In a neighboring town, the County Commissioners have put up an “In God We Trust” sign in their meeting room. They approved the sign after a public hearing in which 300 residents (town population over 21,000) expressed their support.
According to the article, the opponents to the sign (who pointed out the law of separation between church and state), were “vastly outnumbered.” (I hope they get in touch with FFRF!)
Of special note was one supportive individual who commented, “Trusting God means that we are to respect and love one another.” Well, absolutely! I mean, if we don’t “trust God,” how in the world are we supposed to respect and love one another??!!?
Had I been there, I think I would have been tempted to ask, “Which god should we trust in? Thor? Odin? Zeus? Atlas? Cronus?
Or perhaps Hathor, the Egyptian Goddess of Love since we need to “respect and love one another.”
Of course, if I had expressed myself thusly, the chances of me being (gently?) escorted out the door are highly likely. (Religious folk have no sense of humor.)
BTW, if you ever need to cite a “god,” you might want to check out the God Checker website. (They even list a “Deity of the Day” — today’s is Shojo, God of Drunkeness.) 😀
Nan's Notebook 
Well, yeah, we need to love and respect one another so long as that ‘nother believes in God(whatever that may be). Not those godless atheists and agnostics, though. No love for you!
Hathor? No way! Give your trust over to Kabta, the Babylonian God for shaping bricks.
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Shaping bricks??? Hmmm.
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Not worthy? What about the Gods and Goddesses of grog: Ngeshtin-ana, Ninkasi, Nunbarsegunu, and Siris?
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And they needed that sign because…
No matter how I come at the rationalization for any answer, all the examples I can think of demonstrate a lack of character and self-adhered principles of the supporter of such a sign. And we know of at least 300 of them…
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I have spent a lot of time reflecting on religion over the last year and have concluded that is some limited circumstances religion can bring a society together. But those limited circumstances will only apply if the whole community subscribe to the same religious interpretation. In pretty much every other scenario religion divides communities.
Over on another blog a religious crazy was arguing the evidence for ‘God’ was self evident. One commentator asked, “supposing there was a creator, how did they know it was their ‘god'”? The subtly of the question was completely lost on our theistic friend.
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Peter,
I’ve always enjoyed your particular perspective on these matters because as I remember, you and I have somewhat similar backgrounds with Christianity. Your point here is a good one, fair one, about the “limited circumstances” human inclusion-unity “can bring a society together.” What’s remarkable about that ‘Team concept’ is that it is EXTREMELY universal! It is NOT exclusive or elite by any means!
Which begs the question… WHY CAN’T WE JUST BE HUMANS from planet Earth!??? Duh? 😮
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Professor, human nature seems to cause us to split into groups based on differentiating characteristics. When all of society was Christian, we saw that the split was based on denomination.
Sometimes splitting is based on race, sometimes it is based on schools, sometimes it based on politics, sometimes it is based on the geographic area we live. It seems to be the way we are as evolved animals, there is an in group and an out group.
We are a weird mob. it is almost as though we need an external threat to bring us together.
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Yes, agreed. The strange paradoxes of this life we live cannot often be measured. Fighting that reality is futile, in my opinion.
Indeed! And that “threat” is not necessarily other humans — the sane ones that is which want to slow and reverse global warming — but… if what you mean by “external” are the plethora of cosmic threats to the planet, then it’s not rocket science to quickly realize that the BEST WAY our species might survive such catastrophic events will indeed be as the entire species collaborating to save the species. After all, there is genetically less-than a 1% difference in all 7.4+ billion of us here!
I see the really REALLY difficult problem being the radical religious — like Nan’s post here and others — who truly WANT armegeddon and mythical raptures to happen, and quick. Those types will be a serious issue then, more so than they are now.
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“it is almost as though we need an external threat to bring us together.”
