An article on atheists at Christmastime? Things are really beginning to change for us. People are finally starting to recognize that we atheists exist!

This story from Minneapolis was posted at Yahoo News via the Associated Press:

Atheists at Christmas: Eat, drink and be wary

MINNEAPOLIS – Angie O’Neill recently moved into a new apartment complex for seniors and she’s trying to make new friends. But Christmas is a tough time of year for an atheist.

“All the planned activities at this time of year revolve around the church,” said O’Neill, a retiree and an atheist for decades.

O’Neill sought an escape this week, joining a group of her fellow nonbelievers for a weekly “Atheist Happy Hour” at a suburban Mexican restaurant. The group, Atheists for Human Rights, is active year-round but takes it up a notch this time of year with a Winter Solstice party, a charity drive and good attendance for the weekly gathering at Ol’ Mexico.

For one thing, it’s a chance to share coping techniques during this most religious time of year. They range from the simple, like warning about certain stores that blare religious Christmas songs, to tougher tasks like how to avoid certain topics with certain family members. These atheists describe adjusting some customs to make them their own, like Nancy Ruhland, a pharmacist who sends out Christmas cards to friends and loved ones — but makes sure to find ones without a Christian message or subtext.

Even as they chafe at the omnipresence of Christmas, many of the atheists here are quick to stress their belief in the pagan roots of a yearly celebration near the winter solstice. Before Christianity and other organized religions, many cultures would mark the point where days started getting longer again with a “festival of light” that included parties, gift exchanges, even placing trees in homes. Some of those rituals were religious, but usually in a polytheistic way.

“What we’re celebrating this year is the promise of the sun returning. That’s S-U-N, not S-O-N,” said Bill Weir, a retired marketing executive from Plymouth.

“Then the Christians stole it,” added Marie Alena Castle of Minneapolis, the 82-year-old founder of Atheists for Human Rights and an atheist activist for two decades.

While I have not been a fan of joining any support groups for atheists, or atheist “churches” or any of that kind of stuff, on the other hand it is a good sign that atheists are coming together instead of keeping to themselves and silently enduring these holidays that have been hijacked by Christian Mythology.

Many Bible literalists aren’t so keen on banning divorce as they are in favor of banning gay marriage. However, it appears that many devout Christians both Protestant and Catholic DO want divorce banned, so John Marcotte’s satirical efforts to make a statement about Proposition 8 and the gay marriage ban in California may backfire in a big way.

The effort is meant to be a satirical statement after California voters outlawed gay marriage in 2008, largely on the argument that a ban is needed to protect the sanctity of traditional marriage.

However, it seems as if the movement has gone past the joke phase and many people are seriously supporting this proposal.

“Since California has decided to protect traditional marriage, I think it would be hypocritical of us not to sacrifice some of our own rights to protect traditional marriage even more,” the 38-year-old married father of two said.

Marcotte said he has collected dozens of signatures, including one from his wife of seven years. The initiative’s Facebook fans have swelled to more than 11,000. Volunteers that include gay activists and members of a local comedy troupe have signed on to help.

Marcotte is looking into whether he can gather signatures online, as proponents are doing for another proposed 2010 initiative to repeal the gay marriage ban. But the odds are stacked against a campaign funded primarily by the sale of $12 T-shirts featuring bride and groom stick figures chained at the wrists.

Marcotte needs 694,354 valid signatures by March 22, a high hurdle in a state where the typical petition drive costs millions of dollars. Even if his proposed constitutional amendment made next year’s ballot, it’s not clear how voters would react.

Nationwide, about half of all marriages end in divorce.

2010 California Marriage Protection Act: http://www.rescuemarriage.org

One commenter, Jenn has expressed my same thoughts about this movement:

I read about this site in a story that referred to it as SATIRE. A response to the prop 8 debacle last year. When i first read about it I thought it was hilarious and that i would have to back it just to go along with the joke. However, the more comments I read the more I believe it may have moved past the joke phase. Unless the vast majority of the comments and discussions on this site are osted as sarcasm, jokes, satire, or any other statement supposed to show the hypocrosy and blind sheep-like mentality of the supporters of prop 8, the joke has fizzled.

As another person has commented, strong Christians will not see this as funny and vote for it. The joke may backfire in a bad way for the citizens of California.

Hi everyone! I’m back from vacation and though it was good to see relatives again, the magical incantations before mealtime, especially public displays start getting to me after awhile. After visiting our daughter for a few days, we drove south to visit with my aunt and uncle in N.C. and then over to Louisville to visit with my husband’s brother and family.

