evil atheists and the evil government have decided that Christianity is illegal. All Christians have been jailed.

Pastor asks atheist critics of Georgia school football team's mass baptism: 'When did it become illegal to say I'm a Christian?':

The pastor of the First Baptist Church in Villa Rica, Georgia, has responded to a group of atheists who denounced the mass baptism of the football coach and players of the Villa Rica High School, asking: "When did it become illegal to bow your head and pray? When did it become illegal to say I'm a Christian?"

The atheist organisation Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) verbally bashed the school after a video posted online last month showed the coach and players getting baptised before a football practice inside school property, claiming that the act was in violation of the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Responding to the complaint, Kevin Williams, the pastor of First Baptist Church, said the baptism was voluntary. "We never meant to cause any problems for the school and we never thought we would get this much media attention for baptising kids," he said.

The church held a football-themed worship service called "Gridiron Day," an event in which a coach asked the church if he could be baptised on the football field.

"It was their choice to do that," Williams said. "We live in a free nation. People choose what they want. These people that got baptised freely chose at a church service to accept Christ and this was a follow-up to that."

Williams said he believes that "we live in a free country."

"These people that are trying to say you can't do that—well—they're taking away freedom. When did it become illegal to bow your head and pray? When did it become illegal to say I'm a Christian?" he said.

Actually, I wish it were illegal to be so stupid and deceitful.

Thems Fightin Words

Fight Ensues as Atheists Attack College Football Teams for Promoting Evangelical Christianity:

The American Center for Law and Justice has vowed that it will be fighting back against the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the atheist group that has issued a damning report on American college football teams which it says are promoting evangelical Christianity.

"Here at the ACLJ, we are fighting back. We are preparing comprehensive legal letters to let each of these college football programs know what their constitutional rights are," the conservative law group said in a statement on Thursday.

"We are fighting the angry atheist attacks on every front. We are standing up for the Constitution and for the religious rights of football players from coast to coast as the new season begins," it added, linking to a petition in support of its cause seeking to "defend religious freedom" on campuses.

This is tiresome. These people are either liars or extremely ignorant. They are probably both. It is sickening that they are taken seriously by so many.

Many others, including myself, have posted about these issues before. Headline Bias is one example from me.

The words of Thomas Jefferson always seem to need repeating:

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between man and his God; that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship; that the legislative powers of the government reach actions only, and not opinions,-I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should 'make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,' thus building a wall of separation between church and State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore man to all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

Christopher Hitchens as well:

We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.

How dismal it is to see present day Americans yearning for the very orthodoxy that their country was founded to escape.

I've said before that when the religious ain't got nuthin' else, they go ad hominem. In what seems to be a more recent development, they go ad hominem with fightin' words. Like I said, these people are either liars or extremely ignorant, and are probably both. They love to use deception. Examine the headline: Fight Ensues as Atheists Attack College Football Teams for Promoting Evangelical Christianity. Or this headline: Atheists Attack Top College Football Teams' Chaplains. "Atheist(sic) take aim at college chaplains."  Sounds like blood was spilled, shots were fired, faces were punched, all because of an unprovoked attack by militant and evil atheists. A swarm of atheists ran out on the football field and went berserk in the name of Joseph Stalin!

Because of a total lack of understanding of what the word equality means we must constantly be subjected to daily violent verbiage from the religious. They think that not getting their way means that they are persecuted.

"Faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid." Notice that Hitchens included "more selfish". That is the heart of the matter with all of this. The Christians only care about themselves, the rest of us be damned.
 

What Would Jesus Do?

I'd like to think this is an all purpose answer to the question "What would Jesus Do?":

“Jesus would puke,” said Reverend Nancy Jo Kemper, the leader of the New Union Christian Church in Lexington.

It's fun to take things out of context.

In my previous post I wrote: "I don't understand the need for all of these war words. Why does Christianity need defending?" Jeffrey Taylor tells us more about violent and weaponized Christians, and this time it's real and not metaphor:

When the pastor and his sheep started “brainstorming about what to do with the area,” writes Al Ratcliffe for WIAT.com, “the idea of a gun range came up.”

Why? This doesn’t sound like your grandmother’s church. Wait, grandma might well be among the budding sharpshooters!

