I must admit that I cannot figure out what Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor (of the Freedom From Religion Foundation) are up to, nor whether their most recent allotment of 15 minutes of fame are advantageous for them or not.1
Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor placed a positive affirmation of God’s non-existence and anti-theism statement on the first-floor rotunda of the Wisconsin State Capitol (see my previous posts here and here). Certainly, this got them publicity beyond the almost 12 people who were there for the unveiling. I would also assume that this publicity serves their purpose which is to make a living by filing lawsuits and by expressing prejudice.
However, I must wonder what would have happened if they, or any atheist group, could muster enough self-control to put together a display that stated something to the likes of, “We are atheists and we just wanted to say, ‘Happy Holidays.’” This would have earned them publicity as well and it may have even been more beneficial for them, society and the friendly atheist next door who has to constantly suffer the malarkey of the new-militant-activist-atheists.
Moreover, I am not sure that it is at all advantageous what occurs whenever Dan Barker gets near a microphone. In this case I am thinking of his statement with regards to Colorado governor Bill Ritter Jr. who declare the first Thursday in May as a day of prayer. True to form, the Freedom From Religion Foundation filed a lawsuit claiming that the proclamations amounts to an endorse of a particular religion and “send a message to nonreligious residents ‘that they are expected to believe in God.’”
Even if you agree with Dan Barker on various issues do you not think, “Oi vey! No Dan. No. We are not expected to believe in God just because the overwhelming majority of residents pray and proclaim a day of prayer.” Such statements turn a conceivably valid legal argument into what is, sadly, a typically new atheist fallacy.
But what does Friedrich Nietzsche have to do with this? I will come to that in a moment.
Freedom From Religion Foundation member David Habecker stated, “Everybody has become too comfortable with this interaction of religion and government. Sometimes someone needs to push back.” True, this comfort has been ongoing from the very birth of the USA, “…their creator…nature’s God…” and such (from the Declaration of Independence). This is the same David Habecker who refused to recite the Pledge of Allegiance because it has the “G” word in it. Apparently, he was not aware that the very freedom to refuse to state it is said by the Declaration of Independence as being a self-evident unalienable right which has been endowed unto him by “…their creator…nature’s God…”
A spokes person for the Governor stated that the proclamation “is nothing more than what it says — a recognition of a personal choice to pray…This is a well-recognized, legally established event…It has no force of law; it’s not an executive order. It is not anything that has standing to violate the Constitution.”A quarter of a century ago the Supreme Court concluded that the traditions such as opening legislative session in prayer is not unconstitutional because it had not caused the establishment of religion (and this is what we are dealing with the establishment clause).While the Governor’s spokes person stated, “there is room for more inclusive language in the future” it makes me wonder if anything but abolishing public civic displays of faith will suffice. I say this with a lawsuit over silence in mind when an atheist and his indoctrinated child sued a school to make silence illegal.
As for Friedrich Nietzsche; allow me to further point out that the Freedom From Religion Foundation is also suing Rancho Cucamonga’s officials over removal of one of their embarrassingly fallacious “Imagine No Religion billboards. After receiving numerous complaints the city’s Redevelopment Director “contacted the billboard company…and asked if the company could do anything.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation’s Annie Laurie Gaylor too a wild faith-based guess and stated, “They used their intimidation powers against the billboard company, I believe…They were contacting them to chill our speech.”
The Freedom From Religion Foundation is also threatening to file a lawsuit against Wisconsin Rapids officials and on it goes.
The tactic of the Freedom From Religion Foundation appears to be this: in December they make intolerant, belligerent, malicious, prejudice and offensive statements in speeches, print, billboards, etc., and then they spend the rest of the year crying underdog status and raking up the loot. Well, one thing is for certain: they have assured job security.
I was reminded of Friedrich Nietzsche when I considered that the Dan Barker has established the Barkerian sect of Freethought and how they are constantly filing lawsuits over free speech.
Søren Kierkeg stated,
People hardly ever make use of the freedom they do have, for example, freedom of thought;
instead they demand freedom of speech as compensation