My aunt and uncle are of the Baptist variety of Christianity. The ones who feel they must exhibit their beliefs blatantly and aggressively out in the open. They thank their imaginary sky boss for every morsel they put into their mouths — out loud, even at restaurants. These prayers are more for indirect witnessing purposes to the “unsaved” at the dining table, as well as others within hearing distance. They bow their heads and close their eyes and thank their imaginary friend for our visiting them, that we made it safely, for the food “to the nourishment of our bodies” yadda, yadda, yadda. We sat there very politely and didn’t say a word though it was getting pretty old after the first couple of meals. It wasn’t just the mealtime prayers that were so ridiculous and redundant, but the ignorant statements made about science, the age of the Earth, evolution and other little comments that were made while we were there. If we had started discussing it, we would have been leaving much sooner than we did. So we were “tolerant” and put up with the ignorance and superstition all for the sake of peace, because they are family and despite what they think and believe, we do love them.

Our Louisville relatives are of the Anglican faith. However, the magical oogie boogie blessing time is similar. Only they like to be more touchy-feely, making everyone at the table hold hands as they say the blessing. My husband didn’t want to hold hands with his brother and joked around about it as he so often does. We sat there holding hands while the mumbo-jumbo prayer was said and we all dug in as soon as it was over and the imaginary sky being was forgotten about. At least my husband’s brother and his wife value education. He has a PhD and was an English professor at a big state university, and his wife has a Masters in Library Science and Education and they are the kind of god believers who have managed to reconcile religion and science.

I keep saying that I am not going to get sucked into these things prayer rituals anymore, but I do. Because the relatives are very kind to have us for guests. They offer us their hospitality, sharing their food and are very nice to us while we are there. So I tell myself that sitting through some hocus pocus mealtime ritual isn’t that big of a deal. However, we will find out next time they all visit us just how big of a deal it is when we refuse to acknowledge prayer in our own home. They are welcome to say their prayers to themselves, but we aren’t going to make a group thing of it.

Ok, now that I have vented about that, let’s move on to some idiotic thing that the pastor at my aunt’s church is telling their congregation. She repeated an example their pastor gave one Sunday about the Big Bang theory that left us at a loss for words because it was too stupid to even respond to. He told the congregation that the Big Bang was like having a junk yard with stuff everywhere and then blowing it all up and when all the pieces came down they all formed a nice, shiny, new 747 jet plane. We didn’t even have the desire to even attempt to explain the Big Bang theory to my aunt and uncle because we knew they were too sucked into this creationism baloney to even try to understand anything we would say. (The billboard in the photo above is real. They are scattered here and there in the southern U.S. It says “Big Bang Theory: You’ve Got to be Kidding.”) I would dare say that all the people making this kind of statement don’t even know what a scientific theory is and have no idea what the Big Bang theory actually is, either. And they don’t want to know. That’s the really sad part.

Then I see a couple of my fundie cousins on Facebook making fun of the Big Bang theory. Saying it was hilarious. One cousin posted a serious video about the Big Bang and said it was the funniest thing she had ever seen. This woman has three children in public school. I feel sorry for their science teachers. There is no wonder in my mind why kids here in the U.S. A. score so low in the math and sciences. Superstition is placed above reality, religion and faith above science and reason. And if this ignorance keeps on growing, what will become of the U.S. of A? Oh yeah…it’s because of us evil atheists. It’s all our fault that the education system sucks and the country is going to hell.

Damn, Hitchens is really dead-on is this clip (his part ends at around 5:10). Good form, Hitch.

(Granted, I’m not exactly a fan of the times when he’s drunk off his ass — but, to be fair, I’m guessing that daily death threats to one and one’s family might cause one to be slightly anxious.)

[LINK]

God belief and religious superstition often leads to more superstition, which leads to even more superstition, and so on, and so forth.

How do these people function while being afraid of the grotesque inventions of their own minds that they believe are real? I can’t imagine what their children must go through.

Here is an amusing, yet sad report from MSNBC’s Countdown

Question for you all. Do any of you have superstitions even though you are an atheist? As for me, I don’t have any superstitions. Shit happens, coincidences happen. That’s life.

Abortion foe urges ‘Burn in Hell’ effigies of Pelosi, Reid

WASHINGTON (AP) — Anti-abortion activist Randall Terry is calling on people to burn effigies of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid this Halloween, as part of a “Burn in Hell” video contest to protest the health care legislation in Congress. Terry, founder of Operation Rescue, said Tuesday that the contest serves as a political and spiritual statement that “gives people a chance to peacefully vent their rage.” “If Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid force us to pay for child killing and they die unrepentant, they will burn in hell for this,” Terry said in a telephone interview. [...] A YouTube video of the contest instructions shows how to print a poster of Reid and Pelosi and construct a stand for it. The clip shows a person dousing the Democratic leaders’ images with flammable liquid. The next scene shows their picture going up in flames. People are then encouraged to take pictures, record and submit online the footage of their Oct. 31 protests. “No, this is not a threat to their body,” an unidentified man says in the instructional video, “but it is a threat to their soul.”