Robert Ardrey (“The Territorial Imperative“) noticed this phenomenon and even created a formula to describe it – amity = enmity + hazard – in which he likened it to a group of animals trapped in mid-river on an island while a forest fire raged around them. There could well be cougars and deer, but as long as the hazard remains, a truce is established between them. As soon as the fire has past and they are back safely on shore, everything reverts to normal.
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Great point archaeopteryx. During the Age of Exploration and following, we humans (that were/are ardent patriotic nationalists) we/they formed the same type of “alliances”. Astounding how frequently history repeats itself.
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The more I read of the wacky religious leanings of the US of Eh? I am becoming quietly convinced the word ”Nutters” should be inserted somewhere in the Constitution. Maybe more than once?
😉
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Nan, your “Had I been there…” scenario was going to be or would be my approach to the 0.014% of the total town population. Simply and politely asking (in my most “ignorant-innocent” face)… Who or what is “God”? What is the nature of God?
One hundred percent of the time one person’s answer is not exactly the same as another’s — not that barely 0.02% of the town is an objective “accurate” survey, right? Which would make the Answering Comedy… I mean Committee… even THAT more confusing and laughable. But…
That said, and realized, we all know what they MUST do eventually in order to at least sound in unison and coherent… go to or reference their 4th century CE Canonized Bible scriptures. Otherwise, most everything non-biblical they reference or use to justify their (blind) faith is merely individual, strictly related to their own life background, experiences, and typically traumatic experiences where “God” was found to “rescue” them, et al. etc, etc. But many Xian apologists realize the enormous subjectivity of random individual testimonies (miracles?) and thus have to fall back upon the New Testament for more confusing theology! I probably don’t need to elaborate to you and your followers-commentors and further. We know how infinite that hamster-wheel goes.
On the important subject of Seperation of Church and State, most Xians (especially Fundies) do not know, or are in total denial, that in the Constitution the words…
God, Creator, Jesus, Bible, and Church are stated ZERO times.
In our Declaration of Independence the words…
Jesus, Bible, and Church are stated ZERO times. And the words…
God and Creator are stated one time only.
Where tha HELL is all the ridiculous confusion coming from!? Oh, and what were all the answers again regarding “the nature of said God“??? Que the circus ringmaster music! 😈 😛
P.S. That last question was purely rhetorical! (evil wink & grin)
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Which god should people trust? Easy. Mine. All other gods, and/or interpretations thereof, are false, blasphemous, and, obviously, not real. Geez! How many bloody times must I explain this to the world?! What is so hard about this concept?! I’m right, obviously, and everyone thinking otherwise is wrong.
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Of course! I simply do NOT understand why they don’t understand!
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Me either. Just baffles the mind, eh?
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Those signs are in every school’s classroom in my city. It’s an especially difficult one to do anything about, since it’s technically one of our national mottos. Maybe the motto itself will one day be found unconstitutional, and it could help take care of this whole problem.
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Your point is well-taken. How can we buck the “national motto?” Still … it does blatantly disregard the separation of church and state — which is why I would have been inclined to ask “which god?” 😉
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Here ya go nan, No charge.
The reason ‘which God’ is asked by you or anybody else? Simple. You are not happy with the true God. Somehow then, you think that your excuses are relevant. You have put the true God under your thumb, and charged Him with dereliction of duty; meanwhile, the thought never crosses your mind that the greatest men on earth easily recognized the Creator and bowed the knee.
You, the atheist, are enough proof of a true God. The whole nature of denial is blindness to the obvious. I have life as proof of God. What is your proof of no God?
And before you cry ‘what about the gods of nikon, canon, nike, zeus, jupiter, firestone, mercury, neptune, looney tune, itune, etc………..’
The existence of the one true and only living God is so darn obvious that even Houdini would be embarrassed at your circus antics when you say that apes taught you how to tie your shoes.
Enjoy your feast now.
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You’re such a jokester, CS! 😀 You never fail to tickle my funny bone. You should have pursued a career as a stand-up (or sitdown) comedian. No doubt you would have made millions!
