America’s most notorious atheist has gained a semblance of immortality if not eternal life with the local reincarnation of a media hoax attributed to her more than 14 years after her murder.
Once again, people are being asked to sign a petition objecting to a request — falsely attributed to Madalyn Murray O’Hair in 1975 — before the Federal Communication Commission to ban religious programming.
O’Hair and the FCC denied, and still deny, any such plan existed.
Even so, a counter-petition campaign inundated the FCC with more mail about this than anything in the agency’s history.
In 1995, O’Hair went missing, with rumors ranging from her absconding with her organization’s money to foul play.
In 2001, the man who murdered and dismembered O’Hair, her younger son and her granddaughter led authorities to their shallow grave on a Texas ranch.
Despite their deaths, the urban legend lives on.
Last fall, this e-mail was sent to some Casper-area residents stating in part: “Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, on the airwaves of America. They got 287,000 signatures to back their stand! If this attempt is successful, all Sunday worship services being broadcast on the radio or by television will be stopped. This group is also campaigning to remove all Christmas programs and Christmas carols from public schools! You as a Christian can help!”
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Petrie had been a victim of this hoax in the past by signing the petition, and she double-checked it at truthorfiction.com., she said.That Web site states: “No such petition has ever been presented to the FCC by Madalyn Murray O’Hair or her organization of American atheists.”
This is getting absurd.
Not that the hoax resurfaces — that’s not surprising at all. When the religious right has nothing about which to complain, they will often spread lies in order to galvanize the flock against a common enemy, even if the story isn’t true. Like the story said, “It’s a cynical manipulation of honest believers.”
The absurd part is the number of people who believe it without even an ounce of research, and take action against a dead woman and an nonexistent issue.
So for the record, this is a hoax. There is no petition to remove any programming from any TV show, and there never was. In fact, I will go on record as saying that such an activity would be unconstitutional, because religious speech, however moronic it is, is still part of free speech and must not be regulated.
And now a question to our religious friends who believe this crap over an over again. This is a provable lie, told to you by your religious leaders. Does this not diminish the validity of your trust in them? Do you think perhaps they may be wrong/lying about other things as well, for their own betterment?
The preacher never said he was sorry for misleading his flock. I’ll bet they don’t even know.
Sometimes people jump to believing things as a result of cognitive dissonance. A Jeebustard who holds the position that atheists are evil allies of Teh Debil may find it reinforces their existing delusional belief about atheists to also give credence to this piece of Jeebus-brand BS.
By confirming that atheists are intolerant using this complete fiction these Jeebustards protect their holy delusions from the corrosive influence of objective reality.
Cognitive dissonance rules!
http://skepticwiki.org/index.php/Cognitive_Dissonance
True believers will believe anything. They also don’t like the Free Speech guarantee in the Constitution. They want to say whatever their addled little minds can think up, but they resent any alternative view.
I’ll bet I get an e-mail about this from one of the “unco guid”. Can’t get away from them
Quote from Dorky Mommy: “True believers will believe anything.”
So true. Just look at how socialism survives.
hey since the religious leaders(and i include all religions here) tell daily lies to their flocks about sky daddies, heaven, noah, chosen people, 72 virgins, etc., why would a little white lie about O’Hair bother any of them? i mean really Dave, does this surprise you? and do you really think the flock would trust their leaders less because of it? most devout xtians don’t even accept the science behind evolution and age of the earth, etc. etc, ad infinitum, so why would this bother any of them? Baaaaaaa Baaaaaaa sheeple.
A person has to be gullible in the first place to accept the crap in the bible, or Koran, or any other religious tome, so seeing them so easily hoaxed is no surprise. I have talked to some religious folk among my relatives that were all worked up about something, I don’t remember what, and I told them what they were worked up about wasn’t even real. I told them where they could check the facts, but this didn’t faze them. They were determined it was true, and facts could not stand in the way of that.
dw…one would actually have to read the bible or Koran to make such a claim…
But more to the point…did you reread your post?
Would mind trying to explain what in the world you’re talking about?
Not that the hoax resurfaces — that’s not surprising at all. When the religious right has nothing about which to complain, they will often spread lies in order to galvanize the flock against a common enemy, even if the story isn’t true.
One thing in life is true…people project their own actions upon others when they are attempting to advance their agenda…this threads only purpose is to galvanize the troops.
Can AA take legal action against the perps.If so they should, there should be zero tolerance for this BS.
Offtopic
This gets under my skin, todays jobs report claims unemployment dropped to 9.7%
but just yesterday it was admitted jobless was undercounted by 824,000 loss jobs.This lying by gov’t and media has got to stop. 9.7% more like 20% unemployment.
I’d imagine. Wouldn’t this constitute slander? Maybe I’m thinking of the wrong word, but wrongly representing someone or something purposefully and with intent to harm I am pretty damn sure is lawsuit worthy.
OT here
The US Census is happening this year….the last one done was 10 years ago….we can only pray that there’s less praying today…..
http://www.census.gov/
C’mon now. These are the same folks who believe that the earth is only a few thousand years old and a supernatural being “faked’ the overwhelming evidence to the contrary. I am not surprised that they buy these hoaxes.
But in all fairness to the religious crowd, we also have people who believe that some Nigerian is going to send them a fortune if they just put up some “good faith” money. Frankly, belief in that scam boggles my mind even more.