The new billboard in the “You KNOW” series has gone up a day early in Huntsville, Alabama. The billboard was designed to advertise the upcoming Southeast Regional Atheist Meet. The Huntsville Times also printed an article about the billboard today and mentioned the SERAM.

Here is the new billboard:

This is a great news day for American Atheists!

In my position, I am often the target, mostly metaphorical, of rocks thrown by the opposition. Often I am called angry, rude, and disrespectful by those who insist that a ridiculous idea can be held above reproach.

But there’s a catch — I am not rude or disrespectful of the people, but rather of the ideas they hold. I always stand up for their rights to believe in whatever myth they choose, because I understand the Constitution and the rights guaranteed therein.

Sometimes, I am just not rude or brash enough to warrant complaints from the other side, so they embellish what I say to make me look worse. For example, my appearance on O’Reilly some years ago was seriously quote-mined for the bigoted Liddy Dole election commercial some time back.

But today the attack came from within, by someone named SE Cupp. She calls me “militant” (I hate that — I am vocal but peaceful) and claims I make “condescending rejections, not of faith itself but those who profess it.” The insulting quotes which spurred this assertion? “Religion is my bitch” and “Yes, it’s a myth, deal it it, all delusions are myths” (Thanks for following my Twitter)!

Those are indeed my quotes, behind which I firmly stand, but where in those quotes do I attack believers, and not the belief? The allegation does not follow. She is quote-mining — she is looking for something about which to complain.

I said what I say now — religion and mythology are the same thing. I say religion is a scam, in that it takes money and power while promising a happy eternity that does not exist, and I further maintain that MANY preachers in all religions lie about their belief because it is their job to do so.

I also maintain that the scam of religion has many victims. First and foremost, the flock of intelligent and well-meaning theists who attend these “houses of worship”. Second, every US citizen (myself included) who pays higher taxes so these institutions pay none.

The third kind of victim of religion is those that are fearful of criticizing religion head-on, because they are brainwashed into thinking that such criticism is wrong in and of itself. This is epitomized by SE Cupp, who is so afraid of saying what she knows to be true that she criticizes those who criticize it, just so she can show believers that she doesn’t commit the one Great Sin of speaking about religion with an honest tongue. She would rather twist the truth about me, than tell the truth about religion.

In doing so, she gets on FOX NEWS, and that’s good, because any atheist representation where there was none before is a positive step. However, why is she so eager to accommodate the theists, but so loathe to accommodate the atheists with whom she supposedly agrees?

Atheism is on the rise, and the press knows this. That’s why they hired Ms. Cupp. But it should be remembered that Ms. Cupp got her job because atheists like us shouted so loudly that we created a market of size — a need for a voice, and the press reacted by hiring her. She is a symptom – a reaction – of rude people like me, Myers, Harris, and Dawkins doing the very things Ms. Cupp criticizes.

Here’s the good news: We are going to continue to grow, because more and more people are hearing our simple message — you know fiction when you see it. Our horrible habit of speaking the simple truth will only result in more job opportunities for atheists in the press — even if their job is to throw stones at us.

You’re welcome, Ms. Cupp.

By Dave Silverman

Before going any further, I would like to point out that our lease simply ran out. We only rented the billboard for a month. There is no foul play here or discrimination. Lamar kept our billboard up for the designated time per our contract.

Have you heard the news? The “controversial” American Atheists billboard has been replaced by a Christian billboard!

Controversial? What?

The latest CNN Religion Blog headline says, “God Is’ billboard replaces controversial Lincoln Tunnel atheist billboard.” I wonder why it doesn’t read, “Controversial atheist billboard at Lincoln Tunnel replaced by controversial Christian billboard.”

If our billboard was “an attack of Christianity,” is not the Christian billboard “an attack on secularism?” Where is the article by any of the media outlets talking about this controversial billboard that attacks secularists? Where is the article talking about how controversial the new billboard in Missouri is that shows a bloody fetus and tells women who have received an abortion that they’re going to Hell?

