As we remember those who lost their lives in the terrorists’ attacks of 2001, let us do so without prayer. For it was belief in a god that caused the tragedy in the first place. Here is a quick history lesson for those who have forgotten. Seven years ago a bunch of educated, highly trained (they would have to be in order to fly the airplanes) brave men hijacked four airplanes and crashed them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania. These men were not fanatics; they were devoted religious followers fulfilling their god’s plan. Their god may not be the mainstream god in the United States, but a god nevertheless. They were doing what they believed their god wanted them to do.

Many other atheists have argued , and I fully concur, that only religion and faith in a deity could have motivated these people to commit such terrible acts. Their belief was so strong that they killed innocents and took their own lives in the name of their god. Killing in the name of a god has been, and continues to be a common practice (The Crusades, The Inquisition, Northern Ireland, Iraq, etc). And it is an acceptable practice (depending on whose side you are on).

The events of 9/11 were horribly tragic and my thoughts go out to the survivors of the innocent victims. But I also want to remind everyone that there is an important lesson to be learned from this. It was faith that killed these people. It was faith that motivated the religious faithful to kill. No matter how you look at it, praying is a ridiculous and counter-productive effort. If you believe in the existence of many gods, then the Islamic one is obviously more powerful and your prayers to the Judeo-Christian god accomplish nothing. If you believe there is only one god then you are praying to the very god that caused this catastrophe in the first place – WTF? Finally, if you doubt that any god could or would change the laws of physics and take action based on your futile supplication, you are obviously wasting your time. So why bother?

Rather than embracing the agent that is responsible for this tragic event, we should move on to question whether we, as a society, want to continue to support an enterprise (religion) that fosters this type of bloodshed. I say NO! Do not pray for the victims of 9/11, remember them the next time religion asks you to do something that causes harm to others. Let the unfortunate victims of 9/11 serve as a painful reminder of what true unquestioning faith is capable of achieving.

Today, like every 2nd Monday in October, the United States celebrates Columbus Day as a national holiday. There always has been a lot of anti-Columbus propaganda – and for good reason. Christopher Columbus is generally credited with beginning the invasion which wiped out entire tribes of Native Americans. Columbus, himself, was an Italian explorer who claimed the New World for his benefactors, Ferdinand and Isabella. After he reached the New World, one of his objectives was the spread of Christianity to all of the unclean infidels. This, of course led to more killing. Only 25 years after Columbus landed in Hispaniola, over a quarter of a million Arawaks were killed or died from smallpox and other diseases in which they had no immunity. More notable is the way Columbus ruled when he was appointed Governor of Hispaniola. He ruled with an iron fist and slaughter many natives that would not capitulate to being his slaves. If anyone takes the time to actually study the life of Christopher Columbus, it becomes very clear he was not the stuff of holidays. As far as discovering America, the Norse beat him here by at least two hundred years. So, how did an official US holiday become named after a murderous opportunist? Christians. Specifically, the Knights of Columbus. This is the same group that forced President Eisenhower to add the words “In god we trust” to the Pledge of Allegiance. The Knights persuaded FDR to proclaim the first Columbus Day on Oct. 12th, 1937. The Knights of Columbus contains many Italian Catholics. Columbus was an Italian Catholic. Do the math.

Yesterday’s asinine decision by the Supreme Court to allow sectarian prayer at town meetings is a colossal mistake.  The 5-4 decision in favor of allowing the Town of Greece NY to open town meetings with a Christian Prayer directly attacks all non-Christians.  Justice Elena Kagan got it right when she wrote the minority opinion.

“When the citizens of this country approach their government, they do so only as Americans, not as members of one faith or another, …and that means that even in a partly legislative body, they should not confront government-sponsored worship that divides them along religious lines.”

–Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan

The majority decision is wrong on many counts.  It fails the 1971 “Lemon test” ruling that states that every government action must meet three criteria:

1                     Must have a secular purpose

2                     Must not advance or prohibit religion

3                     Must try to avoid government entanglement with religion

Allowing Christian prayer at government meetings does not pass the test.

The decision fails in making government accessible to the general public.  Why should anyone even bother trying to participate in local government when they are made to feel like they don’t belong?  Why would any rational person want to even be anywhere near a place where people practice an irrational ritual that insults and excludes them?

“The First Amendment is not a majority rule, and government may not seek to define permissible categories of religious speech.  Once it invites prayer into the public sphere, government must permit a prayer-giver to address his or her own God or gods as conscience dictates.”

–Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy

Justice Kennedy must have been smoking crack!  This is a ridiculous misinterpretation of the First Amendment.  The whole point is for the government not to invite religion into the public sphere.  Government can not endorse any religion.  If it does, then we go through the whole “whose god?” nonsense.  The answer is clearly, “No god.”

By allowing Christian prayer at public government meetings, all non-Christians are made to feel they are outsiders.  I recently read a Jewish response to the decision saying that it does not offend them to hear a Christian prayer at a government meeting.  Like Hades is doesn’t!  That is a full out lie.  Jewish, Muslim, Hindu apologists, you are not helping anyone – especially yourselves.  If you think your god or prayers would be welcome at a town meeting, I encourage you to try it.  Just wear a face mask because you are going to get punched.  This ruling was specifically for Christian prayer.

I am all for respecting one’s right to have one’s own religion and one’s own god(s).  That is not the issue.  The issue is that their religion and their imaginary friends do not belong in my tax-paid-for public government meeting.  You cannot have freedom of religion in government without freedom from religion in government.

Once again, Thomas Jefferson and rational thinking should have carried the day and the vote – but didn’t.

“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 & State.”

Thomas Jefferson
Jan. 1 1802

Much of the world has been lauding the red-caped-club for their “enlightened” decision to make Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio their new leader. Bergoglio is the first Pope from the Western Hemisphere. World leaders are rejoicing. They declare, “The Catholic Church has finally broken with tradition and put someone different in charge.” “The reign of Benedict the Horrible is finally over.” “The Church will now reach out to the disenfranchised and begin to rebuild its institution for the betterment of society.” Maybe the world will actually become a better place. If you believe that, please stop reading now. You don’t deserve that privilege.

Let’s review some facts. About 17% of the world claims to be Catholic. However, many of those Catholics are not good Catholics. Not good, in the sense that they do not follow the directives of their leaders very well. Fact: The Catholic Church prohibits contraception, abortion, and homosexuality. Fact: Many Catholics use contraception, do not oppose abortion, and accept gays. Now consider the fact that many Catholic priests have been convicted of raping and sodomizing young children. In the past few decades the Catholic Church has been besieged with lawsuits for the impropriety of its leaders. The sex abuse scandals that have surfaced are so large that many dioceses cannot even sustain themselves due to the settlements and convictions made against them. Case and point: The Milwaukee Archdiocese recently declared bankruptcy to avoid having to pay their unfortunate victims any restitution. Many Catholics are losing faith in the Catholic institution and are choosing to leave their churches for something else. They are disillusioned and feel betrayed by the very institution that is supposed to guiding and nourishing them. In other words, the sheep are finally waking up and leaving their flock for greener and less harmful pastures.

The Catholic Church is aware of the mass exodus of its parishioners. However, rather than adapt to reality and its newly enlightened members, the Church has chosen to do as it always does and ignore common sense and common decency and continue to spew its anachronistic, hurtful, virulence at those who it should instead be embracing. The election of Bergoglio is no exception. For starters, let’s just make a couple of things clear. The Catholic Church will never allow abortion, gays, or anything else that it feels will loosen its controlling grip on the asinine sexual morality it preaches. That said; let’s look at the new Pope.

Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, DBA Pope Frances, is a church conservative on many issues. Like all of his costumed predecessors he believes women are the source of original sin. It is doubtful if he would ever support women priests. He has also been quoted as saying,

” …same-sex marriage attacks God’s plan.”

And that,

“…gay people adopting children is an act of discrimination against children. “

He has referred to the pro-choice “movement” as a

“culture of death.”

Really? “Lighten up Frances!” He has also repeatedly opposed the free distribution of contraceptives in Argentina.

As freethinking, rational, non-believers, we must be extremely vigilant not to allow the misinformation and ill-begotten pretense of reform to obfuscate the truth that, new pope or not, the Catholic Church is, and most likely will remain, a divisive, harmful monster that prevents people from living good, moral and meaningful lives.

Yes, it is official.  The Republican Party is the party of rape and religion. Today, Indiana Senate candidate Richard Mourdock actually stated that when a woman becomes pregnant during a rape, “that’s something God intended.” The real kicker is that the Republican Party stood by Mourdock’s asinine remark. Why are there female republicans? Are they that insecure, that ignorant, and that masochistic that they cannot understand that their entire sex has just been marginalized to that of sub-human status?

