Hemant Mehta's Blog, page 1976

Earlier Tonight, an Atheist Delivered an Invocation in Greece, NY, the Center of the Supreme Court’s Ruling

Earlier tonight, Dan Courtney of the Atheist Community of Rochester delivered an invocation at the Greece (New York) Town Board meeting, making him the first atheist to do so at the focal point of this spring’s Supreme Court ruling.

Dan Courtney prepares to deliver his invocation (via David Niose)

In case you need a refresher, from 1999 through 2007, Christians delivered every single invocation prayer at the Greece Town Board meetings. They weren’t prayers to a generic “God” either — they were specifically praying to Jesus Christ and the God of Christianity.

Even after town residents Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens spoke out against the practice, the board only went with a non-Christian invocation-giver at four of its next twelve meetings… before going back to their preferred Christian prayers.

Susan Galloway (left) and Linda Stephens (Heather Ainsworth – Bloomberg)

As everyone knows by now, Stephens and Galloway sued the board over this and took their case to the Supreme Court, where a 5-4 majority ruled against them, setting the stage for government meetings everywhere to open with sectarian prayers at the speaker’s discretion.

The silver lining to the case was that atheists weren’t excluded from giving those invocations (and no city could reject them). They could even give openly non-religious speeches if they wanted, though, so far, we’ve only seen atheists give remarks that are inclusive of everybody (which is the better route, anyway).

Enter Dan Courtney, who was among the first people to sign up to deliver an invocation after the Supreme Court’s decision. It took more than two months from then until now, but it finally happened — and Stephens and Galloway were there to witness it.

According to the Center For Inquiry’s Debbie Goddard, who was on location tonight, the invocation was preceded by the Pledge of Allegiance, officially called a “Moment of Prayer”, and followed by a moment of silence:

It seems they also messed up his group affiliation.

There didn’t appear to be many protesters. Mostly this guy:

According to reporter Meaghan McDermott, a large portion of the crowd began to walk out of the meeting after Courtney was done speaking, interrupting the moment of silence.

Here’s the transcript of his invocation courtesy of McDermott and Carolyn Becker of Openly Secular as well as the audio:

Thank you, members of the town board. Thank you, Supervisor Rielich, for allowing me to offer the invocation.

Freethinkers, atheists, non-believers, whatever label you wish, this group comprises a significant part of our population. I am honored to be providing an invocation on their behalf, and on behalf of all the citizens of the town of Greece.

On July 4th, 1776, the 56 men who pledged their lives to the document that changed the course of history, agreed to the central tenet that, “Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

More than 238 years later, the central premise still echoes, however faintly, from the town hall to the white columned halls of Washington. Yet this premise, this foundation necessary for a free and flourishing society, is today, more than ever, under assault. This central pillar of a free society; this notion that is deeply heretical to authoritarian culture, proclaims that it is from the people that moral authority is derived. It is that within us, the citizens, that knowledge and wisdom must emerge.

The preservation of this premise does not come from accepting the status quo, but by asserting our rights and exercising our duties. That this premise still endures testifies to its truth, and we can say with confidence that it is in seeking the counsel of our conscience that we find the beginning of wisdom. It is in the exercise of our duty as citizens that we find the beginning of knowledge.

We, as citizens, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega of our destiny, are not, as the great philosopher Immanuel Kant warned, mere means to the ends of another, but we are ends in ourselves.

This basic premise, this profound idea, guides us such that we need not kneel to any king, and we need not bow to any tyrant.

So I ask all officials present here, as guarantors of our Founders’ revolutionary proclamation, to heed the counsel of the governed, to seek the wisdom of all citizens, and to honor the enlightened wisdom and the profound courage of those 56 brave men.

Here’s the video:

(Portions of this article were posted earlier)

The Bloggers at the Skeptic Ink Network Just Published Their First Book

The bloggers at the Skeptic Ink Network did something that I can’t believe other networks (including this one) don’t do on a regular basis: They wrote original pieces and compiled them into a collection called 13 Reasons to Doubt:

Having looked through the book, it’s informative, all over the place subject-wise (I mean that in the best possible way), and a great introduction to a range of personalities. It not only broadens their own reach, it furthers their goals of spreading skepticism and critical thinking. Good for them. (There’s no reason serious individual bloggers couldn’t create something similar with cleaned-up versions of their old posts.)

I know it took them some time to create this product, but I hope the SIN writers keep this going, publishing books on a regular basis and finding an audience beyond just their own sites.