There are hundreds of thousands (if not a million or so) Christian billboards around the United States. Some of them are just advertisements for a church, but others are very “in your face” and some are blatantly offensive. There are billboards that equate atheists to terrorists and others that say atheists are un-American or that atheists hate America.

Did we generate a calling campaign to get those billboards taken down? Nope. Did we start a boycott effort against the billboard company? Nope. Did we vandalize those billboards? Nope. Did we put out a press release saying how offended we were or feign being offended? Nope.

But let the atheists put up one billboard and, pardon the expression, all hell breaks loose. Did the fetus billboard get national attention? Did the “Why do Atheists Hate America?” billboard get national attention? Don’t get me wrong, we’re glad the billboard got national attention because that allowed more closeted atheists to hear about us and know that they are not alone, but the reality is that it should have never received any more press attention than a billboard across the street that said, “God Is Real.”

And thanks to our billboard, the companies that own the signs around the Lincoln Tunnel have made a lot of money in this down economy. The Catholic League felt compelled to respond and they spent a lot of money on a billboard and now a Christian church that replaced our billboard (so desperate they had to get it up the day after ours came down) made Lamar a lot of money.

More power to the Catholic League and the Christian church for exercising their First Amendment Rights! The best test for Freedom of Speech is allowing the speech that you detest the most to be said: a lesson the Catholic League could learn.

The best part about the new CNN Religion Blog is the way it ends: “We sent the Catholic League a thank-you letter.” It was, as one of our Facebook friends noted, the exclamation point to the blog entry.

by Dave Silverman

Today I learned something rather startling.  Apparently, according to the assessment tool currently in use by the US Army to measure mental fitness, I am deficient in the area of “spiritual fitness” and I need to “work hard” to improve my scores in this area.

Here’s some background on the test.  The Army has a new program called the Comprehensive Soldier Fitness Program that is supposed to “create an Army of balanced, healthy, self-confident Soldiers, Families, and Army civilians whose resilience and total fitness enables them to thrive in an era of high operational tempo and persistent conflict.”  This quote is extracted directly from the Army’s official blog at http://armylive.dodlive.mil/index.php/2009/12/csf-global-assessment-tool/.  The mental health components of this initiative are Emotional Fitness, Social Fitness, Family Fitness, and Spiritual Fitness.  All soldiers were required to complete the Global Assessment Tool (GAT) that was designed to measure these components of fitness and this requirement will soon apply to Army civilians as well.  As a civilian employee of the Army, I have access to the test, and after receiving several complaints, I decided to take the test and check this out for myself.  According to the test website, individual results are not reported to commanders by name, but commanders will receive an aggregated report of all the responses in their unit so that they can identify potential issues and conduct interventions and corrective training if issues are identified.  However, since I did have to complete the test using my official Army login, it is a certainty that my individual results are a part of my electronic personnel record and I have no clear picture concerning what use these results could be put to in the future.

I have no real way to know if the assessment is exactly the same for soldiers and civilians, but according to the complaints I received, at least some of the questions are the same. Here’s a sample of some of the questions I had to answer:

Answer in terms of whether the statement describes how you actually live your life.

I basically answered the questions in the following way, which is the way a lot of atheists would answer them.  I am not a spiritual person, I don’t believe my life has a lasting meaning, I do not feel connected to all of humanity and the world, and I don’t believe my life has a defined purpose.  What I do believe, and what’s not possible to address using this assessment, is that although there are no such things as spirits or spiritual connections and human lives have no preordained meaning, we can make meaning for ourselves which doesn’t require calling on anything spiritual.  I also believe there is no such thing as being spiritually connected to humanity but that it is possible to honor and respect humanity and all life, and that while there is no preordained purpose to my life other than what I create for myself, there is nothing wrong with that.

Here’s what the test had to say about my responses:

“Spiritual fitness is an area of possible difficulty for you. You may lack a sense of meaning and purpose in your life. At times, it is hard for you to make sense of what is happening to you and others around you. You may not feel connected to something larger than yourself. You may question your beliefs, principles, and values. Nevertheless, who you are and what you do matter. There are things to do to provide more meaning and purpose in your life. Improving your spiritual fitness should be an important goal. Change is possible, and the relevant self-development training modules will be helpful. If you need further help, please do not hesitate to seek out help from the people you care about and trust – strong people always do. Be patient in your development as it will take time to improve in this area. Still, persistence is key and you will improve here if you make this area a priority.”