Wow. You know, when you look back to that Rev. Dipshit who was praying to God to strike Obama down with a heart attack (or something, I can’t remember), xianity really comes into focus…

Praise Be! Glory!

Fundamentalist Christians whatever their denomination do not fail to keep us supplied with a steady stream of material to post about. Here is a story about a crazy fundie teacher at a public school in Arizona who is telling kids things creepy things that the devil tries to do. He also uses his platform for proseltyzing and encouraging the kids to pray, etc.

Teacher accused of telling devil tales could be fired

“Could be fired”? How about should be fired!

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.15.2009

A teacher accused of telling his second-grade students frightening tales about the devil is facing dismissal from Miller Elementary School.

Michael P. Corkery came under scrutiny last month when a parent sent a letter to the south-side school saying her child was being taught about Jesus, God and the devil.

The child said Corkery taught the students that the devil rapes little boys and “touches them where they don’t want to be touched,” according to the parent’s letter.

The student went on to say that the class was told not to tell the principal what they were learning because he could get fired and then he would miss them.

That is a tactic an abusive teacher used when I was in the fifth grade, but he didn’t play on our sympathies. He told us if we told the principal or our parents that he would “get us.” Unfortunately, despite complaints from the students and a few parents, this same monster went on to become co-principal of the school! Good thing times have changed and most parents listen to what their children are telling them.

The article goes on to tell more about this lunatic:

Miller Principal Mary Anderson placed Corkery on administrative leave and conducted individual interviews with 22 of the 25 students in the class.

Ten of the students interviewed made statements that were consistent with the allegations in the letter, said a complaint filed with the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board.

One student told Anderson that Corkery discussed the crucifixion of Jesus. Another said Corkery told the students to pray to God before they went to bed for protection of their families, the report said.

One student reported that Corkery told the children that if they lied, the devil would pull their feet while they slept, causing their feet to turn red.

Another said Corkery taught them to “never go on the devil’s side, never be the devil.”
Several students mentioned a devil doll that was kept in the classroom and utilized by Corkery, according to the report.

I hope that this insane man will never be allowed near children again.

I just read this article which was posted at American Atheists on October 7th.

Atheists Oppose Christian Science “Faith Healing” Provisions in Health Care Reform Bills

“Faith-healing provisions in health care reform bills”? I knew the anti-abortionists were in a tizzy about provisions for abortion coverage, however I had no idea there were provisions to allow reimbursements for magical “medicine”!

An Atheist public policy organization today called for elimination of
requirements in Senate legislation which would reimburse faith-based
“healers” for their services.

Reimburse for what? If their imaginary friend is doing their healing, shouldn’t their imaginary friend receive imaginary “reimbursement”?

“Any adult in the legislative or executive branch of the federal
government, or of any state government, who wants to use unproven,
unscientific ‘remedies’ should be free to do so,” said Buckner. “But
support for such irrational nonsense violates the separation of
religion and government and the canons of good sense. Including
faith-healing or other non-medical ‘treatment’ in health care
legislation must be rejected.”

Dave Silverman, Communications Director for American Atheists, said that
Christian Science and other faith-based healers already receive public
money, and that the policy is not based on good science.

“We need to spend that money on providing solid, fact-based medicine.
Reimbursing the faith-healing industry wastes precious resources, and
violates the separation of church and state.”

It’s a damn good thing there are people paying close attention to these sneaky superstitious folks.

Good response by Illini Pundit.com — Voodoo Healthanomics?

Giving any sort of legitimacy to quackery, religious or otherwise, seems inherently dangerous to me. Especially dangerous and indeed often fatal to children of folks who take this stuff too far. While this particular amendment doesn’t seem to change the fact that killing a child with faith based denial of care is still generally illegal, it could encourage more of it and even reward those who attempt it and propagate irrational fears, distrust, or dismissal of proven medical treatments to those who might otherwise not know better. Of course empowering the government to decide what treatments should be covered is bound to cause even more issues along these lines. Will insurance companies or government programs be forced to pay for scientology thetan tests too? How about subluxation tests/treatment in the quackier side of chiropractic care which has roughly the same scientific grounding… i.e. none. Will we end up with a public option for prayer circle coverage too?

This religious nuttery in government and elsewhere is out of control. No wonder this health care reform bill is taking so long to pass! Too much bullshit to weed out!