Atheist Display at Washington Capitol Sparks Protest

Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post

By Elena Garcia
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Dec. 09 2008 02:02 PM EST

Hundreds rallied outside the Washington Capitol on Sunday to protest a holiday sign erected by a group of atheists that disparages religion as a "myth" and declares there is no God.

A crowd of 500 protesters gathered on the Capitol's steps to decry the sign which Gov. Chris Gregoire had permitted an atheist group to include as part of a Christmas-themed display inside the rotunda.

The sign states, “At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Freedom from Religion Foundation, the group that installed the sign, said the display was to promote the Winter's Solstice. Dan Barker, co-president of the Wisconsin group, however has also described the display as "an attack on religion," kgw.com reported.

Protesters sang Christmas carols while area Christian pastors participating in the rally prayed. Demonstrators also held signs that bore Christmas-filled messages like "Jesus is the reason for the season" and "We say Merry Christmas." One sign portrayed Gregoire as the grinch.

Steve Wilson, who organized the rally, said he thought the message of the atheist display was offensive to people of all religions.

"When it comes to disparaging my faith on public property, that's where I draw the line," Wilson told the Associated Press.

His mother, Susan, however, emphasized that they were not protesting religions but the atheists sign.

“We’re not with the groups that brought the signs, ‘Atheists go to hell,’” she told The Olympian. “We love everyone and let’s be kind to one another. … This was a way our family decided that we had to stand up for Jesus.”

The rally on Sunday represented only a small dose of national outrage growing over anti-religion displays.

A spokesman of the governor's office has told The Seattle Times it received over 200 calls an hour following the sign's debut last week.

The controversial sign went missing on Friday and turned up a few hours later at a Seattle radio station where one of radio hosts had been discussing the sign.

Gregoire, who is Christian, has said that while she doesn't agree with the message of the display, the state must allow all viewpoints to be represented on public property if one viewpoint is permitted.

“But just because you must represent everyone in the state doesn’t mean that you put up with intolerance from the people that you represent," countered Rev. Kenneth Hutcherson, the pastor of Antioch Bible Church, which has put up a pro-religion sign to respond to the atheist one.

Antioch's sign reads: "There is one God. There is one Devil. There are angels, a heaven and hell. There is more than our natural world. Atheism is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."

Both signs are now on display near a nativity scene and other religious displays. The atheist sign now also includes a posting that reads: "Thou Shalt Not Steal, Exodus 20:15."

Bishop Council Nedd, chairman of In God We Trust, a national advocacy group that supports public displays of American history, disagrees that the atheist sign should be allowed in the Capitol.

"These signs have nothing in common with a menorah, a nativity scene or a Christmas tree. They are an attempt by anti-religious bigots to equate a belief in God with enslavement and to ridicule the majority of Americans who believe in God," he said.

Nedd said he wouldn't be surprised if the atheist group demands to place a similar sign next on the National Mall in Washington D.C. That's why he's launching a national effort to stop such an attempt. The organization is mobilizing its 60,000 supporters to lobby their governors and representatives in Washington urging them stop the atheist advertising effort.

"Why do these zealots have the right to post signs on public property attacking their countrymen?" Nedd posed. "Would anyone stand for an equally hate-filled message being posted by the Klan on Martin Luther King's Birthday? Of course not. Yet that is exactly what these atheist bigots want."

"In God We Trust will oppose any effort to place these signs in any state capital or in any government location in Washington, D.C.," Nedd pledged.


Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Christians Counter 'Why Believe in God?' Ad Campaign

Reprinted by permission of The Christian Post

By Katherine T. Phan
Christian Post Reporter
Sat, Dec. 06 2008 08:56 AM EST

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.

"After a friend forwarded me an article about the AHA ad campaign, I thought, 'Enough!' I am so tired of God and religion being attacked that I decided to start a counter ad campaign," said Murphey.

The "I Believe Too" campaign will begin running next week. As of Dec. 5, over 165 donors have contributed $6,700 toward the campaign, which is enough to cover the 200 interior bus posters and 10 tail bus posters. On Facebook, the campaign has the support of 740 friends.

Donations, which are tax deductible, can be made online via PayPal or sent by check to The Center for Family Development.

Another Christian group, called Pennsylvania Friends of Christ, has also planned a bus ad campaign to counter the atheist bus ads. The group will run ads reading "Believe in God. Christ is Christmas for goodness' sake" on 10 Metro buses for four weeks.

Meanwhile, AHA Executive Director Roy Speckhardt said the "godless holiday campaign" has been an overwhelming success, according to ABC 7 News.

Many Christian groups nationwide said they found the ads offensive, saying it was another attempt by those waging a war on Christmas to ban God from the public square.

The U.S. atheist bus campaign came one month after the British Humanist Association said it will run ads stating “There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life" on London buses in January.

Unlike Britain, where six in ten people admit they have no religious affiliation, according to a report by the United Nations, the United States is a nation that still overwhelmingly professes a belief in God. Earlier this year, a poll by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found that 92 percent of Americans believe in God.

Copyright 2008 The Christian Post. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Crosses on Logos, Buildings Found Legal

This is how much the anti-theists hate America's Christian heritage.

