Apparently, the State of California believes that Santa Claus exists.
Posted on 06/21/2011 12:23:25 PM PDT by markomalley
A group of New York City atheists is demanding that the city remove a street sign honoring seven firefighters killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks because they say the sign violates the separation of church and state.
The street, “Seven in Heaven Way,” was officially dedicated last weekend in Brooklyn outside the firehouse where the firefighters once served. The ceremony was attended by dozens of firefighters, city leaders and widows of the fallen men.
“There should be no signage or displays of religious nature in the public domain,” said Ken Bronstein, president of New York City Atheists. “It’s really insulting to us.” Bronstein told Fox News Radio that his organization was especially concerned with the use of the word “heaven.” “We’ve concluded as atheists there is no heaven and there’s no hell,” he said.
“And it’s a totally religious statement. It’s a question of separation of church and state.” He was nonplussed over how his opposition to the street sign might be perceived – especially since the sign is honoring fallen heroes. “It’s irrelevant who it’s for,” Bronstein said. “We think this is a very bad thing,”
David Silverman, president of American Atheists, agreed calling on the city to remove the sign. “It implies that heaven actually exists,” Silverman told Fox News Radio.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
There is no separation of church and state. If they can find it in the constitution we’ll be glad to humor them.
America’s Talibatheists, proving once again they don’t know what “America” means.
Offended atheists invariably offend me.
These people are full of it.
They think that anything that hints at some endorsement of religion must be expunged.
I’m sure they think that, if this street sign is allowed, the next thing you know, we’ll be in a theocracy resembling Europe in the Middle Ages.
If a cross is on top of a mountain, or a 10 commandments monument is anywhere in a public place, the next thing you know, we’ll be back in Medieval Europe. People will be burned at the stake, yadda, yadda, yadda. So to prevent all of that, we have to rip down a street sign which the most extreme atheists find to be offensive.
Okay.................
Brooklyn - distinguishing itself yet again this month!
“The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” In other words to the atheists, STFU!
“It’s really insulting to us.”
Tough!
You know your worldview is pathetic when you cannot so much as handle a sign that is somewhat contrary to it. These atheists need to rethink their absolutely worthless “philosophy.” Instead of of being a philosophy it’s more like sophophobia.
Oh, and does the name San Francisco also violate separation of church and state because it references the theologically-loaded term “saint”?
Atheists are always angry.
Attention, New York Atheists Association...*ahem*....
GET STUFFED!
Thank you.
Hey renegade atheists -—— boofricketywho.
The city and state should just ignore them. Don’t give them any press, nada, nothing.
“Heaven” is only religious to those who perceive it as such. If you don’t believe in God, or an afterlife, then the word “heaven” is meaningless. Heaven is a word that is used in many ways throughout the world. It does not belong to a particular religion.
“I’m in heaven over my recent marriage proposal”...
“That fudge is heavenly”...
“The vacation we took in the Galapagos Islands was heaven”...
Etc...
I’m not sure if I’d be more accurate in describing myself as an atheist or an agnostic, but as such I gotta say: These New York Atheists are jackasses! Everyone’s free to believe or disbelieve and the only restriction on religion is the one that prevents and actual government-sponsored and approved one. You know, like the Church of England that America rebelled against back in the day.
Maybe they could be chained to that Michael Newdow creep and dumped in the East River.
They don’t believe in God or in Heaven...
so why are they offended by a mention of either?
I, for one, get SO angry when Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy are mentioned that I just can’t stand it!
I can think of ways where they’d no longer be aware of those signs that offend them.
“We’ve concluded as Atheists.” Based on what?
“We’ve concluded as Atheists.” Based on what?
I’m surprised that the ACLU has not yet filed lawsuits to force name changes of cities such as St. Louis, St. Paul, Corpus Christi, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, and St. Petersburg.
I’m surprised the ACLU has not sued Louisiana for calling their counties “parishes”. A parish is a Roman Catholic term for the community served by a Catholic Church. We should not be calling a governmental unit by the term used by a religion, should we?
There’s a Metro train stop in Washington, DC, named for Catholic University. Is this a governmental endorsement of religion to name the train stop after the university the stop is located at, if such name suggests a religious institution?
I’m sure we call think of equally ridiculous examples of what these guys are trying to do.
I disagree, there is. It's not explicit, but obvious, just as the freedom of association. However, the militant anti-theists think it means the separation of religion and society, which is nowhere among the writings or thoughts of our Founders, including Thomas Jefferson. This sign forces no one to practice a religion, punishes no one for not practicing a religion, and has no possibility of making a reasonable person fear he won't get equal treatment under the law for not believing in Heaven.
The sign is simply outside of the true issue of the separation of church and state as meant by Jefferson. This is an issue of anti-theists in a culture war.
Tell them to go to hell. Oh, wait.
Then I’d demand a trial by jury of NY citizens
Having no religious signs posted = athiesim.
No god = no signs.
So, for equality, there needs to be religious signs.