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Yet I’m thinkin nan that in the deepest and most private part of your being…………you know that this ‘jokester’ is correct. 😉
Why? Ha. There is something greater than heaven and earth itself, that being the intrinsic eternal perfection of the living God who said: ‘let there be light………..’ and there was light.
(And do be sure to take careful notice of the spirit in which my points will be mocked. This should go a long way when you decide to forgo the clutches of that great nothingness called atheism)
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We prefer to think of it as ‘the Great Freedom‘ —
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Yet I’m thinkin nan that in the deepest and most private part of your being…………you know that this ‘jokester’ is correct. 😉
You just keep thinkin that, CS. But don’t bet your life’s savings on it.
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I would bet everything I have that you, as well as your regular patrons, do in fact, know there is a God with whom you have to do.
It’s just a small matter of the terms…….. After all, the God of scripture is the God of creation.
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“I would bet everything I have that you, as well as your regular patrons, do in fact, know there is a God with whom you have to do.”
But in this day and age, what would we do with a nickle?
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Holy crap! More CS gibberish – but not unexpected —
“You are not happy with the true God.”
The believers in every religion that Humans have invented, have believed that theirs was ‘the True God‘ – yours is just one more to soon add to the graveyard of dead gods.
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Yes, the existence of the One True God is so evident, that you must be intentionally blind to follow your heathen religion instead of giving proper praise to Allah and his Prophet (peace be upon him).
😉
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Hello Nan, I would like to ask you who are these “greatest men on earth…” in your opinion? The reason I ask Nan, is the ones I think are great are high educated mentally disciplined leaders in their scientific fields. I am talking about people who help us to understand our world, they find answers to questions we have not only asked, but ones we have yet to ask. Some of my favorites are Neil deGrasse Tyson , Stephen Hawkins, Richard Dawkins. I noticed that the highly intelligent people who inspire me with their ability to think things out, solve problems, they all say their is no deity. Not just that there is only one god and the rest are wrong, but they say all deity’s are myths and that there is not real Gods. I wondered if the ones you would say are the greatest feel the same as the ones I say are great.
Second I don’t understand why people need to put God stickers on public police cars, government buildings, and in schools. Why do these people feel the need to single out one religion and then plaster sticker sayings of this one religion on everything. Are they afraid they would forget their god with out these reminders? I wonder if they are trying to attract the attention of their invisible make believe friend in the sky ? Are they afraid their invisible friend in the sky will go find another pretend friend if they don’t kiss the Butt and plead to be found acceptable in its eyes? Even I have enough sense of worth that I don’t have to beg a myth to love me, to find me worthy, to grant me wishes. Come to think of it, that was what some of what the ones who abused me wanted… Constantly tell them they are right, I am wrong, I was born wrong, I need them to forgive me, I need their abuse to save me, I deserve the abuse, and if I did not thank them enough, if I was not grateful enough to them, it would be more punishment. Wow, just like the Christian god! Sorry I find nothing in that to worship, to find good, to see anything justifiable in. I am glad it is a myth made up by people who wanted to control others and who were afraid of the many things in life they did not understand.
Thank you for the post Nan, it got me thinking. Best wishes and hugs
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I keep a sticker in my back windshield that reads, “I Believe in Good.“
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Cool! I love that. I want one that says more understanding today than I was yesterday. Hugs
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“the thought never crosses your mind that the greatest men on earth easily recognized the Creator and bowed the knee.”
Always wondered how great these men were to bow their knee to only the one god when there is at least one other major contender for the title of God the creator unless in fact both are the same God. Unfortunately neither religion wants to embrace each other in love as these God’s are supposed to represent, but would rather kill each other than accept this as a more than reasonable and logical possibility.
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All religions can throw away their holly books and scriptures because:
For the first time, scientists have directly detected a crucial amino acid and a rich selection of organic molecules in the dusty atmosphere of a comet, further bolstering the hypothesis that these icy objects delivered some of life’s ingredients to Earth.
Read more here.
http://www.space.com/33011-life-building-blocks-found-around-comet.html
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