Almost every stupid, misleading, and untrue remark made by republicans invokes God! When moronic Vice-Presidential candidate Paul Ryan was asked his opinion on abortion during a debate, the first words out of his mouth were, “I’m a Catholic.” Really? Who cares? No one asked you for your religion. Your religion has no place in our government! The current batch of Republican candidates are so ignorant about United States history that most even deny that Thomas Jefferson was the one who pushed to keep religion out of our government. Jefferson explained that the First amendment states that the government of the United States shall, “”make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.” Jefferson’s wall has protected the rights and freedoms of both the religious and non-religious for over 200 years. But apparently today’s Republicans no longer want that protection.

The late, conservative Senator Barry Goldwater predicted the demise of the Republican Party decades ago, “Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they’re sure trying to do so, it’s going to be a terrible damn problem.” Well, his worst fears have been realized. We have a terrible damn problem. The Republican Party is the party of God. Almost every Republican candidate feels they must invoke an imaginary friend to respond to even the most basic of questions. And for those of us that do not believe in gods, the Republican Party has effectively shut us out. But that apparently is not enough. It is very clear that women have no place in a Republican Party world either.

In addition to Mourdock’s remark, there was Todd Akin, Republican Senate nominee from Missouri, who said this past August that pregnancy as a result of “legitimate rape” is rare as “the female body has ways to try and shut that whole thing down”. What planet does Akin live on? Perhaps if he studied biology instead of reading abusive, violent, anti-woman BS scripture espousing the propaganda of an insane, malevolent monster of a god, he may have not made such a stupid remark. However, he did make the remark. Mourdock, Akin, Ryan, and most other Republicans hate women. They might not come right out and say it, but their actions and words betray their intent. Republicans hate women. That is the fact, and for the life of me I cannot understand how any woman, regardless of her lack of education or experience could, even from a fleeting moment, entertain the idea of voting for a Republican. That is, unless they truly relish the idea of surrendering all of their freedoms and they support a world where safe and affordable health care and reproductive choice are illegal and society accepts rape as a legitimate action sanctioned by God.

Dear angry Muslims,

Please stop killing innocent people. Then again, maybe you shouldn’t stop. By killing innocent people, you Muslims are providing a textbook example of why religion is deleterious to your health. So, maybe I should thank you for helping to prove my point – religion kills!

To recap: A whacked-out Christian fundamentalist posing as a whacked-out Jew made a distasteful movie mocking the Islamic prophet Mohammad. Then you super whacked-out Muslim fundamentalists took offense and decided to escalate your war against the United States, and actually started killing Americans! Now you, along with most other theists, are blaming the crazy Christian fundamentalist and the United States,  for all the violence. Really? It doesn’t matter if the movie is in poor taste or not. The movie itself is irrelevant. It’s just a movie! When I saw The Passion of Christ it made me sick. It was the most distasteful B.S. I had ever seen. All the Jews should have gone out and killed Mel Gibson for making that piece of crap. But they didn’t. It was just a movie.

You say that Islam is a peaceful religion. I am so sick and tired of Islamic apologists saying that. It is not peaceful to slaughter innocent people because you don’t like a movie, cartoon, book, or anything that may be offensive to your crazy myopic reality-phobic worldview. All religions are silly and all religions can and should be mocked. You don’t like it, too bad. Grow up! What’s the matter? Your centuries-old religious dogma can’t survive a little fun by a harmless movie?

The murders you Muslims committed this past week in the name the “peaceful religion’s peaceful prophet” need to be answered with swift and, if necessary, deadly force. The murder of innocents never “okay.” And just to clarify, I’m not suggesting that the United States declare war on Libya or Egypt, or any other Muslim country. The Libyan and Egyptian governments did not attack the embassy or commit murder. Those acts were carried out by you, the Muslim fundies; the same Muslim fundies that too many people here in the United States back down and actually defend. We need to put an end to this over-sensitive politically correct garbage. Freedom of speech means that the people, all people, even the whacked-out Christian fundamentalist nut-jobs, have a right to make a movie mocking the super whacked-out Muslim fundamentalist s nut-jobs’ prophet. People need to chill.

To all you semi-rational theists, think about this: Imagine going out and killing someone just because you’re upset at something that happened across the world that had absolutely nothing what-so-ever to do with the person you just killed. What would that make you? It would make you a murderer. And murderers need to be punished. So do these terrorists. Stop apologizing for criminals and terrorists, and saying we need to respect their different world views. Personally I hate Christian fundies as much as I hate Muslim fundies; and I’m not trying to defend the silly movie, but technically the movie isn’t illegal – or even hostile. It’s just a movie. We don’t need to kill people over it.

I thank Darwin that none of my fellow atheists go on killing sprees in the name of reason. Because if they eliminated all the unreasonable people, there wouldn’t be a whole lot people left.

