Anyone non-religious here? Please be nice!

[Bluemoon420]

Quote:
I believe that came up also.


Ihavewhatinmyyard....

Thanks for the link.

Cool article.

Bluemoon

 

[Prettiest Frog]

http://www.secularstudents.org/node/2486

During an event held between April 19th - 25th called ‘Rationalist Week 09’ organised by Leeds University Atheist Society and billed as ‘the country’s largest atheist festival’ a member of the society allegedly received a face to face death threat.

It is said the student, who wished to remain anonymous, was threatened while patrolling outside the festival tent at night. The victim in question has decided not to go to the police, but police in Leeds are now investigating vandalism that also occurred during the event.
This is the second death threat received by the society, the last one being made by university’s Muslim society member’s state. They believe that this most recent threat may have also been made by the same people.

The previous death threat was made because the Leeds University Atheist Society wanted to show material in a debate about free speech that was deemed offensive to Islam, in this case the infamous Danish cartoons.

http://www.wcpo.com/news/local/story/God....m6VF2g2Xeg.cspx

CINCINNATI -- In the wake of multiple, significant threats, the downtown billboard that says “Don’t Believe In God? You are not alone” came down early Thursday morning.

The billboard had gone up Tuesday afternoon at Reading Road and 12th Street, one block south of Liberty Street and it is being moved to a new site Thursday at the Sixth Street Viaduct.

The group that funded the billboard, the United Coalition of Reason, was contacted by Lamar Advertising of Cincinnati. Lamar reported that the landowner of the site had been threatened over the billboard's message and wanted it taken down.

"We weren't given the landowner's identity or precise details," reported Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason. "Nor did we pursue them. It was sufficient to learn that multiple, significant threats had been received and that Lamar would act quickly to alleviate the problem. Lamar was most apologetic to us regarding the situation. It was a development they hadn't expected. Nor had we. Nothing like this has ever happened to us before."

http://www.secularhumanism.org/library/fi/downey_24_4.htm

Caro, Michigan: In December 2001, Anonka—an open atheist who maintains a museum of Christian religious atrocities—appeared before the Tuscola County Board of Commissioners to challenge a nativity scene placed on public land. Commissioners responded angrily, saying she had no right to be present and proceeding to ridicule her. Anonka and her family suffered repeated harassment including annoyance calls, threatening calls and letters, and vandalism. In February 2004, the county settled in U.S. District Court, agreeing to pay an undisclosed sum and to issue a “public expression of regret.”
Pocopson, Pennsylvania: My own atheism came to prominence when I became involved in a legal challenge to a Ten Commandments plaque on the wall of the Chester County, Pennsylvania, courthouse. Neighbors organized a shunning campaign, some area merchants refused to do business with me, and I received hundreds of threatening letters and phone calls. (The depth of public animus against me became a subject of local news and magazine coverage.) I was forced to close my interior decorating business because of death threats that compelled me to stop visiting the homes of persons unknown to me.

Calgary, Alberta: An eleven-year-old boy (name withheld) experienced daily physical attacks and threats against his life by schoolmates—notably the sons of three local pastors—after protesting intercom readings of the Lord’s Prayer in a public school. He was repeatedly body-checked into hallway walls and attacked in the rest rooms. One pastor’s son stalked him with a butcher knife in an empty portable classroom. Despite the seriousness of this incident, no action was taken. The boy’s parents transferred him to another school for his own safety.

Gray, Tennessee: Carletta Sims joined a financial firm in June 2001. Shortly afterward, two Baptist coworkers took offense upon learning that Sims was an atheist. Management granted the coworkers’ request to be assigned workspaces further from Sims. When Sims complained about a picture of Jesus left on her computer, management discharged her. Sims filed suit, seeking $250,000; U.S. District Judge Thomas Hull ruled that “religious discrimination (or preferential treatment of Christians) can be inferred.” In January 2004, the major bank that had since acquired the firm settled with Sims for an undisclosed amount.

Ada, Oklahoma: A Baptist student told a local newspaper she wouldn’t take professor William Zellner’s classes because he was an atheist, triggering a flurry of abuse. Zellner received harassing notes and telephone calls, some threatening. His car was vandalized, for a time on a daily basis. A local church sold “I am praying for Dr. Zellner” buttons. His children experienced shunning and beatings from religious children.

