Due to constant misunderstanding with my name I feel the need to change my intro. I am hateful, hateful of religion. I hate what religion does to people and that people use it as an excuse to not think. I have spent many years of my life as an Atheist and have learned to handle my emotions, but no other word quite describes how I feel towards religion short of hate. I am outspoken, open minded, and will share my opinion. If you're looking for someone who will always agree with you, that won't be me.
The Out Campaign: Scarlet Letter of Atheism
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6th June 2011

Question with 4 notes

yahoofightroom asked: I'm sure you've heard about this:

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/06/02/prayer-prohibited-at-graduation-ceremony/

And I was wondering what your thoughts were on this. I believe the judge was in the right, but obviously since it's fox news the people commenting it are ridiculous. Saying things like, "Most liberals are godless heathens anyways." "This is what's wrong with America" and even went as far as to say "The judge is wrong because he's not respecting the first amendment." I don't see how he's wrong by essentially saying no group prayer during graduation, but he's allowing individual prayer, so why are people so offended? People who are on the fox news bandwagon just irritate me to the core, I cannot comprehend why anyone on earth could think like that. It just makes me lose faith in humanity all together in all honesty.

Thanks for the message. I actually received a couple other messages on this topic over the weekend. It seems to be something that comes up every year around graduation. Nearly every year some high school, usually in the south, has the same controversy. Whenever Fox news reports on it obviously they paint it as a horrible offense against America and the values that they believe we’re based on. In reality it’s a matter of moving people in the right direction and promoting a properly secular society.

The people that get upset over these rulings and changes to tradition always seem to suffer from the same egocentricity that many Christians give in to. So many Christians simply assume that nearly everyone else is Christian, like them. They feel that since they are the majority that they should have special rights and privileges to impose that upon the public. It’s easy to see in our society, most people have had someone tell them “God bless you” in a situation where it was completely out of context. It’s on our money, in our “pledge”, and thrown out by just about every politician around.

This is certainly not a matter of trying to destroy Christianity. I applaud the student’s that are willing to stand up for what is right despite the persecution and isolation that often happens because of it. It’s a matter of trying to make everyone feel welcome and part of the ceremony the way it should be. It’s not meant to upset and anger the Christians but it is to ensure that all student’s feel like they are a part of it regardless of their religion.

How would these Christians feel if the valedictorian wanted to have a prayer to Allah? What if they wanted to set up a shrine to Lord Brahma? Maybe they could sacrifice a goat to thank the gods for their success? Religion should have absolutely no part in anything to do with a school, it isn’t the right place for it. It’s just another case of Christians not being able to suspend their need for constant religious reinforcement at the door.

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  1. hatefulatheist posted this