FLORIDA COURT SETS ATHEIST HOLY DAY


In Florida , an atheist created a case against the upcoming Easter and Passover Holy days. He hired an attorney to bring a discrimination case against Christians and Jews and observances of their holy days. The argument was that it was unfair that atheist had no such recognized days.

The case was brought before a judge. After listening to the passionate presentation by the lawyer, the judge banged his gavel declaring, "Case dismissed!"

The lawyer immediately stood objecting to the ruling saying, "Your honor, How can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and others. The Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah, yet my client and all other atheists have no such holidays."

The judge leaned forward in his chair saying, "But you do. Your client, counsel, is woefully ignorant."

The lawyer said, "Your Honor, we are unaware of any special observance or holiday for atheists"

The judge said, "The calendar says April 1st is April Fools Day. Psalm 14:1 states, 'The fool says in his heart, there is no God'  Thus, it is the opinion of this court, that, if your client says there is no God, then he is a fool. Therefore, April 1st is his day. Court is adjourned."
You have to love a Judge that knows his scripture!

Unknown

This is why religion sucks -- because the xians don't know that a judge that would make a ruling based on a Bible verse is in violation of the constitution, and they would applaud this kind of idiocy.

Why Christianity is on the decline in America

Hugh Kramer

• LA Atheism Examiner

You can see it in poll results from Pew Research to the Barna Group; you can hear it thunderously condemned from the pulpit and more quietly discussed in church focus groups, but agreement is pretty widespread: church attendance is declining and all Christian sects, even the loudest and most conservative, are losing ground in America.   This is the subject of a recent article in the Los Angeles Times by paleontologist, author  and illustrator, Gregory S. Paul. Paul is also known for a 2005 statistical survey that measured the relationship between religion and societal health. It compared statistics from 18 different developed democracies (including the USA) on aspects of societal health and dysfunction, to rates of religious belief. The study concluded was that there was an inverse relationship between religion and poor societal health rates (IE: the higher the level of things like belief in a creator, bible literalism, frequency of prayer and attendance at services in a country, the higher the level of things like youth suicides, STDs, teen pregnancies, homicide and other crimes).   At the time, though Paul indicated the study said nothing about cause and effect, but only showed a relationship between the two variables, he was widely criticised and, as one pundit put it, became "the anti-Christ of the month" for many religious groups.   In this latest LA Times article however, Gregory Paul does tackle the how and why of Christianity's decline in America.   The nonreligious are the fastest growing group in America, he says; non-believers having tripled as a percentage of the population since the 1960s. He agrees with Robert D. Putman and David E. Campbell, authors of "American Grace," that it is the younger generations that are leaving religion the fastest but doesn't agree with their assessment that aversion to the religious right is the primary secularizing force.   That, he says, ignores the experience of every other first world democracy where politically strident Christianity has never been much of a factor and where there have been tremendous drops in religiosity anyway.   "A growing body of research that I have contributed to," writes Paul, "has found that socioeconomic factors play the leading role. The higher the level of financial and economic security — as measured by the presence of universal healthcare and job security, plus lower rates of income disparity, poverty, lethal crime, incarceration, STD infections, abortion, teen pregnancy, divorce, illicit drug use and mental illness — the less religious a country is. It turns out then when the majority of a modern population is ensured a comfortable, safe and stable middle-class lifestyle, they lose interest in organized faith and soon lose their personal faith as well."   "As America is the most socioeconomically Darwinist of the world's prosperous democracies — with loss of middle-class status due to a layoff or canceled health coverage being far more common than in Western Europe, Canada or Australia — it remains the most willing to seek the aid and protection of a deity," adds Paul.   According to Paul, another factor contributing to the declining interest in religion is the growth of the popular corporate-consumer culture. The war against materialism and consumerism is one that the religious easily recognize because they've been fighting it for decades. Yet it is now so culturally pervasive that younger Westerners see the battle against it as "pathetically square." And as the older generations die off, this attitude becomes more dominant.   A third factor is technology. Young people's reliance on the newly emergent digital world is quickly replacing the kind of pre-TV, pre-computer, social "club" that churches provide.   "The secularizing effect of digital technology is so potent that it threatens to overwhelm the reproductive superiority of conservative believers," Paul says.   (Editors note: If you enjoyed the deliciously understated swipe at religious conservatives in that last sentence, you'll love Paul's conclusion.)   "That a grand combination of secure prosperity, mass consumerism and advanced technology is deeply eroding Western faith means that there is not much that organized religion can do to stem, much less reverse, the losses. Nor is there any reason to think that a less politically strident form of Christianity will do any better than it already is. What is ironic is that the Republican political alliance of the religious right with corporate interests has been a deal with the capitalist devil, which has been laughing its way to the bank as religion fades in the West."

This clown is back?  

Sweden would never move away from religion because the Church of Sweden is large and you used to become an automatic member from birth, so most people over 25 are members. Every small town has a church that is one of the central points of the town. It's part of the social structure, but it's more of a political thing than a religious organization. There's fellowship and worship (I guess) but no finger wagging. Unmarried parents? No problem. Gay? Yep. We like you, too. There are other denominations here, but not with a membership like CoS. It feels like living in a religion free society.

Yeh, my husband is from England.  Britain is largely non-religious, and he believes that's because of the CoE. He thinks a state religion in the U.S. would do more to drive people away from religion, so he's not all that bothered about the separation of church and state thing.

I posted a DAD a while back about how in Sweden it's illegal even in PRIVATE schools to brainwash children with religion.

"I posted a DAD a while back about how in Sweden it's illegal even in PRIVATE schools to brainwash children with religion."

That sounds like a good idea!!

Except in England they do have religion classes in grade school, and it's mandatory and largely christian. (Or it was when my best friend lived there 10 years ago)