americanatheists

Lance?s memorial is now on Sunday, 5/25, from 1-5 at the Court Tavern in New Brunswick.

Update 4/28Day 4 & 5 Updates are online:http://alabamaatheist.org/fw2k8/ Photos from Day 4:http://thenafa.org/photos/v/20080426/UPDATE Check out the story herehttp://www.gadsdentimes.com/article/20080424/NEWS/837335816/1016/NEWS

Bookmark this thread — Ellen will be updating us as she completed the journey here on the NoGodBlog.

Bill Moore announcement My name is Ellen Johnson and on April 23, 2008 I am going on a journey to rewrite history and get some justice for the many Freedom Walkers who were prevented from delivering a letter for racial harmony in 1963. The story began in 1963 with an Atheist named Bill Moore. He was a civil rights activist, author, marine corporal, and graduate from Johns Hopkins University. Bill was a member of CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality and SNCC the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. In 1962 the governor of Mississippi, Ross Barnet refused to allow James Meredith, a black man, to attend the University of Mississippi. It was then that Bill Moore decided to try, in his own small way to bring racial harmony to our nation. He wanted to see his home state of Mississippi do the right thing towards blacks. He decided that he was going to hand deliver a letter to Governor Barnett asking him to reconsider his position on segregation. He was going to carry the letter from Chattanooga, Tennessee to Jackson, Mississippi. It was a freedom walk. The letter read:

Dear Governor Barnett: I have always had a warm place in my heart for Mississippi, the land of my childhood and my ancestors. I dislike the reputation this state has acquired as being the most backward and most bigoted in the land. Those who truly love Mississippi must work to change this image. Frankly, I do not know which is worse – to be raised to believe that one should be happy to live in poverty and die twice as fast as the white man and to be told to reject the ideas of those who tell you democracy means the right to vote whatever the color of one?s skin; or is it worse to be raised as members of a sort of ?master race? which fights a losing battle to preserve injustice with barbaric laws and police state methods. The British were wise in that they dissolved their empire before they were forced to do so. Consequently, the governments of countries such as India and Nigeria are stable and friendly and democratic. The French, on the other hand, held onto their empire as long as they could. Thus the bitter strife in Laos, Vietnam, Algeria. The end of Mississippi colonialism is fast approaching. The only question is whether you will help it to end in a friendship like the British, or try to hold onto what is already lost, creating bitterness and hatred, as did the French. For our sake, as well as the Negro?s, I hope you will decide to try the British way. The white man cannot be truly free himself until all men have their rights. Each is dependent upon the other. Do not go down in infamy as one who fought democracy for all, which you have not the power to prevent. Be gracious. Give more than is immediately demanded of you. Make certain that when the Negro gets his rights and his vote that he does not in the process learn to treat the white man with the contempt and disdain that, unfortunately, some of us now treat him.Sincerely,William L. Moore

Bill Moore used his two-week vacation from his job as a postal worker in Baltimore, Maryland and began his walk. He planned to walk 40 miles a day for ten days. He made a sandwich board sign for the walk – in the home of Madalyn O?Hair, who he supported in her Supreme Court case in 1963 called Murray v. Curlett. The front of the sign read: End Segregation In America. Eat At Joe?s – Both Black and White. The back read: Equal Rights For All(Mississippi or Bust) Bill began his walk from Chattanooga, Tennessee on April 21, 1963. Along the way, he was greeted by both friend and foe. Two days later on April 23, a motorist found Moore?s body. He had been shot twice in the head at close range with a .22 caliber rifle. The gun?s ownership was traced to Floyd Simpson, whom Moore had argued with earlier that day. Simpson was never indicted. Bill Moore was murdered because of his Atheism and his politics. A week later ten more Freedom Walkers, both black and white, attempted to finish Bill?s walk. They never made it. They were stopped at the border of Alabama and they were beaten and jailed. They languished in jail for months. They were sentenced to death and fed muffins with crushed glass inside. Four other attempts, involving hundreds of people were made and all were thwarted by the segregationists in Alabama and Mississippi. On August 3, 1963, the fifth and final attempt was made to complete Bill Moore?s walk from Gadsden, Alabama. Six hundred and eighty-two people were arrested attempting to finish the walk of a man they never even knew. Forty-five years later it is time to deliver that letter. Bill Moore did not die in vain. The Freedom Walkers (Sam Shirah, Winston Lockett, Bill Haley, Zev Aelony, Chico Neblett, Bill Hansen, Bob Zellner, Eric Weinberger and Robert Gore to name few) attempts to deliver the letter and their subsequent punishments must not have been in vain. On April 23 I will be in Attala, Alabama where Bill Moore was murdered and I?m going to finish his walk and deliver his letter to the governor of Mississippi. Then the history books will show that the Freedom Walkers were not defeated and that the letter was delivered. It may have been delivered 45 years later, but it was delivered. Thank-you,Ellen Johnson, PresidentAmerican Atheists908-276-7300

