Nice!
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An atheist state lawmaker tasked with delivering the opening prayer for this afternoon’s session of the House of Representatives asked that people not bow their heads.
Democratic Representative Juan Mendez, of Tempe, instead spoke about his “secular humanist tradition” and even quoted author Carl Sagan.
“Most prayers in this room begin with a request to bow your heads,” Mendez said. “I would like to ask that you not bow your heads. I would like to ask that you take a moment to look around the room at all of the men and women here, in this moment, sharing together this extraordinary experience of being alive and of dedicating ourselves to working toward improving the lives of the people in our state.”
As you can imagine — especially now, with Arizona’s legislature being controlled by religion-heavy Republicans — this is probably the first time that an invocation at the legislature took that direction.
“This is a room in which there are many challenging debates, many moments of tension, of ideological division, of frustration,” Mendez said. “But this is also a room where, as my secular humanist tradition stresses, by the very fact of being human, we have much more in common than we have differences. We share the same spectrum of potential for care, for compassion, for fear, for joy, for love.
Mendez continued, “Carl Sagan once wrote, ‘For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.’”
Good move
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Atheists to Accept Georgia Governor’s Offer by Sending Atheist Books to State Parks
Materials Will Be Placed Alongside Bibles in Cabins
Cranford, NJ—American Atheists announced Friday that it will send the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GADNR) enough popular atheist books to place one in every state park cabin in the state. The atheist books will be placed alongside Gideon Bibles already in every state park cabin as directed by Georgia Governor Nathan Deal on Wednesday.
“We appreciate the governor’s invitation to place atheist books in the cabins and look forward to providing visitors with the opportunity to learn more about atheism when they visit Georgia’s beautiful state parks,” said Managing Director Amanda Knief.
The issue of the Bibles in the state park cabins came to light after former American Atheist President Ed Buckner rented one of the lodges last month and filed a complaint on April 28 after finding nine Bibles in his cabin.
The Bibles were removed by GADNR officials but Governor Deal ordered the Bibles back by executive order, saying he does “not believe that a Bible in a bedside table drawer constitutes a state establishment of religion.”
“American Atheists does not believe the State of Georgia should be placing Bibles or atheist books in state park cabins; however, if the state is going to allow such distribution, we will happily provide our materials,” said President David Silverman. Read more
Crazy superstition(Scam) in Indonesia
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People found to be practising black magic in Indonesia find themselves behind jail bars.
That is if a revised criminal code is accepted by parliament.
However, there is a lot of resistance to the proposed new law.