West Virginia conservatives will be happy — this rabble will stay away.
WV is “Almost Heaven.” ;-)
PS: My grandparents came from there and we still have family in the south. It was shocking to see my sister’s face on a second cousin!!
And, of course, one of my favorite ice cream flavors: Heavenly Hash.
Hmmm. Haven’t seen it around lately.
What?
the separation of church and state law?
the separation of church and state practice?
the separation of church and state creed?
the separation of church and state line of demarcation?
Angry? That’s the part I don’t get. What happened to tolerance and acceptance? Most of the families of the victims believe in some form of Heaven. That’s just how it is, get over it.
If they named a street “Nothing”, or “Nowhere”, or even “Kaput” in honor of atheists who have died, I’d be ok with that.
Intolerant atheists offend and anger me! :)
Militant atheists and militant homosexuals are suffering from great pathology. They can’t stand that other people have different ideas than they about the creation of man and the rules of human societies. These folks are the biggest enemy of diversity.
Frankly I find offended atheists offensive and unAmerican.
I do not believe in atheists. People who label themselves atheists are all about getting attention and making noise.
Thhis Anti-Christian BIGOT would HATE Washington DC and many other official state and federal buildings throughout the country which are engraved with scripture and more.
Hate-Filled Anti-American, Anti-Christian BIGOT.
“It was shocking to see my sister’s face on a second cousin!!”
Why is your sister letting others wear her face?!
I’m in Ohio, but way back in my mother’s family, they came from West Virginia. A lot of WV folks were in this area when I was young. They came to work in the factories. I used to laugh at the “hillbillies”.
Now that I’m over 50, I appreciate the simplicity of the country way. I could see myself retiring to KY or WV. Beautiful country, slower pace, more temperate climate, and a lot less liberals.
I guess they would absolutely die if they went to St. Petersburg or St. Paul or Los Angeles, or San Francisco, or San Antonio or any number of American and European and Latin American cities.
These militant atheists should be put in stocks and bonds and people should throw tomatoes at them for being so annoying.
Great, now you’ve offended atheists and muslims…
Think of all the books they would ban.
While they're at it, why don't the call for renaming the cities of St. Paul, MN, and St. Petersburg, FL, too?
-PJ
Based on the random firings of neurons in our brains, which themselves were created by random beneficial arrangements of molecules.
And we totally trust our reasoning.
Ah yes, life would be bliss without Christians and Jews. /s
From the article: “We’ve concluded as atheists there is no heaven and there’s no hell,” he said.
Can you prove that? or maybe you’ve just listened to too much John Lennon music.
You expressed (very well IMHO) what I was thinking.
It’s time these Atheists were told to go Fudge themselves.
I had to double check to see if this was satire.
One of the natural rights of natural persons acknowledged by the original Constitution, in the 1st Amendment, is the right to insult people by expressing an unfavorable opinion, and in the reverse, the obligation to endure being insulted or offended indirectly by opposing points of view.
On the other hand, one of the administrative restrictions imposed by the state upon corporate individuals is the privilege to deny the expressions of the beliefs of millions because a single dissenter declares an objection that furthers the domination powers of the state.
Until Americans want to know exactly how we got from the first definition to the second definition, and ask the men and women dressed in black (whether robes or SWAT armor) exactly how they are justifying using the second definition instead of the first, nothing will change.
It's like Sean Connery told Kevin Costner in The Untouchables: "Everybody knows where the booze it. The question is, who's going to cross Capone?"
Likewise, confronting the People In Black about how they got from the first definition above, to the second definition above, is Crossing Capone.
This doesn't entail violence or the breaking of any laws. In fact, since yesterday's landmark SCOTUS ruling on the 10th Amendment, it's easier and safer to do than ever before.
But it has to be done, and pressed, until the answer is exposed to the light.
Because those two definitions above define the two separate Americas at odds with each other today - and the second is not the American of the Founders. In fact, it's what the Founder specifically described their America as being created to protect it's people from.
That's the bottom line, minus all the spin.
As Connery says later to Costner in the same movie, "What are you willing to do"?
Here endeth the lesson.
Apparently, the State of California believes that Santa Claus exists.
Screw ‘em.
Noted. LOL.
Webster’s dictionary:
Heaven - the expanse of space that seems to be over the earth like a dome. 2. the dwelling place of the Deity and the joyful abode of the blessed dead. 3. a spiritual state
of everlasting communion with God. 4. a place or condition
of utmost happiness
Self-proclaimed atheists whining about the most innoclous things, such as a street sign that says “heaven”, just tick most people off. Although few Americans are devoutly religious, the vast majority believe in God, making atheists a distinct minority in this country. More important, we believe that the atheist’s ‘separation of church and state’ argument has been stretched far beyond any reasonable definition. A street sign is hardly an ‘establishment of religion’ and it is only ‘offensive’ to those who chose to be offended by it. This sign being located in Brooklyn, I trust that the whining atheists will be told by local residents to go pound sand.
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