Below is a brief recap for those that missed the event and a reminder for those that did attend as to why we were there in the first place.

If you weren’t there, what did you miss?

In a word, everything! The reason Rally was the largest non-theistic convention ever. Never before have so many people and so many diverse groups within the freethought community come together for a single event. Officially there were just over 20,000 people – give or take, according to the National Parks facility people. Make that, just over 20,000 people on our feet for ten hours in the rain! We also all came together as atheists.

What did we see?

Leaders from all of the sponsoring organizations like David Silverman, Dan Barker, and Ron Lindsay
Comedians from Jamie Kilstein (I’m still sore from laughing) to Tim Minchin
Musicians like Bad Religion, Tim Minchin, Shelly Segal, and Andy Shernoff
Advocate Scientists like Richard Dawkins, PZ Meyers, and Lawrence Krauss
Celebrities like Bill Maher and Penn Jillette (via recorded video) and Adam Savage
Real life activist heroes like Jessica Ahlquist
and much more

Why?

To show our representatives in Washington, and the world for that matter, that we exist. We exist and we vote. Even in the rain, we stayed. We expressed our convictions and concerns. We also came together as a unified community. We put to bed that asinine saying that, “Getting non-believers together is like herding cats.”  FFRF with AA with AHA with CFI, oh my! Everyone put aside personal differences and bad histories and came together for reason, logic and a god-free lifestyle.

For those of us there, it was a profound emotional experience that none of us will ever forget. In the next few weeks there will be much commentary, blogs, reports, YouTube posts and more. Check it out and see what you missed. Whether you went or not, buy the video. It will help support the event which was funded by the organizations themselves along with a matching donation from Todd Stiefel (we love you Todd!).

What’s next?

Time to kick ass. Everyone left motivated and pumped. We need to take that energy and translate it to action. The American Atheists “Come Out” campaign is all about atheists coming out. There has never been a better time. We have the numbers and the abilities to influence public policy on all levels. We need to do that. We need to run for all public offices. Atheists need to be on local school boards, and in state assemblies. We can no longer sit on the sidelines while our country goes to hell (excuse the religious pun). The religious right has been infiltrating our government since they came to power in the early 1980’s. It’s time to take back our country and restore “real” American values of moral decency. As Penn Jillette so very eloquently expressed, “We are the just and moral ones. We must take the high moral ground and force the religious to rise to our level.”

What did you do this past weekend? Me, I can to Washington DC, I saw the largest gathering of rational people in history, and I participated in the event that will go down in history and the beginning of the new enlightenment for the United States. I came, I saw, I conquered.

I have advocated before and will continue to encourage people to stand up for their rights and be true to their own world views. The sooner one acknowledges that they no longer believe in fairy tales and reside in the real world, the better. However, now really is the time to speak up and be counted.  On March 24, 2012 the entire secular community is coming together for an unprecedented event: The Reason Rally. Never before have all major national organizations come together for such a gathering. Sponsoring organizations of the event include American atheists, The Center for Inquiry, the Atheist Alliance of America, The Freedom from Religion Foundation, the American Humanist Association, Camp Quest, United COR, Secular Coalition of America and others. The list of featured speakers is unprecedented:  Richard Dawkins, James Randi, PZ Meyers, Adam Savage, and more. There will also be music by Tim Minchin and Bad Religion

The Reason Rally takes place at the National Mall in Washington DC. The event will be the single largest gathering of rational non-theists in the history of the world. If you are an atheist, humanist, or any type of non-theist, you need to attend this event.

We talk often of imagining the day when atheists will no longer be looked down upon, the day when atheists will be respected and are able to really hold political offices in all states. We talk about a future world where superstitions and age-old dogma no longer poisons the minds of humankind. That day may be a long way off, but this event will take us one giant step closer. Think of how it will feel to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow freethinkers. Image how, many years from now, you will be able to tell your children, or grandchildren, that you were there. You were at the rally. Many of you have attended national convections and know how much of a charge you get from that. Now imagine something like that only one hundred times bigger. Yes, there will most likely be tens of thousands of atheists from all over the world attending. One of them will be me. I encourage each and every one of you to join me, join your fellow freethinkers and show the world that we exist. Stay tuned for more updates.

Today, the entire nation is “celebrating” the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks.

