Mummert was wrong:
"We're being attacked..." cried Reverend Ray Mummert of Dover Pennsylvenia, but he was wrong.
Atheists, agnostics and all the rest of the non-believing American public are not, in general, aggressively engaged in opposition to god-belief. "Believe what you like... ignore reality if you'd prefer... stay stupid. It's your right..." are all replies to religion but not edicts upon it.
When the Dover Board of Education was brought to the task of defending its decision to institute creationist teaching into the public school science curriculum in 2005, the Rev. Mummert made his famous complaint of woe, calling the court action an attack; however, his perception was very, very inaccurate.
The true attackers were those who stood to disregard the nation's constitutional law, the creationist, the installing school board. Atheisits, et.al., lead by Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison Wisconsin, stood to defend the constitution.
And still today, there continues to be a generalized misconception on the part of religionists that those of us, the atheist and secular movement camps, who stand in defiance of Christians (or other religious sects) willing to push and plaster sectarian slogans and doctrine at every turn constitutes some form of aggression. It does not.
The word needs getting out on this; and, a change of attitude on the part of religionists needs to be adopted... pronto. Belief is a private matter and ought to be keep so. Nobody really cares much about what beliefs his neighbor might harbor. Evangelizing, proselytizing, and soldiering for god are, on the other hand, all acts of aggression and those aggressions will be met by defiance.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture."
It isn't so, Reverend. Change your thinking.
"We're being attacked..." cried Reverend Ray Mummert of Dover Pennsylvenia, but he was wrong.
Atheists, agnostics and all the rest of the non-believing American public are not, in general, aggressively engaged in opposition to god-belief. "Believe what you like... ignore reality if you'd prefer... stay stupid. It's your right..." are all replies to religion but not edicts upon it.
The true attackers were those who stood to disregard the nation's constitutional law, the creationist, the installing school board. Atheisits, et.al., lead by Freedom From Religion Foundation of Madison Wisconsin, stood to defend the constitution.
And still today, there continues to be a generalized misconception on the part of religionists that those of us, the atheist and secular movement camps, who stand in defiance of Christians (or other religious sects) willing to push and plaster sectarian slogans and doctrine at every turn constitutes some form of aggression. It does not.
The word needs getting out on this; and, a change of attitude on the part of religionists needs to be adopted... pronto. Belief is a private matter and ought to be keep so. Nobody really cares much about what beliefs his neighbor might harbor. Evangelizing, proselytizing, and soldiering for god are, on the other hand, all acts of aggression and those aggressions will be met by defiance.
"We've been attacked by the intelligent, educated segment of the culture."
It isn't so, Reverend. Change your thinking.
(The image included is of a giant cross located along I-57 in Effingham, Illinois.)
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