WASHINGTON (April 21) – Famed astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has been thinking a lot about the cosmic question, “Are we alone?” The answer is probably not, he says.If there is life elsewhere in the universe, Hawking asks why haven’t we stumbled onto some alien broadcasts in space, maybe something like “alien quiz shows?”Hawking’s comments were part of a lecture at George Washington University on Monday in honor of NASA’s 50th anniversary. He theorized that there are possible answers to whether there is extraterrestrial life.One option is that there likely isn’t life elsewhere. Or maybe there is intelligent life elsewhere, but when it gets smart enough to send signals into space, it also is smart enough to make destructive nuclear weapons.Hawking said he prefers the third option:”Primitive life is very common and intelligent life is fairly rare,” he said, then quickly added: “Some would say it has yet to occur on Earth.”So should you worry about aliens? Alien abduction claims come from “weirdos” and are unlikely. However, because alien life might not have DNA like us, Hawking warned: “Watch out if you would meet an alien. You could be infected with a disease with which you have no resistance.”The 66-year-old British cosmologist, who suffers from ALS and must speak through a mechanical device, believes “if the human race is to continue for another million years, we will have to boldly go where no one has gone before.”

See that? It’s so clear now. Stephen Hawking IS Christopher Pike!OK So seriously. Life on other planets? Yes. Extraterrestrial life here? No. Why? We are too far from everything. Your thoughts?

Let us all congratulate the happy couple and wish them all the best. A truly secular celebration officiated by the executive director of the American Humanist Association, Tony Hileman. The marriage and reception were in New York City.Peter Nuhn

Let me start out by paraphrasing David Carradine in “Kill Bill”. You may say I am being sadistic, but believe me, this is me at my most masochistic.This thread has already given me a headache, and I haven’t written it yet. Even the word “ontologics” gives me a headache. But hey, I’m in a masochistic mood.Ontologics is one of those pseudo-proofs-of-god that’s used so many times by those who are silly enough to engage Atheists in logical debate. It’s basicly a word game.The argument goes like this:1) Imagine a perfect being — a most perfect being. This being either exists or it does not. A most perfect being cannot “nearly exist”.2) This perfect being has many traits — unlimited power, perfect knowledge, etc.3) Existance is one of those traits. Of course, existence is better than nonexistence.4) Since a non existent being would not be as perfect as an existent one, a most perfect being would have to have existence as a trait. Therefore such a being must logically exist.God damn this headache!Dawkins calls it “rubbish” and points to the fact that the same can be said of any relatively unquantifyable thing. A “most smelly” object, a tastiest meal. But perhaps it is simpler than that. Perhaps the assumption that existence is better than nonexistence is flawed in and of itself. We live in a world where disease runs rampant, natural disasters wreck cities, etc. If an entity existed with unlimited knowledge and power, and let this kind of stuff happen, he’d be evil — much more evil, and therefore much LESS perfect — than his nonexistent counterpart.In other words if we imagine a most perfect being GIVEN THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, we must conclude that the world would be much better off NOT having such a being exist — a being with power willing to let humans suffer — than having one. For having such a living entity would subject the Earth to a whim of a less-than-nice god.So a most perfect being GIVEN THE WORLD AS WE KNOW IT, would not exist.