From the Christian Post,

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver affirmed a lower court decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Las Cruces residents Paul Weinbaum and Martin Boyd against the city, and another claim by Weinbaum against Las Cruces Public Schools.

Las Cruces, Spanish for "The Crosses," routinely uses three crosses in its city and school district logos.

In a 43-page opinion released last Friday, the appellate court acknowledged that use of such symbols raises legitimate constitutional concerns. But justices found the use of crosses "is not a religious statement" and is based on the city's unique name and history.

What's next? Will the God-haters demand we change the name of the city of Las Cruces?

Shall we also change the name of Los Angeles, Corpus Christi, St. Paul, St. Petersberg, Bethlehem, San Diego, San Francisco, the state of Maryland, and the many other towns across America named after people, towns and concepts in the Bible?

Must we eradicate every possible trace of evidence of America's Christian heritage in this nation founded by Christians where religious expression is Constitutionally protected?

These anti-Christians show what a bunch of silly God-haters they are with this kind of transparent hate.

If they hate Christianity and our Christian heritage so much, why don't they simply move to a country where most people hate Christianity already? They would be much happier, and so would the 80%+ of Americans who identify with Christianity.

Or is it really just about tearing down Christianity where ever they find it?

Atheists Want to Share Their Faith at Interfaith Event

Atheists reject all religion and faith, right? Oh, so wrong.

I've long contended that atheism (and its cousin evolution) are a religion because of the amount of faith required to believe these things with no proof. Now there is an admission from the atheists.

According to The Gazette, atheist Democrats in the Secular Coalition Group are pushing to get an atheist speaker on the speaker list for an interfaith service on August 24 at the Democrat National Convention in Denver.

They claim it's about unity. But how can someone who doesn't believe in the existence of a divine being be unified in faith with someone who does believe in the existence of a divine being?

They can be "unified" at other parts of the DNC convention, but what kind of moron thinks there should be unity between someone who does believe in the existence of something, and someone who doesn't believe in the existence of something.

Is it just the ugly head of envy rearing itself again? Envy is what fuels and drives the Democrat Party, so it's entirely possible. Liberals envy someone who has more money, more education, a bigger house, a nicer car, prettier clothes, a better job, or pretty much anything you could conceive. If liberals see that anyone has something they don't, then that gets them thinking that it's unfair that they don't have that or get to go there or get to do that--in other words, they get eaten alive by the ole' envy bug. Merit never enters the picture; he has it, I should have it, too.

Now if they're admitting that it takes faith to look at the tremendously complex universe around us, acknowledge that it takes faith to get beyond the fact that there is no reasonable way that the universe could have even begun to look the way it currently does much less actually reach this high state of order and development, that it takes a lot of faith to accept that is ludicrous to believe the massive amounts of DNA information in organic systems practically scream "Creator!"...if they're admitting that it takes faith to believe what they believe, then maybe they have a case for being included in this interfaith event.

Think they'd use their faith as a basis for inclusion in this event? Don't hold your breath.

Berlinski Answers the New Atheists

“The attack on traditional religious thought,” writes David Berlinski in The Devil’s Delusion, “marks the consolidation in our time of science as the single system of belief in which rational men and women might place their faith, and if not their faith, then certainly their devotion.”

David Berlinski, mathematician and philosopher, skeptic and iconoclast, in his latest book The Devil's Delusion provides a counterpoint to the several New Atheists authors that have published works in the past few years, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens most notably. Berlinski, a secular Jew, has no quarrel with scientific pursuits but is skeptical of the claim by many scientists that they can answer, with authority, essentially scientifically unanswerable questions. He is impatient with the ever-increasing pomposity and boasting of popular representatives of the scientific community ( a few of whom are actually scientists) who seem to have answers for most everything from “the god gene” to multiple universes to origins of life with little more than a committed antagonism to religion to buttress their claims.

Has anyone provided a proof of God’s inexistence?
Not even close.
Has quantum cosmology explained the emergence of the universe or why it is here?
Not even close.
Have the sciences explained why our universe seems to be fine-tuned to allow for the existence of life?
Not even close.
Are physicists and biologists willing to believe in anything so long as it is not religious thought?
Close enough.
Has rationalism in moral thought provided us with an understanding of what is good, what is right, and what is moral?
Not close enough.
Has secularism in the terrible twentieth century been a force for good?
Not even close to being close.
Is there a narrow and oppressive orthodoxy of thought and opinion within the sciences?
Close enough.
Does anything in the sciences or in their philosophy justify the claim that religious belief is irrational?
Not even ballpark.
Is scientific atheism a frivolous exercise in intellectual contempt?
Dead on.

"According to Daniel Dennett, Berlinski exudes a 'rich comic patina of smug miseducation'; Richard Dawkins implies that he may be wicked to the core; and blogger-ringleader P.Z. Myers has called him a 'pompous pimple' and a 'supercilious snot.'" (quoted from Wikipedia)

Readers who have followed the many posts on Dakota Voice about science, creation and the perfection of the universe might find such comments reason enough to read The Devil's Delusion and see what provokes such ire from writers who have contributed little to scientific understanding yet assert their beliefs with the certainty of religious zealots.