Once again the nation will come together in prayer. Pray to God, the real god. The god that, oops, forgot to lift a finger to help save any of the thousands of innocent lives that were lost; the god that failed to do anything to prevent the billions of dollars of damage that was done. Yes, that god. The god that the late comedian George Carlin called, “Incompetent at best.” As I continually remind all of those that I know, it was religion that caused the destruction of the twin towers. It was religion that took the lives of many innocent people that day. It was a complete and unwavering dogmatic belief in a flawed worldview based upon misinterpretation of poorly written millennia-old nonsense that caused the events of 9/11. It was the exact same belief that caused millions to perish in crusades and inquisitions. It is the same belief that today takes the lives of children denied proper medical care or cause them harm by torturing them for being born in the first place. Islam, like Christianity, is guilty of causing death and destruction.

It’s easy to say, and many do, that it was Allah, not Jesus, that was responsible for 9/11. Yes, the terrorists were followers of Allah. The terrorists were adherents of Islam, and in their mind, they were carrying out their god’s will. But today, millions of Americans will pray to Jesus (and some to Allah, Yahweh, Vishnu, whoever) for thanks. Hello? Any of you lemmings ever consider what you’re doing? Thanks for what? For messing up and allowing people to get killed? If God was in the work-place, he would have been fired! Do not pray to an ineffectual, sadistic monster. Rather, how about we have a moment of silence to reflect upon how we lead our lives. Rather than pray to non-existent deities, why don’t we all make a pack with each other to treat each other with love and respect. Instead of praying to God to help prevent disasters (already proven that it doesn’t work), let’s look to ourselves. Let’s begin a new chapter in human social development and hold people accountable for their actions and look to the one proven entity that has the power to make the world a better place to live – us.

Ten years have come and gone since the tragic events of 9/11 and most people still miss the point. If religion had no stronghold, the twin towers would still be here. Only religion could motivate someone to commit such atrocities. And only religion can cause the current wave of hatred that spreads through our country like wildfires, accosting those who have divergent views from the masses. The world has many problems. But prayer is not the answer. Prayer is the problem.

With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

–Nobel Laureate Steven Weinberg, April 20^th 1999

Only we have the power effect changes. Forget the praying and do something constructive and positive. Remember 9/11 for what it really is. A blatantly powerful example of what religion is capable of.

When government becomes entangled with religion, disaster is the only result. This simple fact has been demonstrated time and time again. There are no winners – only losers. Recently I have been directly involved in a church and state abuse in my own community. Today is voting day for the recall elections in Wisconsin. I will not be one of those voting as I was forced to vote earlier by absentee ballot. The abuse I had to endure during my last voting experience precludes me from voting at my designated polling station. As I wrote about in an earlier post, St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church in the Village of Brown Deer put a Christian cross on the wall in the voting room between portraits of Presidents Washington and Lincoln. I complained to the Village Manager who did respond very cordially and promised to correct the problem. I was happy and satisfied. Well, at our most recent public election, not only was the cross still there but I now had the displeasure of looking at a “Happy Jesus Face” as well. This time I complained on the spot and was belittled and rebuffed in front of my neighbors by the president of the church. He emphatically declared that he would not remove anything and that no one could make him do otherwise. The entire experience was very unsettling to me and caused me a great deal of discomfort. So began the emails from me to the village board and the village attorney. I reached out to FFRF, AU and the ACLU for help as well. To date, only FFRF has written a letter on my behalf. The emails I have sent have been met with mixed responses; some cordial, some not so cordial. Nothing has been done to move the election site yet, but I am told that options are being considered. So I voted by absentee ballot and vowed not to enter St. Paul’s again. The hardest part of my ordeal is explaining to people why church and state should be kept separate. So many people just don’t get it. So many foolish people really think that the United States was founded as a Christian Nation. To those misguided individuals I offer the following:

The United States was founded by people who left England because they did NOT want to be told that they had to belong to the Church of England. The Church of England had long since severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church and had created its own brand of Christianity. Our founding fathers wanted to make sure that people could choose which, if any, god to pray to. Thomas Jefferson put it best when he wrote,

Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & 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 & 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 to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

Thomas Jefferson

Jan. 1. 1802

People who are ignorant in the matter of Jefferson’s Wall really need to stop preaching their nonsense and start thinking. The whole point of the First Amendment is to protect the rights of all citizens. It protects churches from being told what to do by the government. It protects individuals from being told which church they have to belong to. It states categorically that the government will not endorse one religion over another. By keeping church and state separate everyone one wins.

Below are pictures of the debacle at St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church where voting for my district takes place. If anyone would like to contact the Village of Brown Deer the website is listed below. I would ask that if you do contact the village or any officials please be courteous and polite. I am engaged in dialog with the village and this my community where my family and I reside. Rather than spewing negative rhetoric, I am working hard to crate a positive change that will benefit everyone.

Village of Brown Deer