I started following the story about the nativity scene, and the sign placed next to it by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in the Mississippi State Capitol that Vjack had posted about today over at Atheist Revolution. Then as I was following the links to the story, I started reading some of the comments left by readers at WLBT3 news in Jackson MS. There is absolutely, not anything in which those who carry the Christian mind-virus can say or do, that surprises me anymore; I believe that we all have heard most of their deluded nonsense many times before – but still, I just find the level of willful ignorance in Christians, just astounding.
Mskathy wrote:
“America was founded on "In God We Trust." We need to stand up for our beliefs and our God. We should not allow other states or people to contradict our beliefs or to tell us how we should believe. If they do not like what Mississippians believe or feel toward our God then they should go home. We did not ask them to come here in the first place. My God is awesome!!!!! Lets stop this destruction now and for all.”
Well, just for your information Mskathy, the state of Mississippi receives a lot of my tax dollars, and I don’t want one single penny of it spent in anyway for prompting your delusion – and by the way, you won’t find the word “god,” in any of the founding documents either, and the printing of “in god we trust” on our money, didn’t come about until the mid-1950s.
Navy_Dad wrote:
“How long will this county that was built on the phrase "In God We Trust" continue down this road of destruction, this truly is the greatest country on earth and because of those four simple words!!!!” Normanandholly wrote:
“Oh my what we has happened to us as a State and a Nation. America was founded on God we Trust. We allow a group from another state to come in and delare that there is no God and now they have the right to place a sign up in our captial buliding. I wonder is there a sign in thier captial building declaring that there is a GOD. It is time for us to put our principles to work. Do let other speak for you. Silence has gotten us nowhere.” “Silence has gotten us nowhere.”
Since when have these deluded morons ever been silent about anything which concerns their delusion?
realAmerican wrote:
“Technically, the "holiday season" starts with Thanksgiving and lasts until New Year's and encompasses all the celebrations in between. That includes Kwanzaa and Chanukah and any other holiday that may fall in that time period. The truth is that Christmas is just about as an American holiday as you can think of. The vast majority of us do celebrate it, whether in a religious or non-religious manner. The Nativity is part of the religious side of Christmas. Yes, the Winter Solstice was the original celebration for this time of year. However, for all you Atheists, that is/was a RELIGIOUS celebration. As for the group calling themselves "Freedom from Religion Foundation," maybe they need to reread the First Amendment to the Constitution. It says freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. You don't believe in God, fine, that is your right, but do not think for one minute that Atheism is not a religion. It's just a religion without any entity to worship.” By the way, what are you people afraid of? Do you think that you or your children will be automatically converted to "our way of thinking" if you set eyes on a religious symbol? Are you THAT unsure of your beliefs, or lack thereof?” Man, realAmerican makes my head hurt – no, realAmerican makes my asshole hurt! The level of willful ignorance, stupidity and delusion is just astounding in these morons. I am really starting to believe that these deluded Christian-morons, must believe that they have some “god” and state given right, to torment all of us nonbelievers with their Christian bullshit – where in the Constitution does it say, that as an atheist, I have no freedom from religion, or is this deluded moron just saying that I only have the freedom of choosing a religion?
One having no belief in god(s) is about as much of a religion, as not being a stamp collector makes someone religious. And I just don’t understand their believing that we fear something about Christianity; and there is absolutely nothing within Christianity, that’s going to change my mind or the minds of my children about the reality of this deluded mind-virus – I have no fear whatsoever of this deluded Christian myth, I only have concerns because of how this mind-rotting virus of delusion, and willful ignorance and stupidity, causes those silly people to act.
These people can believe all of their silly and delude nonsense, until the cows come home, but it still won’t make any of it true – and yes, I do have the right to live my life within reality, and they have the right to be just as uneducated, and ignorant of reality as they choose – just don’t make me support your ignorance and stupidity, with my tax dollars!
It almost seems like it was just yesterday, that Fox “News,” Bill O’reilly was crying and having a hissy-fit back in 2008, over the atheist display inside the Washington State Capital building. Alongside the holiday trees, Christmas trees, a Jewish menorah and a few others, was this display sponsored by The Freedom From Religion Foundation – a placard which simply read:
"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."
The Christians called foul over the Governor, also allowing the atheist display, along with the Christian nativity scene, and the little “baby jesus” in the manger. The Christians cried persecution, and that the atheist sign was just another attack in the war on Christmas and Christians – some were even calling for the Governor’s (Christine Gregoire) head on a plate.
Holiday displays, which have including, displays of Santa and reindeer, are nothing new insofar as the types of stuff that has been allowed to be put on display, both inside and outside of the State Capital building. As far back as I can remember there were trees, Santa, snowmen and other types of holiday displays. Then in 2006 after a Christian (Ron Wesselius) sued the state after his request to display a nativity scene, including the little “virgin-born,” bastard “jesus” inside the Capital building was denied, the state then caved into this blatant violation of the separation between church and state, and as part of this legal settlement, then agreed to set aside certain areas within the Capital building for all types of holiday displays, including the religious ones.
But that policy produced a cacophony of displays in 2008. There was a placard from atheists mocking religion as myth and superstition, placards from religious groups poking fun at atheists, a large electric-lighted menorah and requests to put up a “Festivus pole” in honor of the mock holiday popularized by the “Seinfeld” sitcom. The controversial anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas also sought a display that said Santa would take people to hell, and another group critical of creationism wanted to depict a “Flying Spaghetti Monster” as the creator of the world. The flood of requests prompted General Administration to declare a midholiday moratorium on displays in 2008. A policy was approved in 2009 that restricted private displays to the outdoors. The only displays that went up last year were a lighted menorah and a placard from Seattle atheists, both put up near the Tivoli fountain on the Capitol lawn; a menorah also was displayed briefly at Sylvester Park. I believed at the time that the decision was made, in allowing this icon of delusion to be displayed inside the State Capitol building, it was a really bad idea to say the least, and a bad idea that would open up the floodgates for every other cult in the state, who wanted to convey any kind of religious messaged in a public forum.
Then after months of hearing local Christians complaining, and crying persecution over the State’s moratorium on restricting all private displays to the outdoors; I thought that this would put an end to this controversy once and for all. Then the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights president William Donohue sent a letter Oct. 27 to Gregoire announcing that he was sending a one-piece Nativity scene to her chief of staff; the State officials then flat out rejected the informal request to display it indoors, citing a policy that no longer allows nongovernment displays inside Capitol Campus buildings:
“Private exhibits and displays, such as a Nativity scene, are permitted only outside on the campus grounds, provided they meet certain conditions regarding time, place and manner,” Department of General Administration director Joyce Turner said in a letter this week to the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights in New York City.
I am fairly confident both that Washington State’s Governor will not be making any new compromises on the state’s policy of restricting all private displays to the outdoors, and confident that those who carry this mind-virus, and who have little respect for the rights of others, won’t be going away anytime soon either. Personally, I’d like to see this moratorium extended to ban all religious icons from being displayed anywhere on government property – I personally find it sad, that in the year 2010, we still have silly and ignorant people believing that a cosmic ghost fathered a baby, who was born of a virgin; when in fact, this whole silly story of Christmas and “jesus,” were both stolen from the many Pagan stories in which the sun-god, dies on the cross (in the constellation of the Cruz) on December 21, remains dead for 3 days, (pauses in the sky for 3 days) and then on December 25, starts its way back north, eventually bringing Spring, longer days, and new life (yes, the sun is the truth, the way and the light - and the giver of all life on this planet).
