Atheists Unbless Highway in FL.

UnrepentantSinner said:
You keep repeating this like a mantra, but it doesn't change the fact that you think the proper response by atheists to a dick move by Christians is to be dicks in return.
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No, I think the atheists weren't dicks because they didn't include a call to incarcerate or exile Christians and the Christians were dicks because they did. Had the Christian group simply blessed the highways for all and left it at that I'd have a different opinion on this.
 
So...what ways could this group have effectively protested?

Pray for the original highway blessing folks to be incarcerated themselves

Pray for them to become atheists

Anoint the highway with pasta in honor of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Build an angel interference machine and set it up at the county line

Put some Voodoo symbols on the highway

I mean if they are going to do ridiculous stuff, they could have at least done something halfway funny.:D

Or...they could have just done a separation of church and state educational event, maybe hold up a few signs about the legal right to freedom from religion.

I just saw a FFRF.org tv ad this morning--those types of things might be effective use of one's resources.
 
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RecoveringYuppy said:
No, I think the atheists weren't dicks because they didn't include a call to incarcerate or exile Christians and the Christians were dicks because they did. Had the Christian group simply blessed the highways for all and left it at that I'd have a different opinion on this.
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RY - You should really stop saying "call to". It isn't "call to". It's "Prayer for". One makes it sound like they said it to a person, and possibly that the person listened (in light of the arrests), when in actual fact they said it to an imaginary person who doesn't seem to have done anything at all.
 
RemieV said:
RY - You should really stop saying "call to". It isn't "call to". It's "Prayer for". One makes it sound like they said it to a person, and possibly that the person listened (in light of the arrests), when in actual fact they said it to an imaginary person who doesn't seem to have done anything at all.
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You're completely out of touch with reality if you think that fundy Christians are in touch with reality enough to understand that their prayers are to an imaginary person. You can't be serious.
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
You're completely out of touch with reality if you think that fundy Christians are in touch with reality enough to understand that their prayers are to an imaginary person. You can't be serious.
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No - I'm saying that you categorizing it as a 'call to' makes it sound like something happened, whereas what they did was pray, and if you're an atheist (which your posts seem to indicate), then you don't believe it was effective to pray for such an outcome.

This is about how what you say mischaracterizes what happened. Has nothing to do with what effect they THINK praying has. 'They called for the banishment of all atheists' has a very different meaning than 'They prayed for the banishment of all atheists.'
 
RemieV said:
'They prayed for the banishment of all atheists.'
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True... but they also acted on the prayer (by twice arresting one of the atheist protesters on trumped-up unsupported charges) leading to the underlying reason for the protest.

I doubt they would've bothered, a year later, to do this if they hadn't been provoked in the intervening period. Atheists tend to act in defense.
 
joseph8th said:
True... but they also acted on the prayer (by twice arresting one of the atheist protesters on trumped-up unsupported charges) leading to the underlying reason for the protest.

I doubt they would've bothered, a year later, to do this if they hadn't been provoked in the intervening period. Atheists tend to act in defense.
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There is zero evidence that she was arrested on the basis of being an atheist, and abundant evidence that she was arrested on the basis of being a pain in the ass.

Might want to backtrack through the comments a bit. That whole thing was in there somewhere.
 
triforcharity said:
So, you're saying that as a government official, they cannot voice their opinion and support of a religion?

Bull ****. That would be in DIRECT violation of their rights.

However, if they said that the county or whatever government division they worked for, supported any religion officially, that would be a violation.
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Fair point. I retract my earlier comments regarding use of the likenesses on the billboards.

I do still think there's really nothing wrong in the way that this particular event was performed. It brought attention to the ridiculousness (and often antagonistim) found in Christianity in many places in the US in a manner that is hard to really find fault with (on the other side).

So, what's the big complaint here? That people stood up and said "Hey, we're not all religious here. Everyone should be welcome in Polk County"? Or that people stood up at all for such a "small, insignificant" issue? Because, again, if we only fight big issues, there will only be big issues to fight. Fighting small issues tends to keep the issues small. When people know they can take a mile, they're going to take it.
 
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Edited by kmortis: 
Removed presonal comment

RemieV said:
No - I'm saying that you categorizing it as a 'call to' makes it sound like something happened,...
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No, it doesn't. Calls can go unanswered. But there is a legitimate question about how much influence this Christian group has.
RemieV said:
... whereas what they did was pray, and if you're an atheist (which your posts seem to indicate), then you don't believe it was effective to pray for such an outcome.
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Sheez. Prayers can be carried out by humans, so, no, I am not obligated to think prayers are ineffective.
 
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arthwollipot said:
Exactly what were this protest's goals and were those goals achieved?
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Do you seriously not know? The link in the OP seems pretty clear on what the goals were. And the fact that the link (from a CBS affiliate) would indicate that they got the publicity they wanted (which is one of the goals of most demonstrations).

Goals in a nutshell:
1. Point out that the Christian group asked for non Christians to be incarcerated or exiled.
2. Point out that the Christian group has implicit and explicit ties to the local government which need to be clarified (at least).

I'm not clear on whether the demonstrators also brought up the case of a local atheist who has been arrested repeatedly or whether the reporter researched that separately.

In addition to the publicity, local officials in the county have started to clarify their relations to PUP.
 
Aridas said:
Seriously, if you don't believe in blessings in the first place, how can you unbless something?
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I never thought of that.

"I'm gonna bless this road!!"

"I don't believe in your blessing, but i'm going to wash it off anyway...."

Makes no logical sense to me....
 
RecoveringYuppy said:
Do you seriously not know? The link in the OP seems pretty clear on what the goals were. And the fact that the link (from a CBS affiliate) would indicate that they got the publicity they wanted (which is one of the goals of most demonstrations).

Goals in a nutshell:
1. Point out that the Christian group asked for non Christians to be incarcerated or exiled.
2. Point out that the Christian group has implicit and explicit ties to the local government which need to be clarified (at least).

I'm not clear on whether the demonstrators also brought up the case of a local atheist who has been arrested repeatedly or whether the reporter researched that separately.

In addition to the publicity, local officials in the county have started to clarify their relations to PUP.
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And now to the second half of the question. Were these goals achieved? How do you know?
 
triforcharity said:
I never thought of that.

"I'm gonna bless this road!!"

"I don't believe in your blessing, but i'm going to wash it off anyway...."

Makes no logical sense to me....
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It does when the goal is not to remove the blessing but rather to bring to the public discourse that such blessings are happening and all non-Christians are being persecuted.
 
Checkmite said:
And this requires a ritual "unblessing"?
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It certainly drew more attention than simply writing a letter to the local news editor, right? How else would you suggest this ridiculousness and antagonism be brought to the limelight?
 
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