Atheists & Agnostics
Related: About this forumok, another ask- hit me w your best jefferson quotes to toss in the statement.
ok, first, i want to come clean that i what i am writing is a statement for my sister, who some of you will remember was part of the blue wave that hit illinois local govts.
6 new democratic women, for a total of 7, on an 18 member suburban county board.
i have been her "head writer" for most of our adult life at one time or another, and i was totally proud to write the copy for her campaign web site.
i shopped a lot of that here on du, so you should all take a bow if you read/rec'd/replied to any of my screeds.
on the first day of the new board a spat broke out of the prayer that opened all meetings. 95% xtian, at least. big fundy population.
new member dawn desart objected.
much ink was spilled.
it comes up for a vote next week. so, sharpening the words.
so the ask- ready for the second draft, and need a little jefferson to season the pot.
funny story-
me-
do you want to throw in a little jefferson?
sheila-
Yes. Gonna put my thoughts together this weekend. Post by a rep cb member talked abt Dawn as the "socialist lib" who didn't put her hand on the Bible at swear in. Uh, that was me.
i know folks here have jefferson on their clipboards.
save me the scrolling. please. thank you.
i love you all.
A DAY IN THE LIFE
(88 posts)If I paid you to think, you could cash your check at the penny arcade. George Jefferson quotes.
gay texan
(2,864 posts)And In my opinion you are about to miss a golden opportunity handed to you on a silver platter.
So, dig this:
Lie in wait and go along to get along and then politely ask to open the meeting with a prayer. They will think you've come your senses and will more than happily oblige.
Now comes the fun part! Make up your own religion right on the spot, the more absurd the better!
For example, you are (all the sudden) a faithful follower of the holy order of the Waffle. Fire up the ol' waffle iron, have some pre-made batter and commence to cooking! Now you ask the the crowd to lean their heads to the right and close one eye as the prayer begins. Your prayer consists of you singing the theme from "Barnaby Jones" in the most absolutely annoying screeching voice you can manage. Ding! The waffle is done. Grab it an throw it like a frisbee while pronouncing "Fly, my unfettered breakfast breakfast bread spawn!!!!!" End the prayer by having an extra flamboyant drag queen banging a small gong.
The possibilities are endless!
With any luck they will come to their senses and realize that having a prayer at the beginning of a city council meeting is a big damn can of worms and it applies to *all* religions.
mopinko
(71,817 posts)i am sure they are now all aware of pastafarians, and the possibility that people are going to show up w colanders on their heads. (oh, wait...hmmm....hmm.)
all the usual thought experiments have been carried out by the local press.
it's already set for a vote.
we just want to get a couple good quotes in the paper.
Voltaire2
(14,719 posts)Many oeople dont know Jefferson said that.
rurallib
(63,201 posts)CHRISTIANITY VS. LIBERTY
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own."
Source: Letter of Thomas Jefferson to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814.
"History, I believe, furnishes no example of a priest-ridden people maintaining a free civil government. This marks the lowest grade of ignorance of which their civil as well as religious leaders will always avail themselves for their own purposes."
Source: Letter of Thomas Jefferson to Alexander von Humboldt, Dec. 6, 1813.
"The advocate of religious freedom is to expect neither peace nor forgiveness from [the clergy]."
Source: Letter of Thomas Jefferson to Levi Lincoln, 1802.
"The clergy, by getting themselves established by law and in-grafted into the machine of government, have been a very formidable engine against the civil and religious rights of man."
Source: Letter of Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah Moor, 1800.
Another source:
https://www.nobeliefs.com/jefferson.htm
In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Horatio G. Spafford, March 17, 1814
If we did a good act merely from love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? ...Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than the love of God.
-Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Law, June 13, 1814
Freelancer
(2,107 posts)in 1787 Jefferson wrote his nephew, Peter Carr, saying:
"Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear."
To Phillip Mazzei: "No truffles are to be found on my land. Sir, be so good as to remove your pigs from my garden."
[Just kidding. Don't use this one.]