“We had quite a number of church members, some elderly ladies, for example,” says Guin, “and some not so elderly women that had purchased guns, but didn’t know how to use them.” Ratcliffe does not explore why this should be a church’s business, but one can assume that God and guns naturally go together down there. They certainly do for Guin, who, moreover, hopes to turn firing lead through bull’s eyes into something akin to an encounter with the godhead; he’s establishing a ministry on his newly fashioned target range.

“This is an opportunity for us to reach out in the name of Jesus Christ in a setting that is completely unique,” Guin tells us.

In the name of Jesus Christ, "Ready, Aim, Fire!" It's the Christian thing to do.

Ass Biting Lies

From Why Do So Many Christians Support The Iraq War? by Kyle West:

If one supports the war, one is also inadvertently supporting the lies that made it possible. It's ironic that Christians, among the strongest supporters of the war, have supported an administration of liars.

And if one supports letting the Bush administration off the hook for this, then the inadvertent support of the lies will continue into perpetuity and continually come back to bite us in the ass.

Update:
My ass is beginning to hurt more. Is yours?

Why Do Atheists Care?

From God doesn't believe in atheists by Jack Chapman:

I noticed people who claim to be atheists always get upset whenever Christians have a National Day of Prayer, or set up a nativity scene somewhere, or maybe even say “God bless you.”

I even read a couple of weeks ago that some atheists are being “de-baptized.”
These are people who once believed in God, accepted him, then decided he doesn’t exist.

That has me wondering: Why do they care? Why waste their time if they believe our belief doesn’t exist? What’s so offensive about that?

It’s because every atheist deep down inside knows there is a God, they are mad at him and want to fight him with every bone in their body. Sad, isn’t it?

But there is good news, God doesn’t believe in atheists.

Obviously, Mr. Chapman doesn’t believe in listening. He seems to have never listened to any atheists at any time in his life. He also seems to not listen to himself. Otherwise, why would he write anything as stupid as this?

Why do we care? I’ll give a two word answer. Arrogant assholes. Arrogant assholes like Jack Chapman who presume to know what we think. Who don’t believe us, actually they refuse to believe us. According to the arrogant assholes we are not only wrong to not believe in God, we actually believe in God!

Mr. Chapman, I could ask you the same questions. Why do you care what atheists say and do? Why are you wasting your time on atheists? And the question that confuses me, what is so offensive about believing your beliefs don’t exist?

Mr. Chapman, you are correct that some atheists are angry. However, we are not angry at something that does not exist. That would be rather foolish. We are angry at arrogant assholes. Arrogant assholes who say that belief trumps logic when it comes to what our laws should say, when it comes to the appointment of our judges, when it comes to voting for our politicians, and when it comes to what should be taught in our schools.

Mr. Chapman, you should try a little empathy. Try to put yourself in the shoes of an atheist and you may gain a little insight. You give the examples of a National Day of Prayer, a nativity scene, and the expression “God bless you.” Use your imagination. How would you feel about a National Day of something you do not believe in, little statues put up once a year in honor of martians, and people saying “May the flying spaghetti monster grace you” every time that you sneeze? Do you think that this would be silly? If you do, then you are beginning to understand the atheists' point of view. Thank you for that.

Mr. Chapman, if you do believe in God, why do you insist on making your God into an idiot? After all, atheists do exist. For God to not believe in atheists would really be rather stupid of him, wouldn’t it?

Some Tips

Here is some advice to make Christians act, well, more Christian when dealing with atheists. Another ten commandments, as it were. When dealing with atheists thou shalt not do these things. Do you think that any of them will pay any attention?

From Ten Tips for Christian Evangelists (Courtesy of Atheists) by Hemant Mehta:

5. Don’t talk about Jesus like he’s part of the conversation.

The people you’re talking to don’t share your beliefs, so they’re not going to be thrilled to hear that Jesus is listening in on their thoughts and sending messages or providing inspiration to the person talking to them.

This makes you come off as either crazy or… well, mostly crazy. I get that you actually believe that Jesus is alive and God is everywhere and all-knowing, but to non-Christians, he’s just an imaginary friend of yours, and so telling us to listen for his voice in our hearts is creepy.

6. Don’t plant literature.

We’re already stuck with Bibles in hotel rooms (thanks for that, Gideons and pushover hotels!). There’s no need to hide tracts inside books at the bookstore or leave those horrible fake $20 bill pamphlets with (or instead of) the tip at a restaurant. They don’t work. They’re impersonal, often accusatory, and extremely classless. If someone isn’t already a Christian, a pamphlet isn’t going to change that.