Liberty University Will Soon Launch Its Own Medicine School

You’ll all be happy to know that Liberty University, which rejects evolution and embraces Young Earth Creationism, is a month away from launching a medical school.

“The idea that we can do this with a Christian worldview — we’re not evangelizing, we’re not trying to make everybody Christian who comes here; that would be completely inappropriate — but with what we believe are the biblical principles [of] the Christ-centered life we try to lead, try to emulate. … It’s different, it’s exciting,” said Dr. Michael Lockwood, a professor in the Department of Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine.

Liberty’s College of Osteopathic Medicine may be the 30th college of osteopathic medicine in the country, but it is only the fifth faith-based institution.

The school only has provisional accreditation right now and won’t be up for full accreditation until the first class is ready to graduate. What happens if they don’t receive that status? Who knows.

Graduates will receive a D.O. degree after four years (not an M.D.), which tells you that the school focuses more on the spiritual needs of the patient. (D.O. schools are also typically easier to get into than traditional medical schools issuing M.D.s)

We don’t know yet how faculty members will teach about homosexuality or birth control. Is “sin” part of the curriculum? How will students be taught to deal with patients who are not Christian or who want to have an abortion? What will be the difference between doctors who graduate from Liberty and doctors who graduate from another D.O. school?

Until we know those answers, it’s hard to tell how much of a benefit this school will be.

Eruv Battle Continues in Miami Beach

The other day, I posted about eruvs (AY-roovs), the religious loopholes that allow Orthodox Jews to leave the house and carry things on the Sabbath — which they’re technically forbidden from doing — by just… extended the boundaries of their property. Which they do by tying string around government-owned utility poles and creating a larger domain within which they can move around.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation recently sent a letter to officials in Miami Beach, Florida, urging them to stop allowing the religious items on government property.

(Original image via @lakefronteruv)

Late last week, city attorney Raul Aguila responded to the FFRF and defended the eruvs:

… an Eruv does not violate the establishment clause, and can be legally permitted. It has the secular purpose of allowing Orthodox Jews to participate in matters of daily living outside of their homes on Saturday, their Sabbath. Thus, permits have been issued for the Eruv in Miami Beach…

The FFRF’s Andrew Seidel isn’t convinced at all:

… There is nothing secular about helping a religious sect comply with religious law. What do you think the reaction would be if Miami Beach endorsed and even helped devout Muslims rope off an area in which to adhere to Sharia law?

…

Orthodox Jews suffer no government-imposed burden on their religion. The Sabbath prohibitions on labor are imposed by their own religion. If they do not wish to adhere to those rules, the solution is to renounce Orthodox Judaism — not designate public and private property that they do not own as belonging to that sect. This is as absurd as a Catholic deciding to fast for Lent and then claiming the government has a responsibility to feed him. The government cannot favor one religion by alleviating its self-imposed burdens or allowing it to impose that religion over wide swaths of public and private property. This is not freedom of religion; it is the imposition of religion.

This isn’t over yet. I wish I could say it’s refreshing to fight a different battle, but it’s really the same principal we see all the time: One religious group thinking it can and should skirt the law because they feel the need to please their God. It’s not the government’s job to accommodate those wishes.

***Update***: According to FFRF, the person who originally filed the complaint says that at least one Orthodox Jew in the area claims that the park where the eruvs are located now belongs to them and not the city:

Today I learned that an Orthodox person who frequents the park has told at least one Hispanic resident who walks her dog in the park daily that she should find another place to walk; that Pine Tree Park is “for Jews only now”.

…

I have been visiting the Park daily for 25 years. … Each morning I clean up the plastic and styrofoam that washes in at the kayak launch. I tell you this so that you will understand how much the park has meant to me during my residence in Miami Beach. Now I no longer feel welcome in this park, and if I didn’t have to walk my dog, I would not set foot in it again until the religious structures are removed. Other neighbors have expressed similar feelings to me.

Obviously, the Orthodox Jews can’t “claim” the park anymore than a local Boy Scouts troop can. But it’s disturbing that the placement of an eruv in the area really makes them believe it’s part of their property.

This is How You Should Tweet When Your Baseball Team Runs a Promotion with an Atheist Group

On Friday night, the St. Paul Saints minor league baseball team became the Mr. Paul Aints as part of a promotion with the Minnesota Atheists, the third time they’ve partnered up.

What I didn’t realize was that the person behind the team’s Twitter account would join in on the fun:

At least there was a happy ending to the game!

