Monday, February 28, 2011

Kentucky atheists in need of smelling salts

A state appeals court heard oral arguments last Thursday in a case involving nervous atheists who object to language in a 2008 Kentucky law that appeals to "dependence on Almighty God as being vital to the security of the Commonwealth."

The language, which was put in a section of the law governing the state's Office of Homeland Security, "invokes God for is ordered to publicize God's benevolent protection in its reports, and it must post a plaque at the entrance to the state Emergency Operations Center with an 88-word statement that begins, 'The safety and security of the Commonwealth cannot be achieved apart from reliance upon Almighty God.'"

The atheists who filed the lawsuit say they "suffer anxiety from the belief that the existence of these unconstitutional laws suggest that their very safety as residents of Kentucky may be in the hands of fanatics, traitors or fools."

It seems that public policy must now take account of the tender feelings of contemporary atheists who, apparently, no longer possess the fortitude of the more stalwart atheists of old.

Something really must be done about this crisis of masculinity among the ranks of the disbelievers. It used to be that you could exchange verbal blows with these people, and, when the final bell rang, both parties retired in mutual respect to lick their wounds. These days you have be careful they don't faint on you.

Sheez.

In any case, one wonders what the problem with such language is, given countless federal and state proclamations over the years honoring the Deity, and the language on our coinage which proclaims "In God we trust."
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5 comments:

  1. Singring8:13 AM

    Frankly, if the Kentucky state leadership wants to admit that they are incompetent when it comes to security and that the best they can fo to keep people safe is pray to a non-existant entity, then I think they should go for it.

    One more reason for Europeans to laugh at the open, self-admitted and proud ignorance and incompetence of elected officials in the USA, Kentucky in perticular.

    Personally, I prefer living in a country in which elected officials actually take responsibility and do what they can to keep their constituents safe, rather than hold preyer sessions and refer decisions to a being that never seems to reply.

    Crazy idea, I know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Juvenal7:02 PM

    To quotes that great French writer Camus"We make our own destiny, and we, not God, are responsible for our actions and their consequences."

    Let the whining, incompetent, little christian kept their invisible, zombie god.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thomas Aquinas6:03 AM

    Wow, u qouted Camus. How can anyone top that?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thomas M. Cothran1:18 PM

    Well, Camus definitely beats Dawkins or Hitchens.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Lee2:46 PM

    Camus writes a better "plague-al" cadence.

    ReplyDelete

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