8. Don’t assume that we have “God-shaped holes in our hearts” and try to get us to admit it.

I certainly think that religion helps meet various psychological needs, and there are plenty of warm, fuzzy feelings (and deeper emotional experiences as well) that come along with it. But just because you have a proverbial hole-in-your-heart that only Jesus can fill doesn’t mean that all of us do.

Trying to convince us that our lives suck or are incomplete without God isn’t going to work. Stop insulting us and implying that we’re secretly miserable. We’re getting along just fine without any gods, so this line of strategy won’t work.

9. Don’t compare your past experiences to our present.

I cannot count the number of times I’ve heard Christians enthusiastically share their stories of horrible, sinful lives that left them feeling empty and lonely.

These “sinful” lives usually consisted of such shockers as swearing, going to R-rated movies, looking at porn, drinking, partying, smoking, and occasionally doing drugs. Oh — and having premarital sex.

The thing is, maybe these things made you feel guilty or empty; maybe you developed addictions or other problems relating to these activities, and maybe you’re much happier now that you don’t do them. That’s great. But it doesn’t mean that hearing your story is going to shock us or convince us to change our ways. There is such a thing as a healthy balance, and it can include some (or maybe all) of those “vices.”

This tactic seems especially silly when different Christians groups and denominations can’t seem to decide what’s sinful and what’s not.

10. Don’t talk down to us, as if we’re just not understanding something perfectly obvious.

Many of us have read the Bible, prayed, attended church for years, and still ended up as atheists. There’s no magic bullet that converts people to Christianity. Whatever experience led you to believe probably happened on a pretty personal level. We haven’t witnessed anything miraculous or heard any voices, and we don’t see anything self-evident about God in nature or humanity. So if you insist on trying to save us, at least familiarize yourself with our perspective before jumping in, because assuming we’re simply uninformed or dumb is only going to hurt your chances.

I singled out these five of the ten tips because I have had similar thoughts on these issues for many years.

It is annoying and even insulting to an atheist to have Jesus become a part of a conversation or greeting when he has nothing to do with the topic at hand.

It pisses me off that God is all over the place. No, I suddenly did not start to believe in God. What I mean by God being all over the place is that he is on our money, in our mottos, our Pledge of Allegiance, our swearing in ceremonies, at the end of Presidential speeches, etc. I find all of these things to be ridiculous and insulting, as well as illegal. (I know that the courts don't agree with me on the illegal part. However, they've been wrong before, you know.) And yes, God's book is in my hotel room, even though I didn’t ask for it, and I don’t want it there.

I would be miserable if I tried to be religious. It’s not the other way around. I would always know that I was lying to myself if I pretended to believe in God. I allow you your belief, please allow me my non-belief. Let’s leave it at that. The problems come when you try to convert me. The problems come when you try to inject your beliefs into the public dialog and pretend that they are facts. I am not trying to stop you from believing. I just think that you are being stupid by believing. I think that you are being stupid giving your money away. I think you are being stupid when you elect George W. Bush because of his values.

I don’t need God to make me be a moral person. I don’t need to be born again. There is nothing wrong with me in that department. I’ve got plenty of other flaws that need working on, and no imaginary monarch (good Lord!) is going to help me there. Oh, and by the way, it would be a little bit easier to even think about believing in God if he himself was a little bit more moral. Not to mention his sexually abusive priests.

Yes! Please don’t talk down to us. I've been down the religious road. I reject it. I’ve read (and still do read) chunks of the Bible. It hasn’t made me believe. If God’s own words don’t make me believe, why are you so arrogant to think that you have something to add?

Not all religious people are arrogant and rude. It’s just that the ones who are arrogant and rude happen to be especially so. I find it most irritating to have someone place their need to convert me above my existence as a fellow human being. If you are going to try to convert me, you should, at the very least, try to get to know me first.

Religious people seem to be the least empathic people on the planet. It is unfortunate that there are so many of them.

Christian Torture

It seems to me that many of the people who claim that the founders were Christians are also the same people trying to defend torture. How twisted is that?

Would Jesus torture?

The Wilderness Of The World

From The End of Christian America by John Meacham:

Meanwhile, the number of people willing to describe themselves as atheist or agnostic has increased about fourfold from 1990 to 2009, from 1 million to about 3.6 million. (That is about double the number of, say, Episcopalians in the United States.)

