Yes folks, it’s Summer Vacation time here at the Silverman Household. For me, July 4 is the most important holiday of the year — commemorating the beginning of a country without a state church. I usually try to see 2 or three sets of fireworks, and I NEVER stand for “God Bless America”. If people mention it, I explain that you’re only supposed to stand for the National Anthem.American Atheists has great T-shirts that have the American Flag and the saying “Proud to be an American Atheist”. Great shirt this time of year. Food for thought.What does Independance Day mean to you? I’ll read your posts when I get back next week. From all of us at American Atheist, have a great holiday!
ummm i agree with that dude.above me.
Independence Day = Wasted holiday.
At least it’s a paid day off of work.
4th of July–around here in central Texas this can mean only one thing–the annual God and Country Concert hosted by the 1st Baptist Church of Belton. The holy-rollers rent out the Bell County Expo Center (+/- 5K capacity) and sponsor a concert featuring their chior singing the best of patriotic and Christian music. On center stage you will find the Christian flag (didn’t know they had one until I saw it with my own eyes) and a giant (10′) Jesus X (cross). They pass KFC chicken buckets around to the concert goers and ask for donations. At first glance this would seem like a good way to celebrate the 4th if you are a member of the faithful, but there is a catch. Each year the Church requests and recieves support from the 4th Infantry Division Band (an Army Band supported by your tax dollars) from Ft Hood to perform as a backup band for this Baptist fund raiser. Uniformed Bandsman perform during this concert, and soldiers from post participate as well, I don’t know if it is on a volunteer basis or not. In past years the grand finale was soldiers in Class A uniforms genuflecting before the giant Jesus X on cue. This obvious violation of the 1st ammendment continues on an annual basis, this year it will be the 1st Cav Division performing as 4th ID is preparing for another tour in Iraq. I performed in this concert (under protest) in the past and there is enough praying and holier than thou attitude there to make a thoughtful person puke. This use of an Army Band has been deemed legal by JAG on FT Hood, so it will continue. There are some atheists in the Army Band that have made protests about the content of the Concert, which pretty much fall on deaf ears. This year I will be enroute to my next duty assignment, so I get a reprieve from the nonsense this year. The point is that atheists should not have to perform religious rituals to serve our country as an Army musician, and the holy rollers are using our tax dollars to promoter their narrow religious views–
I have to disagree on ?You can not teach Atheism?. As you bring up your children, teach them to use their minds. Teach them that Faith is a belief in something where there is no proof (which is what most religions consist of today, especially Christianity, Judaism, and Islam). Show them that most Atheists are good and honest people. Show them where most religions teach an intolerance to others. Show them that most religions were and are still used for controlling people. Show them that these religions were created thousands of years ago by primitive people. Explain to them that these religions were created by people that thought the earth was flat, had no clue what the stars were, and had no concept of any of the sciences that we take for granted today.
Answer their questions honestly. My daughter asked me what happens after you die. I told her, ?I don?t know, and no one truthfully knows. We have ideas and hopes, but nobody has really died and returned to tell us what is on the other side. It is the final one way door we all will go through someday just like all the people before us. Most religions try to answer that question but their answers are based on nothing but Faith. My ?Faith? is that if you live a good life, whatever is on the other side (if anything) will not be a bad thing. Your goal should be to make the world you live in now, a better place.? She accepts that.
For me the 4th is a day to remember three things.
1: the ideals this nation was founded on.
2: the men and women who have died; voluntarily and involuntarily, to defend those ideas, even in wars that didn?t.
3: the enormous potential a nation founded on such liberal ideals has, though yet unfulfilled, and my ongoing commitment towards realizing that potential.
Lux Ferre
http://www.saffirepassafist.blogspot.com
Hey,
Happy Independence Day, Americans. Just some well-wishes from a Singaporean.
Indendence day does not truly mean the birth of our country to me. This day, I truly feel we should reflect on what we have accomplished as a nation, both good and bad, and use that knowledge from the past to help determine our own future. Of course, it would be good to do this all the time, but that isn’t likely in the near future. In my mind, our country isn’t completely born, but is still developing into the a place where we can all be free.
To me, Independence Day is the day that we can celebrate our freedoms as Americans. Though I am not patriotic at all to the “president”, or congress for that matter, I am very, very patriotic to the Constitution and everything it stands for. I wish US politicians would go back to the real issues istead of forcing every public school and building to force their ten commandments and “values” on us atheists. People forget that politics and religion were very seperate from each other up until the past 25 years or so. A politician’s religion used to be trivial, now it seems like it’s the only reason they get voted into office in the first place. Bush was only “elected” again because churches got all their members to vote and told them that the only issue worth their vote was abortion. War, terrorism, and the economy were not important to them; only the beliefs of their pastor.
That brings me to something else that you may already know: the USA is in NO WAY FORMED ON JUDEO-CHRISTIAN VALUES. Washington, Jefferson, and others were Deists, not Christians or Jews as the religious right will tell you. They only tell you that because they don’t want religious symbols removed from public places.
So, to me, Independence Day is about the wonderful Constitution and the people who would die for it, not the people who run the country itself.
How ironic, a holiday celebrating breaking away from a tyranny and a tyranny running American Atheists sponsoring a blog on the subject being censored by a “Jew” with the president of the organization having a sexual relationship with a “jew infiltrator” who is running the organization into the ground.
Oh yeah, you can have freedom of religion, freedom from religion, but NEVER EVER say anything that criticizes Judaism or Jews, not even if you’re an Atheist organization that claims to educate people on all religions. If you were to actually promote freethough and free speech, irrational bigots and racists will call you an “Anti-semite” (it doesn’t even mean jew)and project their own bigotry on you while claiming to be a victim.
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