This post is a public service to all our members and supporters.

Call your Mother.

Happy Mother’s Day from American Atheists.

I’ll write something more profound tomorrow.

I just got off the phone with KDKA in Pittsburgh (thanks for having me on), where the polite Christian hosts asked be some standard questions, the last of which I now put to you.

Do you get offended when someone says “I’ll pray for you”?

While I understand that 1) their praying for me does nothing but waste their own time and 2) they are trying do what they think is good, I replied that yes, I DO take offense.

I’ve been married to a theist for 18 years and have never tried to convert her. My daughter is an atheist, not from my drumming it into her, but through thought and contemplation. There is no need or desire for me to try to change anyone against their wishes.

But when someone prays for me, they are trying to change me against my wishes. Yes, of course it will fail, but as the old saying goes “it’s the thought that counts”, and this thought is negative. They are trying to convince their god to “open my heart” or whatever other metaphor they wish to use for “convert by force using your supernatural powers”.

Indeed, praying for someone is an act of religious intolerance.

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time to stop playing nice with professional liars and the fools who follow them.

On Thursday, May 7, 2009, members of the Congressional Prayer Caucus will hold a press conference in Washington, DC to launch a new effort at passing the “America’s Spiritual Heritage” resolution, formerly known as HR 888.

Introduced by Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA.), the measure would put Congress on record to “Recognize that the religious foundations of faith on which America was built are critical underpinnings of our Nation’s most valuable institutions…” It would also decree establishment of a “Religious Heritage Week” “for the appreciation of and education of America’s history of religious faith.”

Among the religious right luminaries slated to appear at Thursday’s conference are Gary Bauer (“American Values”); Maureen Wiebe (American Association of Christian Schools); Wendy Wright (Concerned Women for America); and William Murray (Religious Freedom Coalition); and James and Shirley Dobson (Focus on the Family). The event is schedule to coincide with ceremonies marking the National Day of Prayer, a Dobson-run event.

The whole text, repugnantly held on house.gov
Our Action Alert

We’re approaching this from two sides.
First, there is no reason for this bill to be discussed on Capitol Hill. This country has very big problems, and breaking the law so that some congresspeople can kiss the ass of those PROFESSIONAL LIARS is a waste of time, money, and valuable resources. This country needs to progress past the 19th century. For that reason, the above Action Alert is for all Americans to contact your congressperson to urge him to reject this tremendously misleading revisionist bill and concentrate on important REAL matters of state.

Second, while we do NOT support federal involvement, there is always room for nonprofit educational organizations like us to remind people of the truth — to educate them in exactly how negative the impact of religion has been on society. To that end, we are having a press conference, open to the public, on May 7th at our HQ in Cranford NJ at 7pm, during which I will detail some (A VERY SMALL PORTION) of the negative impacts religion has had on American society. I’ll start with Slavery, Woman’s rights, stem cells, forced tithing via taxation, etc, and go on from there.

CONTEST! A free Richard Dawkins DVD (A brief History of Disbelief) will be mailed out to the top 2 people who:
1) Complete one of the actions in the action item. That is, call or write your congressperson or write a letter to your newspaper. We’ll take your word for it if you did it, but is IS a requirement
2) Give the best example (first prize) or the MOST examples (Second prize) of the negative impacts of religion in American History. We’re not doing this to BE negative, we’re doing this because the “Dobson Bill” is one-sided, and true education shows both sides of the issue. We need to balance this out, all in the name of education and truth. So give us lots of education and truth.

TIME FRAME — TWO DAYS. This contest will be over on May 7th at 5pm EST. Winners will be chosen by me or other AA officials and announced on this thread and at the press conference, and the winners’ submissions will be read at the press conference. DVDs will be sent out immediately. I reserve the right to send out more DVDs if I choose multiple winners!

Again, you MUST perform an action from the action alert to qualify for this contest, as well as submit idea on this thread.

Have fun, provide support, and don’t forget our Atheist Quote Generator if you need a reference!

My wife of 18 years and I had a religious discussion today about Adam and Eve. She’s an educated theistic Jew, who sees the Adam and Eve story as analogous (most Jews don’t see the Bible as literal) to whatever really happened, but that only gives her a certain amount of leeway.

My point to her was that in the Bible, Eve was set up. God, being omniscient, knew for a fact that Eve would eat the fruit when He put the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. He knew the future back then, and therefore he was 100% certain that Eve and Adam would eat the fruit and thereby cause the “fall of Man” (christian only) or at least be kicked out of Eden. In this way, Eve did not have free will at all, and she did not make a choice to eat the fruit. She did what God knew she would do, with 100% certainty. The God comes out and acts all surprised and pissed off when Adam and Eve are shy and knowledgeable (an omniscient god would never be surprised, but that’s another story), as if he didn’t know it was going to happen.

My wife tried to counter with the whole free will argument, but it doesn’t work. Omniscience trumps free will. If God can do something KNOWING what the result will be for certain, there is no free will, and Adam and Eve did what God knew would happen like pawns, with no options at all. The result — Adam and Eve committed no sin — they were force-fed the fruit by a god who did what was needed to make them eat it. Man didn’t fall; he was pushed.

Jews can accept this, because their god can be a really mean god sometimes. The Christian God, not at all like the Jewish God despite what the Christians would say, is supposedly all-loving. This argument stings them a bit.

With all his Christian rhetoric of late, it’s not surprising that President Obama will cave in to the religious right and sign the NDOP proclamation for May 7. Although he is eliminating the “We love Jesus” ceremony started by GW Bush, it is pretty disappointing that he doesn’t have the backbone to stand by the Constitution with more fervor.

The NDOP is clearly against the law. It is a proclamation by the US President urging people to pray. This is not about the president’s right to pray as an individual, rather using the office to officialize religion, namely Christianity. Exactly how is that defensible legally? It’s not. It’s wrong, and we should let him know about it.

Check out what you can do for our answer to the NDOP, the National Day of Reason, coincidentally on the same day.