While we remain a nation decisively shaped by religious faith, our politics and our culture are, in the main, less influenced by movements and arguments of an explicitly Christian character than they were even five years ago. I think this is a good thing—good for our political culture, which, as the American Founders saw, is complex and charged enough without attempting to compel or coerce religious belief or observance. It is good for Christianity, too, in that many Christians are rediscovering the virtues of a separation of church and state that protects what Roger Williams, who founded Rhode Island as a haven for religious dissenters, called "the garden of the church" from "the wilderness of the world." As crucial as religion has been and is to the life of the nation, America's unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom—not least freedom of conscience. At our best, we single religion out for neither particular help nor particular harm; we have historically treated faith-based arguments as one element among many in the republican sphere of debate and decision. The decline and fall of the modern religious right's notion of a Christian America creates a calmer political environment and, for many believers, may help open the way for a more theologically serious religious life.

Have all the Christians left the building, flew the coop, and abandoned ship? I don’t think so.

I also don’t think that religion is crucial to the life of the nation. (Must the media sensationalize everything?) I do think that “America's unifying force has never been a specific faith, but a commitment to freedom—not least freedom of conscience.” Several Christians like to lie, and claim that we are a Christian nation, and that we were founded as such. We are not a Christian nation. Our founders did not found the country as a Christian nation. We are, however, supposed to be about freedom and equality. Where is the freedom if everyone must be a Christian in order to be an American? In other words, to be an American means believing that freedom takes precedence over religion. Not the other way around.

I’ve been in “the garden of the church.” I prefer “the wilderness of the world.” And freedom.

The Saga Continues

Will the sign stealers be joining the atheists in hell?

From Stolen atheist sign to be replaced in Ill. Capitol by The Associated Press:

An anti-religion group plans to replace a sign that disappeared from the Illinois Capitol and will add a biblical warning this time: "Thou Shall Not Steal."

Annie Laurie Gaylor heads the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. She says the sign protesting the display of religious symbols will be replaced Wednesday.

The apparent theft from the Capitol's rotunda overnight Monday was reported to police.

The sign referred to religion as "myth and superstition" and stood near a Nativity scene sponsored by a Springfield group.

An identical atheist sign in Washington state was stolen and recovered, and one in Wisconsin was vandalized.

God As Product

God is supposedly all powerful, yet it seems he still needs promotion as much as any other product.

He said, she said.

From Pro-God Christmas Ads Take On Atheist Bus Campaign by Katherine T. Phan:

Two Christian-based groups have purchased advertisements with Washington D.C. Metro buses to counter the atheist "Why Believe in a God?" bus campaign with their own pro-God Christmas ads.

The Center for Family Development, a Catholic-based non-profit in Bethesda, Md., plans to raise $14,000 to run a campaign called "I Believe Too," which consists for 10 buses with side posters, 10 buses with tail posters and 200 interior bus posters.

The pro-God ads will read: "Why Believe? Because I created you and I love you, for goodness' sake - GOD."

"Our goal is to counteract the AHA with a positive, upbeat ad of our own that identifies God as our true and loving creator," said JoEllen Murphey, a mother of four from McLean, Va., who was among those outraged over an atheist bus campaign run by the American Humanist Association.

Murphey is partnering with the Center for Family Development in the grassroots effort.

The American Humanist Association began running a $40,000 holiday ad campaign last month in an attempt to reach out to those who might be interested in humanism, which rejects a belief in God and an afterlife. The ads declaring, “Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake," are currently displayed on the outside and inside of 200 Metro DC buses and will run throughout the Christmas season.

The ads by the atheist group have sparked a public outcry, resulting in hundreds of complaints sent to the transit agency over the ads.

God either exists or he doesn’t. No one knows for sure. Why are people spending advertising money on uncertainty?

Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves

From Is Buffy Responsible For Slaying Women's Church Attendance?

Today’s modern woman sees more relevance in TV icons who promote female empowerment such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, than in church and traditional religion, according to new research to be published in the Church Times this week.

Dr Kristin Aune, a sociologist at the University of Derby, says the church (all Christian denominations) must act to halt the steep decline in female attendance at services across the country.

She says: “In short, women are abandoning the church.”

Read the rest here.

The implication by Dr. Aune seems to be that there is something wrong with women not attending church. What I see as a good thing, Dr. Aune (a sociologist) sees as a bad thing. Women who think independently are deciding to leave the church and Dr. Aune does not seem to be very happy with this. The church “must act to halt” this terrible thing. What kind of sociologist says something like this? Are sociologists supposed to be biased in the way that Dr. Aune obviously is?

