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 ...
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.
Arizona, California, and Michigan all have cities named 'Hell'.
I believe it specifically that there will be no official religion sanctioned by the government.
Not nearly as much as Corpus Christi.
It’s okay if it’s Muslim but not Christian or Jewish. But guess who will be relegated to Dhimmi status first?
The context of the establishment clause, as all good FReepers well know, is the Church of England.
When you want to know what not establishing a religion means, look to the C of E, and say “not that”. A coach saying a prayer before a game is not establishing the analog of the Church of England.
The secularists must want to have that city burned to the ground because its existence offends them so much.
As an atheist in NYC, I know Bronstein and he is a jerk. Many here think likewise. He doesn’t speak for all by any means.
P.S. I live on St Marks, and it is heaven.
“There should be no signage or displays of religious nature in the public domain.”
This may have been a slip on his part, or what he really wants, a total prohibition of any religious symbol or display in *public*.
Which kind of puts him in the same box as Count Dracula with crosses.
I wonder what his kind of atheist would think about a necklace of garlic bulbs?
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