The NoGodBlog has been given an 8.4 rating on blogged.com. That places us in the top 100 sites in the “Spirituality section”. Please rate us!http://www.blogged.com/blogs/no-god-blog.htmlRemember that “spreading the word” about the blog and the organization (or any other blog/organization in the movement) is GOOD activism as it will result in more eyes on our point of view.Spend an hour tonight — tell other blog sites to link to us. The Toplist is also listing us! I try to keep up with the requests for reciprocals. Sometimes it takes a while

At least I did, but I forgot.

ALL-NEW UPDATE 4/20Well we just had a very successful Pope Picket here in Austin, and here’s the video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvWNE_njrvcUPDATE!This thread is specifically about the NY protest. I’ll post pictures and updates. Hi all I’m back from the Pope Picket. We had a great time. There were about 30 of us in the Atheist bin, next to two other bins.The first bin— the group right next to us, was the “God Hates Fags” people. These guys are rude and incapable of having a conversation, so we didn’t even try. For some reason, they all left after an hour or so. The other bin was the victims of child abuse — and we got along great.Tons of passers-by. We gave out all our flyers and a bunch of DVDs of the BBC’s “History of Disbelief”. Interestingly to my daughter, (who was GREAT and had a wonderful time), it was much easier to get the pamphlets handed out if we said “God wants you to read this”. If we said, “this is why the Atheists are protesting”, we gave a few away, but mention God and people go WAY out of their way to take it and read it. Most got the joke. Some inside the picket line didn’t want us using the god line, but it worked sooo well I gouldn’t resist.Unfortunately, the Pope never showed (like his state-sponsored Birthday Party), but we got LOTS of press and had a great time under great weather.Thanks to Ken and Jane from the NYC Atheists who planned and organized the whole thing. Jason from MAAF was there as well as Dennis from the Atheist Viewpoint. If you saw our protest (or coverage thereof), and this is your first time on the NoGodBlog, please register and chime in.

http://headonradio.com/index.phpI’ll be doing a segment with Bob Kincaid on Head-on Radio (liberal and friendly) tonight. Please listen in at 6:30 pm!

WASHINGTON – Feted at the White House on his 81st birthday, Pope Benedict XVI praised Americans for their deep religious beliefs Wednesday but later told the nation’s bishops that the scourge of clergy sex abuse had sometimes been “very badly handled.” Benedict’s comments, his toughest critique yet of the U.S. church’s worst problem, marked the second day in a row that he addressed the abuse scandal. They came as he addressed the nation’s bishops at the imposing Immaculate Conception shrine. He also reminded the prelates that religion cannot only be considered a “private matter” without any bearing on public behavior.

OK folks nice and slow here. OK… Deeeeep Breath…The pope knew very well about the sex claims, and advised JP-2 to hide the scandal.The Catholic pedophilia scandal is not US-Specific. As mentioned in an earlier post, it’s global, and centered on the policy endorsed by His Eminence himself. He is not shocked about the scandal — he’s shocked that it’s done so much damage to Catholicism here in the US. The Pope is merely deflecting the blame away from him onto his underlings — a sign of the poorest of character.And then he talks to US about morality, and says secularism is evil (and our useless President agrees). This guy is scum, and wants nothing more than to save his power over gullible fools — the numbers of which are dwindling.We must NOT accept his chiding of followers as an apology or an honest attempt to fix things. If he wanted to fix things he’d excommunicate anyone who raped a human OR who helped hide a rapist — globally. Then he would PERSONALLY take the blame for his PERSONAL actions which helped harm OUR children.Happy Birthday Pope Pedophile Protector! Now go home.