And the whole Buffy the Vampire Slayer thing just seems like a way for the author of the article and Dr. Aune to draw attention to themselves.

Atheism Rules

No matter how many times some people say that communism equals atheism; atheism is not the same thing as communism.

“1.3 billion people under atheist rule.” How bogus can you get? Is this an example of the liberal media? Since when did atheism become a form of government? I thought that China was still a communist country. Or perhaps more accurately it is a socialist republic. What a load of bull crap from KWTX.

From Foreign Missionaries Defy Ban During Olympics:

Christian groups including Southern Baptists that ignored a Chinese ban on foreign missionaries say their underground evangelism during the Olympic games was a success.

Drawn to a nation of 1.3 billion people under atheist rule, the groups prepared for years for what the Southern Baptists once called "a spiritual harvest unlike any other."

Missionary Mark Taylor of Awaken Generation says 115 people from 12 countries gathered in Thailand for orientation before scattering throughout China.

He said they "did see some conversions."

Read the rest here.

How christian is it to be so deceptive?

Add Another Christian To The List

How well do Christians love their neighbor?

Some like to kill doctors. Some like to threaten biology teachers. And a certain Baptist minister likes to say disgusting and violent things about Barack Obama.

I suppose there is a reason why the television news reports (at least the ones I saw) that reported Jesse Jackson’s recent faux pas didn’t quote him verbatim.

I did not know what the fuss was about until I found the truth from Bruce.

Points And Rights And Hard Thinking And Rethinking

I sincerely hope that there are more Christians like this one.

From Questions > Answers:

Religion fascinates me, as do attacks on it, now that I accept them as a good and necessary thing rather than something to get all knee-jerky about. Fundamentalism basically trains you to just say, “I’m Right, because the Bible says so!” and either storm out of the room or add a placid, “I’ll pray for you.” Neither approach is acknowledging that the opposition has, er, a point, or even the right to one.

Read the rest here.

I have had way too much experience with the “I’m Right, because the Bible says so!” and “I’ll pray for you” ones.

Many religious people seem so threatened by any sort of skepticism concerning the notion of faith that my usual conclusion is that they actually have none and refuse to admit it.

From later on in Questions > Answers:

Wilson tends to pick and choose from the different gospels, rejecting certain things outright - Jesus’s birth in Bethlehem, for instance, which does sound pretty unlikely in those days of primitive and frankly dangerous travel - yet accepting others that seem as random (his distant blood relation to John the Baptist) and even going on to build fairly extensive speculations based on the accepted “fact” (quotes because why this is somehow more probable than Bethlehem seems to be a little sketchy). In this, he’s no different from most Bible folk, who skip all sorts of things in Leviticus, like selling your daughter into slavery and sacrificing bulls, as well as verses like “Be ye separate,” which the Amish take quite literally. I prefer his approach, where the New Testament is poked and prodded and manhandled in a genuine, heartfelt search for answers rather than slapped with the bumper sticker “God Said It. I Believe It. That’s All There Is to It.” Wilson’s way forces some hard thinking and often rethinking. I like this, even if many so-called Christians seem to not just dislike it, but actively recoil at the very thought of it.

Many religious people do seem to think that it is OK to pick and choose what to believe from the Bible. In spite of the fact that they do this, they seem incapable of thinking that an atheist, like myself, could do this also. Let alone find any value in it. Whether Christ was fictional or factual is irrelevant to me. Some of the things that he supposedly said, by way of the Bible, are valid and morally correct. I don’t deny them. I like them. I also think that most of the Bible is bunk and incredibly harmful. And of course, the difference between them and me is that they are supposed to believe all of the Bible, and I have the freedom to do with the Bible as I choose.

An Evangelical Manifesto

From 'An Evangelical Manifesto' criticizes politics of faith:

Conservative Christian leaders who believe the word "evangelical" has lost its religious meaning plan to release a starkly self-critical document saying the movement has become too political and has diminished the Gospel through its approach to the culture wars.

The statement, called "An Evangelical Manifesto," condemns Christians on the right and left for using faith to express political views without regard to the truth of the Bible, according to a draft of the document obtained Friday by The Associated Press.

"That way faith loses its independence, Christians become 'useful idiots' for one political party or another, and the Christian faith becomes an ideology," according to the draft.

Quote Of Note - Mahatma Gandhi

Thanks to Bruce A. Jacobs for this:

"I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Mahatma Gandhi