Minneapolis, Minnesota: First-grader Michael Bristor, an atheist, was denied an honor roll certificate when he refused to participate in an unconstitutional “prayer time” at a public school. For three years, administrators ignored the family’s complaints until a lawsuit was filed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/26/us/26atheist.html

Specialist Hall said he did not advertise his atheism. But his views became apparent during his second deployment in 2006. At a Thanksgiving meal, someone at his table asked everyone to pray. Specialist Hall did not join in, explaining to a sergeant that he did not believe in God. The sergeant got angry, he said, and told him to go to another table.
After his run-in with Major Welborn, Specialist Hall did not file a complaint with the Army’s Equal Opportunity Office because, he said, he was mistrustful of his superior officers. Instead, he told leaders of the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers, who put him in touch with Mr. Weinstein. In November 2007, Specialist Hall was sent home early from Iraq after being repeatedly threatened by other soldiers. “I caution you that although your ‘legal’ issues are yours and yours alone, I have heard many people disagree with you, and this may be a cause for some of the perceived threats,” wrote Sgt. Maj. Kevin Nolan in Specialist Hall’s counseling for his departure.

Though with a different unit now at Fort Riley, Specialist Hall said the backlash had continued. He has a no-contact order with a sergeant who, without provocation, threatened to “bust him in the mouth.” Another sergeant allegedly told Specialist Hall that as an atheist, he was not entitled to religious freedom because he had no religion.​

 

[deb1]

Quote:
I believe that came up also.


Ihavewhatinmyyard....

Thanks for the link.

Cool article.

Bluemoon

Not only that but why would a higher being put two people who did not have a knowledge of good and evil in a garden with a forbidden tree? This same higher being will hold the two responsible for doing something that they couldn't understand was wrong in the first place until they ate from the fruit of this tree.

Many Christians do not believe that the creation account is literal but some do.

 

[deb1]

The second story annoys me. Here in the south people proclaim their allegiance to God with signs. I do not get offended because I respect freedom of speech.

The third section of stories is troubling for different reasons. Why isn't beating a person up because they don't share your beliefs a hate crime? It is certainly scary that this happens in America.

 

[Want Less]

Neither my husband or I are religious. One of the many things that connects us is the mindset that good people are good people no matter their beliefs, culture, or background. I wish more people were open to just accepting others for who they are and less adamant about debating and wanting to persuade you that the way they think is "right". What you believe in is a personal choice and a decision that should not be made because you were talked into it.

 

[EweSheep]

Quote:
Before it gets too late, maybe it is time to ask those questions and their viewpoints about religion in general. Also find out why your grandmother blew her top and what was her deep hatred toward the church itself. Something HAD to happen. I certainly HOPE she was not molested by those so called priests!

 

[deb1]

U.S. District Judge Thomas Hull ruled that “religious discrimination (or preferential treatment of Christians) can be inferred.[

What does this mean? Does it mean that he saw the discrimination or that he thought it was natural for preferential treatment of Christians to exist?

 

[OccamsTazer]

I took it to mean that the judge thought the Christians were being treated preferentially, and he stomped it.
Could be wrong.

 

[Bluemoon420]

Quote:
Before it gets too late, maybe it is time to ask those questions and their viewpoints about religion in general. Also find out why your grandmother blew her top and what was her deep hatred toward the church itself. Something HAD to happen. I certainly HOPE she was not molested by those so called priests!

It wasn't our grandmother. It was our mother who blew her top at the school board.

Our grandmother was from Austria. She was imprisioned in concentration camp. Our grandmother never spoke of what happened to her, what religion, race, or political party she was that caused her to be imprisioned. She was a teenager back then. The only thing that remained from those times for her was the tattoo on her arm. She wore long sleeves to cover it. I did ask her once, as well as my aunt, uncle, and mother. She refused to speak of it. What ever she was she took it to her grave.

Now our mother, was born and raised in Morocco. Her experiences were quite different than our grandmothers. She also refused to say what exactly happened to her. Morocco is an interesting country, and beautiful. What ever happened to her was dealt with swiftly, we do know that.

We have asked over the years, but when someone refuses to talk, you can't force them. We have a general idea what their beliefs are. Despite whatever things they have been thru, they respect others beliefs. The rest of the family can only respect the fact that they don't want to share theirs.

Bluemoon

 

[MoSo]

Quote:
Wandering from the topic, but when I was a kid, my mother's insistence that I hang around the "right" people and go to charm school and deportment lessons (yes, it's true, I am a charm school drop-out) and her rigorous monitoring of my schoolwork and school activities all drove me nuts. I thought she was the worst kind of snob possible. I knew her family hadn't been well-off, but I thought it was extreme.

Wasn't until I was through school and out of the house that I found out that her family had been Dust Bowl Okies and had worked has field hands, sleeping under the family truck, and that she'd only been as far as 4th grade, forced to leave school and work to support the family and particularly to allow the family to raise enough money to send her younger brothers to school - because they were boys and education was wasted on girls. Ouch.

She died 25 years ago, when I was 25, and I've spent a bit of the last several decades wishing I could take back some of the things I said as a teenager. We were on extremely close terms when she died, but that doesn't mean I don't wish I could unsay some of those things.