From: harry@timesink.chi.il.us (Harold Platypus)
Subject: Re: Atheists should mind their own damn business
Organization: Big Bulging Buffalo Bladders -R- Us
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 19:08:48 GMT

In article <1992Dec12.165219.15049@netcom.com> bskendig@netcom.com (Brian Kendig) writes:
>harry@timesink.chi.il.us (Harold Platypus) writes:
>>I don't have anything against atheists really... just leave me and
>>my world alone. If you don't like "In God We Trust" on US Currency,
>>don't look for it - ya know it's there.
>
>'Scuze me?
>
>This is OUR world too, buddy.  How would you feel if US currency bore
>the words "God Does Not Exist"?  Wouldn't you get a little riled?

No, I would ignore it just like I ignore the Krishnas at the airport.

>Wouldn't you be the least bit annoyed that the stuff you're paid with,
>the stuff that you pay taxes with, indeed the very stuff that
>practically runs your life bears a completely pointless statement that
>flies in the face of what you believe?  Money would still be money
>without this statement; why oh why did they ever put it on?

Just to piss you off...

>I wish I could boycott money because of this, but I can't.  Doesn't
>mean I have to like it, though, or that I can't try to right the wrong.

Try as you will, the majority will rule... Ha ha ha ha haaaaaaa...

>>If a religious symbol in a
>>municipal seal is offensive to you, don't seek it out... After all
>>it's not a blinking neon sign in your face, you have to look for it.
>
>Again, try turning the tables.  If your county seal bore a bas-relief
>of Mohammed supplicating to Allah and an Islamic benediction, wouldn't
>you be just a a little annoyed?  In this country, a government is
>supposed to represent the people it governs -- and when it displays
>religious symbols in places as obvious as this, it isn't.

I would throw flaming dung at the county seal and run around in
cirles stamping my feet. I would also hire expensive lawyers and
file suit in our wonderful legal system that is already overflowing
with cases of REAL importance. Having won my case, I would relish
my tax dollars being spent on designing a new seal which, in the
case of Zion, Illinois would include the words "In God We Trust"
just to piss me off. Then I would do it all again and again...

But maybe I'd just give up, smear myself with dog feces and do the
watusi up main street...

>You're free to hold whatever religious beliefs you want to.  However,
>you are *not* free to saturate every part of society with these
>beliefs.  I don't want my government to spend my tax money on a glitzy
>public nativity scene.  I don't, in fact, want my government to spend
>any money at all promoting Christian myth; if a church wants to have a
>nativity scene, then it can put one up, on its own property, with its
>own money.  (But then again, churches don't have to pay taxes, another
>wrong which I hope is righted someday.)

I don't want my tax dollars spent on this either...

>>If a book or movie or anything in my environment offends my
>>sensibilities, I try to ignore it. Why do y'all have to stir up shit... 
>>Most of us kinda like "In God We Trust" on the currency. It's kinda
>>folksy and quaint, whether you believe it or not. Just look at it
>>as if it were saying "When things are going down the toilet, and we
>>can't stand to blame ourselves, we trust in God... 'cuz if there
>>ain't one, we're all fucked!". That should put a new face on it...
>
>Yeah, and a few decades ago it was "Most of us aren't black," and
>these days it's "Most of us aren't gay."  You're defending your point
>with "Most of us aren't atheist."  It's not folksy and quaint, it's
>superstitious and wrong.  I don't trust in God.  I used to, many years
>ago, but I went through such misery as a result that I learned my
>lesson well.
>
It may be superstitious, but it is NOT wrong. Many millions died so
this kind of freedom of expression would be possible. You are free to
interpret "In God We Trust" in any way you wish. Just think of God
as say.... an absolutely huge Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.
- Harry
Newsgroups: alt.atheism