Outside the stadium, though, Christians were hard at work undoing the “damage,” leaving all sorts of Jesus-y tracts on windshields. A couple of atheists scooped them up:

Not the team’s fault, of course. For what it’s worth, on Sunday, the Saints held a Faith & Family Day promotion and the tweeter was right back at it:

Well played, Aints. Well played.

Last night, I spoke with the person behind the Twitter account (who isn’t an atheist, by the way) and was told it was all in good fun and that there was no backlash from the tweets. It’s good to know Saints fans appreciate the sarcasm and humor even if they don’t necessarily agree with the theology. For that reason alone, I hope Minnesota Atheists continues the promotion again next year; this is a fun group of people to work with.

(via Fast Company)

Bryan Fischer: The Study of Knot Formation Disproves Evolution

On his radio show yesterday, Bryan Fischer explained a new argument against evolution… and it may rival Ray Comfort‘s banana.

You know how your iPod earbuds get really tangled up no matter what you seem to do? Well, there’s research that shows when you put pieces of string in a box and shake it up, they inevitably get tangled up… and never the other way around.

And therefore, says Fischer, evolution makes no sense. The airtight logic begins around the 6:01 mark:

… when they take the lid off [the box of string], after all of these extensive random interactions, random collisions of these short pieces of string, they do not get beautiful bows, beautiful bow ties, artistically-designed origami-style string sculptures. They get a big giant mass of knots. It’s a box of completely random knots! There’s no design, there’s no beauty, there’s no intricacy, there’s no complexity, there’s no increasing order. What you get is something that is increasingly dysfunctional and non-operative.

…

The evolutionists want us to believe that the random collision of atoms is responsible for everything that we see. But we know if you’re depending on the random collision of anything, you are not gonna get something more highly structured, you’re not gonna get something more complex, you’re not gonna get something more advanced, you’re gonna get something that’s more chaotic, is less functional, and is less organized. That’s just the way that nature works.

And so, just thinking about knots is enough to make you realize it’s just folly to believe that everything around us could’ve happened through the random, undirected collision of atoms.

And that, children, is how evolution was proven false.

Fischer should write that up and submit it to a scientific journal. Or the thing Answers in Genesis thinks is a scientific journal.

Of course, he fails to realize that living things that can reproduce and mutate are very different from inanimate strings… and that, with evolution, the “knots” that give the “string” a better chance of survival would continue to reproduce and mutate — a far cry from being dysfunctional and non-operative.

There’s Christian logic for you: If you can form an analogy, no matter how weak it is, it must be true. Forget science and fossils and DNA and all the evidence ever found. If someone could have just shown Darwin some string, we would’ve saved ourselves a lot of trouble.

(Thanks to Kyle for the link)

Deepak Chopra: I’ll Give Atheists $1,000,000 if They Can Prove How Consciousness Works

Deepak Chopra, whose ability to vomit up big words and put them in a nonsensical order has convinced gullible people to give him tons of money, is issuing a million dollar challenge of his own:

If James Randi or Richard Dawkins or Daniel Dennett or any of the “militant New Atheists” can explain how thoughts form — how consciousness works — he’ll write you a check:

Even if we take him at his word, he’s asking the skeptics to prove something that science doesn’t have the answer to yet. More importantly, though, it’s not like any of those guys are saying they have that knowledge.

That’s very different from Randi’s challenge, which targets “psychics” who claim to have supernatural powers. All they have to do to win the money is prove the claims they’re already making.

In Chopra’s challenge, he’s asking the scientists to prove the unknown. (May I suggest just making up and stringing together big words? He’ll probably fall for it.)

The implication is that their inability to do so somehow gives Chopra credibility. Which it doesn’t. Chopra is no closer to having that answer than anyone else. Furthermore, Chopra issues no guidelines as to what counts as a valid answer. He’s just the Ultimate Decider.

At least Randi’s rules and regulations are right there for everyone to see.

Backlash Ensues After Christian College President Signs Letter Supporting LGBT Hiring Discrimination

It’s becoming easier and easier for religious groups to defend their bigoted beliefs.

We obviously saw this in the Hobby Lobby decision, in which the Supreme Court ruled that the religious beliefs of certain corporation owners trump the needs of their employees, but the “religious exemption” claim has come up before, too — Christian-owned businesses refusing to serve LGBT people, for example, or Christian schools trying to shut out LGBT teachers and students.

One school in Massachusetts recently made a loud plea for legal, religious-based anti-LGBT discrimination, but thankfully their efforts may get cut short.

