Why Should Nonbelievers Care About All This?
Ministers wonder how I can be wicked enough to attack the Bible.I will tell them: This book, the Bible, has persecuted, even unto death, the wisest and the best. This book stopped the onward movement of the human race. This book poisoned the fountains of learning and misdirected the energies of man.
This book is the enemy of freedom, the support of slavery. This book sowed the seeds of hatred in families and nations, fed the flames of war, and impoverished the world. This book is the breastwork of kings and tyrants -- the enslaver of women and children. This book has corrupted parliaments and courts. This book has made colleges and universities the teachers of error and the haters of science.
This book has filled Christendom with hateful, cruel, ignorant and warring sects. This book taught men to kill their fellows for religion's sake. This book funded the Inquisition, invented the instruments of torture, built the dungeons in which the good and loving languished, forged the chains that rusted in their flesh, erected the scaffolds whereon they died. This book piled firewood around the feet of the just. This book drove reason from the minds of millions and filled the asylums with the insane.
This book has caused fathers and mothers to shed the blood of their babes. This book was the auction block on which the slave- mother stood when she was sold from her child. This book filled the sails of the slave-trader and made merchandise of human flesh. This book lighted the fires that burned "witches" and "wizards." This book filled the darkness with ghouls and ghosts, and the bodies of men and women with devils. This book polluted the souls of men with the infamous dogma of eternal pain.
This book made credulity the greatest of virtues, and investigation the greatest of crimes. This book filled nations with hermits, monks and nuns -- with the pious and the useless. This book placed the ignorant and unclean saint above the philosopher and philanthropist. This book taught man to despise the joys of this life, that he might be happy in another -- to waste this world for the sake of the next.
I attack this book because it is the enemy of human liberty -- the greatest obstruction across the highway of human progress.
Let me ask the ministers one question:
How can you be wicked enough to defend this book?Robert Green Ingersoll,
About the Holy Bible
1894
The church still wonders why any Infidel should be wicked enough to endeavor to destroy her power.
I will tell the church why.
You have imprisoned the human mind; you have been the enemy of liberty; you have burned us at the stake -- wasted us upon slow fires -- torn our flesh with iron; you have covered us with chains -- treated us as outcasts; you have filled the world with fear; you have taken our wives and children from our arms; you have confiscated our property; you have denied us the right to testify in courts of justice; you have branded us with infamy; you have torn out our tongues; you have refused us burial. In the name of your religion, you have robbed us of every right; and after having inflicted upon us every evil that can be inflicted in this world, you have fallen upon your knees, and with clasped hands implored your God to torment us forever.
Can you wonder that we hate your doctrines -- that we despise your creeds -- that we feel proud to know that we are beyond your power -- that we are free in spite of you -- that we can express our honest thought, and that the whole world is grandly rising into the blessed light? Can you wonder that we point with pride to the fact that Infidelity has ever been found battling for the rights of man, for the liberty of conscience, and for the happiness of all? Can you wonder that we are proud to know that we have always been disciples of Reason, and soldiers of Freedom; that we have denounced tyranny and superstition, and have kept our hands unstained with human blood?
--Robert Green Ingersoll
Some of us DON'T go along with all of the hypocrisy that comes out of current religious mythologies. Have you noticed the increasing encroachment of the fundamentalist agenda in our government and in many facets of our society?
For those who seek moral direction, is there an alternative to supernatural religion? You bet there is. Let us tell you about it. Are you aware that there are many people who look at evidence and use reason rather than faith as the means of finding truth in the world?
What do YOU think?
Have you noticed the inroads the fundamentalists have made in weakening the science curriculum in our schools? Did you know that many science books don't even mention the word "evolution" because book publishers want to be able to sell their books into ALL school districts. Such a high percentage of school districts have been infiltrated by the fundamentalists that book publishers won't put the word "evolution" in their textbooks. The National Academy of Science has called religious influence on local school boards the greatest threat to the scientific education of our young people. What do you think about our children being deprived of a competitive education and critical thinking skills by this religious intrusion into public schools?
