It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 
Mother Davis has hit the nail on the head. Whether atheists are right or not is politically irrelevant. Whether atheists have rights is of central importance.

Please take a moment and click here to share your advice with Ellen Johnson of American Atheists in this regard.

Posted by Theodiclus Lock at 11:33 AM# (permalink)  


 
Mother Davis gazes into her crystal ball:

Yesterday, on the heels of a contentious spat with a secular humanist on NPR's Public Interest, the head of American Atheists sends an email to organizations supporting the Godless Americans March On Washington. The email reiterates that all Godless Americans(TM) are to be included in the march, in spite of the fact that some groups want other groups excluded.

Oh, crystal ball, Mother Davis asks,

1. What does American Atheists intend to do with the trademark claim on the phrase "Godless Americans"? Is this a commercial enterprise, or is it intended to head of the religious right from ever using the phrase themselves?

2. Will atheists, agnostics, secular humanists and other non-religious Americans ever get it through their heads that holding nit-picky philosophical debates in public while preparing for political action is counter-productive?

Godless Americans need to come together on an operational basis to wield the political clout their numbers should dictate. Philosophical debates about who's right about what and wrong about what need to be held separately. Let me go out on a limb and suggest that urging the White House to recognize our civil rights whil fighting with each other about whether positive atheism is compatible with the secular humanist perspective isn't the best approach.

There's a basic lesson from political science that atheist organizations need to learn if they're going to stop the Bush White House from abusing non-religious Americans: Stay On The Message! The message is: "14% of Americans live without religion, more than ever before, and they will no longer allow themselves to be abused by unscrupulous politicians!" The message is not: "Atheists are right, religion is wrong, secular humanists are wrong, agnostics are wrong, spiritual freethinkers are wrong, and by the way we'd like our Constitutional rights respected, please."

Smacking her forehead,

Mother Davis

Posted by Katherine Davis at 11:03 AM. # (permalink)  


 
Pissed off that this illegitimate son of a Bush is still screwing up the country while he masquerades as "President"? Want to do something about it?

Visit fringefolk's Daily Protest Page for dozens of ideas on how to publicly register your dissent every day.

- Theo

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Posted by Theodiclus Lock at 11:05 AM. # (permalink)  




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