Port: Dear lawmakers, atheists aren't boogeymen hiding in your closet

[Heddi]

http://www.westfargopioneer.com/opinion/columns/4235816-port-dear-lawmakers-atheists-arent-boogeymen-hiding-your-closet

According to some in the North Dakota Legislature, a bill to repeal blue laws was a plot by atheists to undermine religion and destroy the family.

"Atheism is a belief system. Atheists believe there is no God. So if it's a belief system, what is their religion? It's called Humanism. Also known as Secular Humanism. Also known as Religious Humanism," Sen. Dick Dever, R-Bismarck, said during a lengthy speech against the repeal. "If you were to Google 'Humanism,' you might come to their website, where they talk about separation of church and state and their efforts to bring that about. You would also find what you could call their Bible: Humanist Manifestos I, II, and III."

Dever went on to explain how this manifesto plots an attack on Christianity by encouraging the teaching of evolution. "We don't teach evolution in school because it's settled science," he said. "We teach evolution in school because it's not Creation."

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"When an atheist goes to court, to take God out of the pledge, to take God out of the classroom, to take God out of the Boy Scouts, they are using the government as a tool to advance their faith in violation of the First Amendment Establishment Clause," he said.

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The blue laws repeal, which I do support, was not an atheist plot. Most of the people supporting it are not atheists. And atheists do not necessarily conform to the political and social stereotypes attributed to them.

We're just people, not boogeymen.
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Interesting. A right-wing, anti-Atheist fundamentalist Christian lawmaker argues that Atheism is a belief system akin to religion. Where have I see that exact. same. argument. before? As recently as, oh, yesterday?

[Eko]

1. Atheism is a belief

if saying there is no Santa Claus or Easter egg bunny is one. Ridiculous.

[Jonny Appleseed]

2. Dick Dever, if you're so fond of google, why don't you google the goddamn word

a·the·ism
ˈāTHēˌizəm/Submit
noun
disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods.W

[ymetca]

3. Monotheism is the Crack Cocaine of Closet Sadists

"Suffer the little children unto me", they endlessly proclaim.

Come, let us follow Akhenaten into the desert to build His Kingdom of Desolation!

[littlemissmartypants]

6. Bingo. eom

[procon]

4. There's a man who has never actually talked with someone

who has no belief, none whatsoever, in superstitions or things supernatural. Theists seem very dependent on the notion of unquestioning belief. It might be beyond their ability to even fathom the concept of someone having no belief at all. Not simply a "believe there is no God", but it's total nonexistence. Like ghosts, unicorns and tooth fairies, fantasies or the paranormal is not a serious foundation for reasoned thought.

[msongs]

5. christians only want their god. everybody else's gods are bogus. even "no god" is bogus nt

[littlemissmartypants]

7. Paranoia runs deep.

Thanks for the thread Heddi.

♡lmsp