What do you think about people's money being diverted away from important purposes like college educations and lowering consumer debt-- and into the bank accounts of the religious fat cats? Religions take in billions of dollars every year, pay NO taxes, and at the same time, much of their tremendous funds are used to illegally endorse political candidates who align with their narrow theological ideology. Is this right?
Their deep pockets are used to further erode the religious liberties of everyone. They use the majority of their tax-free money not for good works, but for evangelical outreach. Only 25% of conservative churches even provide charitable works at all. Did you know about that? Does it surprise you? If you really want to hear what the fundamentalists say on their radio and television shows, it may surprise you! (Try listening to AM radio sometime to hear for yourself.) They routinely promote and propagate the hatred and fear of certain groups of people on their shows. The religious conservatives are constantly active to weaken the First Amendment, the only barrier that protects us from their onslaught.
Do you like the fact that our government has chosen for you to put a religious slogan on your money? Do you agree with the phrase "In God We Trust"? Did you know that it was placed on our paper currency in 1954, by an act of Congress, under McCarthyism? Do you think if fairly represents all American views, and is a proper interpretation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, requiring seperation of church and state?
Considering there are hundreds of Gods a person could believe in, the people that believe in their culture's God are really atheists when it comes to all those other Gods. Should people who believe in one less God than the society in which they live be ostracized for their lack of belief? Do people have a right to their own opinions (especially in THIS country)?
Does it bother you that you can't freely express your doubt and disbelief? Do you feel that our society has created a climate that is hostile to skeptical, critical thinking? We believe, as in the fable of the Emperor's New Clothes, that if some of us come forward and express our disbelief of the current religious system, others who feel the same way will follow our example. Polls indicate that somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of the American population do not believe in the biblical God. We think the percentage may be much higher, but people are too uncomfortable to freely express themselves.
Are you interested in joining us?
If you are a Freethinker and don't care about your rights, just ignore them. They'll go away.
The way to deal with superstition is not to be polite to it, but to tackle it with all arms, and so rout it, cripple it, and make it forever infamous and ridiculous. Is it, perchance, cherished by persons who should know better? Then their folly should be brought out into the light of day, and exhibited there in all its hideousness until they flee from it, hiding their heads in shame.
True enough, even a superstitious man has certain inalienable rights. He has a right to harbor and indulge his imbecilities as long as he pleases, provided only he does not try to inflict them upon other men by force. He has a right to argue for them as eloquently as he can. He has a right to teach them to his children. But certainly he has no right to be protected against the free criticism of those who do not hold them. He has no right to demand that they be treated as sacred. He has no right to preach them without challenge.
-- H. L. Mencken, "Aftermath" (coverage of the Scopes Trial) The Baltimore Evening Sun, (September 14, 1925)
What Freethinkers are up against:
"One day, I hope in the next ten years, I trust that we will have more Christian day schools than there are public schools. I hope I will live to see the day when, as in the early days of our country, we won't have any public schools. The churches will have taken them over again and Christians will be running them. What a happy day that will be!"
Jerry Falwell, in “America Can Be Saved"I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good. Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism."
Randall Terry, founder of Operation Rescue quoted in The News-Sentinel, 8-16-93"The Constitution...is a marvelous document for self government by Christian people. But non-Christian people and atheist people can use it to destroy the very foundation of our society."
Pat Robertson Founder, Christian Coalition"It is quite unlawful to demand, defend, or to grant unconditional freedom of thought, or speech, of writing or worship, as if these were so many rights given by nature to man."
Pope Leo XIII, “Great Encyclical Letters” (p.16)"There will never be peace until God's people are given their rightful place of leadership at the top of the world. How can there be peace when drunkards, drug dealers, communists, atheists, New Age worshipers of Satan, secular humanists, oppressive dictators, greedy money changers, adulterers, and homosexuals are on top. There is absolutely no way that government can operate successfully unless led by godly men and women operating under the laws of the God of Jacob."
Pat Robertson “The New World Order” (1991)"No, I don't know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered as patriots. This is one nation under God."
President George BushMore things you should see HERE and HERE