Holy war Sunday

[Roland99]

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050424/OPINION01/504240359/1055/OPINION

At the rate things are going in American politics, next week will bring ads by the Noah's Ark Veterans for Truth claiming that the two Democrats on board were actually stowaways, whom God had intended for drowning but who snuck on cross-dressed as gayals.

That wouldn't be much more bizarre than what's planned for today: Bill Frist, the majority leader of the United States Senate, is going to Sunday meeting to preach that some deeply flawed and highly ideological judicial nominees are actually bloodied victims of religious persecution.

"Justice Sunday: Stop the filibuster against people of faith," the revival's being called.

It should be called, "Injustice Sunday: Demean the holy and foment schism for partisan gain."

<...>

[NAO]

1. I think we need a Freethought PAC - Run religion attack ads on TV

"Freethinkers for Truth", or something along those lines, to debunk religious superstition using 30 second TV attack ads.

They could feature "Great Moments in American Secularism and Freethought" with "Great American Freethinkers" like Thomas Paine and Robert Ingersoll.

If TV stations would not run the ads, we could pull the same, "help, help, I'm being repressed!" crap that the fundies are always whining about. And of course the refusal to run the ads would draw attention to the works of Paine and Ingersoll, which are a very effective antidote to religious superstition.

The Freethought Zone
Science and Reason Over Religion and Superstition
http://freethought.freeservers.com/

Freedom from Religion Foundation
http://www.ffrf.org/

Secular Humanism
http://www.secularhumanism.org/

Secular Web
http://www.infidels.org/index.shtml

Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason - Online
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/thomas_paine/age_of_reason/index.shtml

Complete Works of Robert Ingersoll - Online
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/robert_ingersoll/index.shtml

[Roland99]

2. Not a bad idea and it resonates with my atheism...but...

one thing one of the ministers (pastors? preachers?) said today was something along the lines of:


Moving to secularism is not how to fix bad religion. Moving to good religion is.

[Kerrytravelers]

3. I'm Catholic. I'm a "person of faith." Where can I donate to Freethought?

You have our votes/support/cash, too!

[kenny blankenship]

5. Stations, Networks, would never run them. -nt

there is no antidote.

[NAO]

6. CBS refused to run MoveOn.org super bowl ad; networks refused the UCC ad

I became aware of Moveon.org, and had a re-awakening of political activism when I read on CNN that CBS had refused to run their "Child's Play" ad during the super bowl.

Recently the United Churches of Christ produced an ad promoting acceptance of gays (Jesus didn't turn people away and neither do we) and the networks refused to run it, which resulted in news coverage of the the refusal to cover it - ie, it got free exposure.

I think if a Freethought PAC produced ads - even if networks refused to run them, that would be a newsworthy event and would spark interest that had been dormant in many about Freethought.

Most people don't even know that one of our Founding Fathers, Thomas Paine, wrote a scathing, devastating critique of Revealed Religion in general and The Bible in particular. (The Age of Reason)

Most people don't know that in the late 19th century, there was a traveling statesman evangelist for agnosticism named Robert Ingersoll who wrote many thoughtful and devastating critiques of the claims of organized religion.

A simple revival of interest in the writings of those two men could have a ripple effect that could seriously erode the power of the religious right. I think the world is largely ready to accept a humanistic viewpoint or at least a tolerant religious pluralism. It is only ignorance of some very strategic information that allows these fundamentalists to make their claims and seduce their followers.

[Democrats_win]

4. Homophobes hiding behind the Rock that's what THEY really are.

[NAO]

7. When I was in High School I was a sincere, non-homophobic Christian

and as the saying goes, "some of my best friends are Christians".

I think there are literally millions of sincere, well meaning Christians who have been duped by the claims of revealed religion. They have never been exposed to material that seriously questions the validity of the Bible or the claims of their church.

Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason" blew my mind - I could not believe how many obvious mistakes and contradictions and inconsistencies were in the Bible. Paine did the world a real service by compiling them.

I think just getting copies of "The Age of Reason" into mass circulation would have a dramatic impact on weakining the grip of the claims of organized religion on otherwise rational intelligent people.