Gordon College

Earlier this month, a group of faith-based organizations wrote a letter to President Obama in response to his executive order banning anti-LGBT hiring discrimination from groups receiving federal funding. More specifically, they requested that religious organizations continue to receive federal funding even if they discriminate against LGBT people, all in an attempt not to stifle their religious beliefs:

With respect to the proposed order, we agree that banning discrimination is a good thing. We believe that all persons are created in the divine image of the creator, and are worthy of respect and love, without exception.

(Quick interruption to say: Worthy of respect and love, but not worthy of a job? Double standard, much?)

Even so, it may still not be possible for all sides to reach a consensus on every issue. That is why we are asking that an extension of protection for one group not come at the expense of faith communities whose religious identity and beliefs motivate them to serve those in need. …

Often, in American history — and, indeed, in partnership with your Administration — government and religious organizations have worked together to better serve the nation. An executive order that does not include a religious exemption will significantly and substantively hamper the work of some religious organizations that are best equipped to serve in common purpose with the federal government. …

But our concern about an executive order without a religious exemption is about more than the direct financial impact on religious organizations. While the nation has undergone incredible social and legal change over the last decade, we still live in a nation with different beliefs about sexuality. We must find a way to respect diversity of opinion on this issue in a way that respects the dignity of all parties to the best of our ability. There is no perfect solution that will make all parties completely happy.

Translated: “Gay people are icky, and even if some of them can get married now, it grosses us out to have to share office space with them. Respect us!” (Read the full letter here.)

D. Michael Lindsay, the president of the federally-funded Gordon College, signed on to this letter. (His co-signers include Rick Warren, Christianity Today‘s Andy Crouch, Catholic Charities USA’s Larry Snyder, and about a dozen others.) Just days later, the school is being placed under review by an accreditation agency to see if they deserve to keep their accredited status.

The New England Association of Schools and Colleges’ Commission on Institutions of Higher Education will review whether Gordon is violating a nondiscrimination policy by making this request. The group requires that member schools adhere to ”non-discriminatory policies and practices in recruitment, admissions, employment, evaluation, disciplinary action, and advancement,” and maintain an atmosphere respecting and supporting “people of diverse characteristics and backgrounds.”

The commission will meet in September to decide the school’s fate, where the worst-case scenario is that Gordon loses its accreditation, hurting its access to federal funding and its credibility. (Obviously, that’s far from the worst case for the rest of us.) According to Barbara Brittingham, president of the commission, it’s going to be a real humdinger:

“It has achieved a lot of visibility and the issues are complicated,” said [Brittingham], referring to Gordon College. “(The commission) will talk about the issues and decide if the issues, that are raised and what is publicly available, is at odds in any way with standards and policies.” …

Brittingham said the commission has never been faced with an issue quite like the one Gordon College has posed. She added more specifically that the body has not taken up a matter involving discrimination related to sexual orientation.

So even though it’s not unusual for a school to discriminate against LGBT people, it’s apparently pretty new that an agency fights back. (Or this one, at least!) Agency officials and Gordon spokespeople alike are keeping their public statements vague:

College spokesman Rick Sweeney said that he was unaware that the commission planned to review the situation. Lindsay signed the letter asking for an exemption with the other religious leaders to show “support for the larger issue of religious liberty on behalf of private religious institutions like Gordon,” he said.

“It does not represent a policy for Gordon. It represents support for the larger underlying issue,” Sweeney said.

There have been other consequences, too. Salem, Massachusetts Mayor Kim Driscoll terminated Gordon’s contract to manage the city-owned Old Town Hall, the site of the famous production “Cry Innocent” and other cultural highlights. More than 3,000 people also signed a petition asking Lindsay to rescind his request (Gordon’s student enrollment is about 1,700). It reads in part:

“While we recognize the variety of beliefs based in Holy Scripture, we do not believe that there is a Biblical requirement to refuse employment to people of LGBT sexual orientation.”

Here’s the kicker: With all this media and student backlash, Lindsay issued another letter, this time to the Gordon community. Here, he writes that his intentions were misinterpreted and that he’d never, ever advocate for discriminatory hiring practices:

Signing the letter was in keeping with our decades-old conviction that, as an explicitly Christian institution, Gordon should set the conduct expectations for members of our community. Nothing has changed in our position. The letter asks the president for the same religious exemption that was passed by a U.S. Senate bill (S.815) in 2013 with bipartisan support. [Note: LGBT groups are dropping their support of this bill, ENDA, every which way.] Some have misunderstood this message as requesting something new or different. That’s not the case. President Bush signed an executive order in 2002 that offered the same sort of religious exemption that we are requesting of President Obama. …

Be assured that nothing has changed in our position regarding admission or employment. We have never barred categories of individuals from our campus and have no intention to do so now. We have always sought to be a place of grace and truth, and that remains the case. As a Christian college, we are all followers of Christ. As long as a student, a faculty member, or a staff member supports and lives by our community covenant documents, they are welcome to study or work at Gordon.