Wow, what a bunch of hooey.  To say the least, I found this evaluation to be utterly offensive.  There is NOTHING wrong with me or my beliefs that needs to be fixed and I firmly believe that any strong atheist like myself cannot honestly answer the questions in a way that allows them to pass the test.

This morning, American Atheists dispatched a letter to the Secretary of the Army that alleges that the assessment is flawed and discriminatory and will give commanders a misleading and false assessment concerning the state of their units’ fitness and readiness.   We further stated that this assessment violates the provisions of Army Regulation 600-20 by discriminating against atheist Soldiers due to their lack of spiritual beliefs and we requested the Army immediately cease using this assessment until these flaws are fixed and Soldiers are no longer subjected to a religious test to assess their overall fitness for duty.

Here are the First and Second pages of the letter I sent.

I am interested in your thoughts on this and would especially like to hear from you Army folks who have taken this assessment.

Kathleen Johnson

According to Councilman David Greenfield (an Orthodox Judaic), a NYPD police officer has been transferred from his Midwood precinct to a precinct in northern Manhattan. He was transferred because he made an Orthodox Judaic write his name on the Sabbath.

Rabbi Shalom Emer was caught jaywalking by the officer and was asked to present ID. The rabbi did not have ID on him (Orthodox Jews cannot carry wallets or ID on the Sabbath), so the officer asked him to write down his name and information. The rabbi said he could not because it was against his religious beliefs. The officer insisted and told him that if he refused to write his name and information, the rabbi could go to jail. The rabbi offered to take the officer to his home to retrieve his ID, but the officer did not want to do that and again told the rabbi to write down his name and information.

The rabbi wrote down his information after almost fifteen minutes of back-and-forth. The rabbi filed a complaint saying that the officer disrespected his religious beliefs, was insensitive to his religious beliefs, and forced the rabbi to violate his religious laws on the Sabbath.

Of course, the officer could have walked to the rabbi’s house and retrieved the ID. Of course, the officer could have just given the rabbi a warning and let him go. But the reality is that the law is the law. We can argue all day about how the officer could have done this, that, or the other, but the bottom line is that the rabbi broke the law by jaywalking on the very busy Kings Highway.

The main point of contention seems to be whether or not the officer had the authority to make the rabbi write his name down. We will leave that argument to the lawyers and investigators looking into the incident.

What also caught our attention here is that even if the officer allowed the rabbi to spell out his information while the officer wrote it down, the rabbi would still have to sign the jaywalking ticket. Refusing to sign a ticket, which is not an admission of guilt but an acknowledgment of your court summons, can lead to your arrest. So the rabbi would have had to use a pen and write either way.

The important issue here is that religion does not trump the law. It does not matter if your religious beliefs do not allow you to use a pen and paper: if you have to sign a ticket, you either do so or you go to jail. It does not matter if your religious beliefs require you to wear a burqa: you either take it off for your driver’s license or while driving or you don’t drive a car. It doesn’t matter if your religious beliefs are that god’s law supersedes man’s law: you either pay your taxes or you go to jail (hint hint Dr. Dino).

Whether or not the situation was handled correctly by the officer is a debate separate from whether or not religious beliefs trump the law. Officers can certainly make accommodations for religious beliefs when such accommodations do not hamper law enforcement or violate the law itself, but they are not required to do so. Religious sensitivity does not mean your religion gets to avoid the law.

You are not required to carry ID on you except under certain circumstances (driving a car would be one of those). But if you break the law, you do have to provide officers with your information, even if you do not have your ID on you: religious or non-religious.

Sources:
Rabbi Angry At NYPD Over Jaywalking Ticket
Police Reviewing Shabbat Jaywalk Stop
Cop in Shabbat Violation Incident Transferred

by Blair Scott