Open letter to all Atheists.

Has someone complained about public prayer? Given recent news, I suspect you are equivocating between public prayer and the imposition of sectarian prayer by an arm of the government.Politicized Christians may regret wedding their prayer to governmental power when they discover they are bound to an abusive spouse.Christianity has degenerated: its founder chased money changers from the temple and separated obligations to Caesar from those to God; today Christians build prosperity mega-churches and seek to join religion to governance at all levels.As an atheist, I find this anthropologically fascinating.If I were a Christian, I'd find it appalling.Nothing is less popular in the U.S. than government mandates. Forcing yourself on others always begs for backlash; using the government to force yourself on others guarantees it.Many religious people understand that asking government to take your faith under its wing soon puts you in their pocket. Good luck with that.

Well, that logic offends me, too, because it has false premises and equivocations. You'll probably also be disappointed to know that public criticism and negative market reactions don't violate free speech rights. By the "our" in "our very first document", I assume you mean the United States of America: that document would be the Constitution, not the Declaration of Independence, which was a revolutionary manifesto written by members of diverse colonies (some of which, btw, persecuted each others' members for religious reasons). Neither have any place in our government. You can search our Constitution forever and find no mention of either one.Also, making this about atheism is a red herring. Many people of faith, Christian and not, object to the co-opting of religion by government.You want faith to be the official source of secular rule. So does the Taliban. I don't. I want a government of laws, not of gods and men. Ruling by some kind of divine right or another was the status quo throughout most of human history. Oceans of blood were spilled to change that.Our laws take their authority from the consent of the governed; pray in public, pray in private, pray loud, pray silently, pray to Yahweh, pray to Buddha--I don't care, prayer doesn't offend me. You could even have a Christian prayer meeting in the minutes before a legislative session opens. That's fine, too.But there's no god in our Constitution, and I don't want one smuggled in the back door. I'm surprised your faith is so weak that you want to do that.And I'll repeat my earlier warning: You may rue the day you let government determine which prayers are officially sanctioned and which are not.

He thinks you need a photo ID and a baptismal record to vote.

You.Why else would you demand that an elected officeholder should be able to dedicate a legislative session to a particular god? Who said you couldn't pray in a courthouse? You can pray anywhere you wish. I fought to protect those sorts of rights; or, at least, I meant to...I also swore to uphold the Constitution when I was inducted into the Army. I don't recall any mention of the Declaration of Independence--it is not a governing document of the United States. That's it? You just wanted to squawk and then refuse to acknowledge others' arguments and debate them?Why the hell did you bring it here? Put it on a bumper sticker.

Logic is fun. Let's try this one, based on your premises:

quote:

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To be God, God must be perfect.

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Being God, He cannot create imperfection.

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The Bible was created by God and so must be perfect.

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President Obama, Senator Reid, and me were created by God: therefore, we must be perfect.

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As PaulK pointed out so perfectly, logic is a word machine: pack it with the ingredients you like, and you get perfect little sausages, flavored just the way you like them, out the other end...or at least something shaped like sausages.