In general practice, Gordon tries to stay out of politically charged issues, and I sincerely regret that the intent of this letter has been misconstrued, and that Gordon has been put into the spotlight in this way. My sole intention in signing this letter was to affirm the College’s support of the underlying issue of religious liberty, including the right of faith-based institutions to set and adhere to standards which derive from our shared framework of faith, and which we all have chosen to embrace as members of the Gordon community.

I don’t buy this apology in the slightest. It sounds to me like Lindsay was counting on other Christian liberal arts schools to join the movement, and now that his school is on display (The Catholic University of America is the only other school who signed on), he’s getting cold feet.

It will be a while before we find out what happens next, but this should serve as a wake-up call to all those religious groups getting overly excited about the chance to legally discriminate against LGBT people. We’re at an awkward place in history with regards to religious freedom, but the uncertainty is not going to last.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship Members Pray for the Right to Discriminate on Campus

It’s tough to be a Christian group on college campuses these days. I mean, everyone expects you to play by the rules, even though we all know Christians deserve special rights that allow them to discriminate against LGBT students and their allies.

We saw this at Bowdoin College in Maine last month, when leaders of the Bowdoin Christian Fellowship were about to lose their designation as an official campus group (with all the privileges that come with it) because they really really really wanted to make sure nobody who supported LGBT-rights had the opportunity to become a leader of their group. School administrators, on the other hand, refused to allow official campus groups to discriminate for any reason.

Today, leaders of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, one of the more well-known national college Christian groups, made a plea for their members to take a stand against the California State University system. Here’s IVCF President Alec Hill:

Two years ago, the former Cal State chancellor issued a new policy that requires recognized student groups to accept all students as potential leaders. While we applaud inclusivity, we believe that faith-based communities like ours can only be led by people who clearly affirm historic Christian doctrine. The policy exempts sororities and fraternities from gender discrimination; we believe there should be a similar provision for creedal communities…

In August 2013, the new chancellor, Timothy White, graciously granted religious groups a one-year exemption for the 2013-14 school year. That time period is rapidly coming to a close.

Both the Old and New Testaments (e.g., Psalm 91 and Acts 12) speak of times when God’s people, faced with significant challenges, entered into community prayer. We are dependent on God in all things and He invites us to make known to Him our petitions in prayer.

Their “stand” consists of praying and fasting and not doing anything actually effective, so I suppose we shouldn’t be *too* worried.

Still, let’s remember what exactly they’re freaked out about.

Under the universities’ rules, groups like InterVarsity have to open up membership to students who are LGBT, as well as their straight allies. Why would anyone who supports LGBT rights want to join a group that so steadfastly fights against them? Who knows. How many students per campus believe in, say, marriage equality and that acting on one’s homosexuality is some sort of sin? It can’t be many. And it doesn’t matter anyway because InterVarsity (and other similar Christian groups) have said they have no problem opening up membership to that (small) group of people.

What people like Hill are worried about is that those people are going to run for leadership positions and get elected!

Not only is the likelihood of that happening slim to none, it assumes that there are LGBT allies who would want to run an organization that holds such disgusting views.

That’s what they’re praying to prevent.

Trust me: Gay-friendly students are in no rush to join — much less take over — Campus Crusade for Christ groups.

Regardless, Hill’s letter to IVCF members urges them to pray that a resolution is reached to allow “InterVarsity chapters to remain viable members of CSU communities.” Because if they have to play by the same rules as everybody else, why even bother existing anymore?!

Cry me a river. The rules are just fine as is. You had plenty of time to discriminate. Now you have to join the rest of civilized society. No one’s telling you that you can’t be bigots. But if you want the campus to recognize you as an official campus group and give you free meeting space, access to grant money, the ability to set up tables at activity fairs, and so much more, you have to play by the same rules as every other student group on campus.

(Image via Shutterstock. Thanks to @JeremySimington for the link.)

A Picnic in Ohio for Atheists and Their Families

For those in the area, the Mid Ohio Atheists are hosting their Regional Picnic this Sunday at noon in Loudonville’s Mohican State Park. In addition to the general family-friendly gathering, they’re hosting a charity drive and bringing in speakers including fellow Patheos blogger JT Eberhard and Mark & Marni Tiborsky (who appeared on the billboard below):

All the information you need is right here.