By now Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor’s (of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, the FFRF) neo-pagan-positive-affirmation-atheist-sect sign has been stolen and returned to the Wisconsin State Capitol.
The theft prompted the FFRF to add another dogma to their sign. The original read thusly,
At this season of the Winter Solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world.
Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.
Note that this statement was originally made by Anne Nicol Gaylor who was the principal founder of the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) and directed it 1976-2004, the statement was her aphorism. Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor (Anne’s daughter) now direct the FFRF.
The statement is said to not merely be a quote from Anne but is an FFRF maxim that is use every year as a Winter Solstice message that they put on display in order to counter religious displays in government buildings.
On the heels of the FFRF’s progressive revelation, the fifth commandment readeth, “Thou shalt not steal.”
This assertion was propped up by two others as Dan Barker explained that “It was unfriendly,” and “it was illegal.”1 I suppose that he presupposed that we ought to be friendly yet, the thief disagreed with the FFRF’s morality-perhaps the thief has discerned the changing moral zeitgeist and theft is now moral.
Theft is illegal, true. Yet, the thief got away with it and so the FFRF can shake its fist in the air all that it wants. The fact is that the thief got away with it, period. The thief’s DNA just is and the thief is dancing to its music.
Dan Barker further stated, “it actually underscored our point that religion hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”2Let us consider statistics:Let us merely focus on the USA where the theft took place in order to be more generous to Dan Barker’s position (although, they were addressing all religious people worldwide).As of July 2007 there are an estimated 305,936,722 Americans.Of those, 95%, or 290,639,885.9 are “religious” / believe in “God.”Of those, one single person stole the sign.One out of two hundred ninety six hundred thirty nine thousand eight hundred eighty five point nine.This underscored what, exactly?
But let the FFRF have its fun, to the one thief, feel free to add the complaints and the people wanting to erect a Festivus pole.
But Dan Barker was not done yet, “…so that people are unwilling to be gracious and tolerate another point of view.”3
Seriously, the poster of positive affirmation atheism along with the statement, “Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds” is now going to lecture us about grace and tolerance, oi vey!
Yet, Dan Barker further elucidated, “We thought our sign was pretty mild. But some people thought it was pretty hard-hitting…It’s a criticism of religion.”4
There you have it, this is the Barkerian sect of Freethought‘s idea of grace and tolerance: “Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.” Mind you, this was “mild.” Although, if you have heard Dan Barker’s rants during debates, whether he is arguing that rape is not absolutely immoral or pulling the argument from embarrassment card, you know that this actually is mild.
Of course, he is prejudicially presupposing that the thief was a “religious” person.
Yet, he manages to get to the bottom line. His was a “criticism of religion” and this is the problem. People of other faiths are contemplating their blessings, enjoying their friends and families, communing with God, giving to actual charities, etc. Dan Barker is of a particular sect of atheism that cannot stand the idea of “religious” people just being happy and must besmirch them at every turn, he must interfere with merry making in order to criticize.But, but, wait, free-speech and such…Indeed, he has that right that was endowed to him by our creator, by nature’s God.
And the end result: he is quite pleased because he can now say “See, see, I told you so. Those religious people have hardened hearts and enslaved minds” and the FFRF gets free publicity.
In my previous FFRF free publicity post, Dan Barker and Neo-Pagan Atheism, I recommended various slogans for Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF) billboards.
Yet, I overlooked one very important one. The FFRF put up billboards reading “Reason’s Greetings.”
Where they to put one up stating “Let us reason together” they could continue by having it state “Says the LORD (Isaiah 1:18).”
