OPINION: New flat-earth society debuts
Don't call it the "Freedom From Religion Foundation." Instead, go with "Friends Of Religion Foundation." This mean-spirited group does more to strengthen and promote religion and religious liberty than any religious leader could ever hope to do.
The Freedom From Religion Foundation, based in Madison, Wis., is the group that rented a billboard in Colorado Springs to promote the slogan "Imagine No Religion."
Foundation leaders admitted to choosing a location on North Academy so employees of Focus on the Family would see it. Stick in eye.
The sign did more to highlight the wonderful, charitable acts of religion than anything any church, synagogue, mosque or other religious organization could have done.
Thousands who took the sign's suggestion and imagined no religion, didn't like what they saw. People imagined losing schools, hospitals, universities, AIDS hospices and soup kitchens. Images of those religion-cleansing atheist dictators - Mao Tse-Tung, Slobodan Milosevic, Pol Pot, Joseph Stalin, etc. - inevitably came to mind.
Since then, the FFRF has become part of Washington state's official holiday display in the state capitol rotunda. Along with the display's nativity scene and the "Capitol Holiday Kids Tree" (never say "Christmas") is an ugly sign with a "who cares?" message. It says: "At this season of the winter solstice, may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds."
"There is only our natural world," they say, apparently ignorant of the fact that science doesn't know the size and scope of the universe, whether intelligent life exists somewhere else, or whether this universe is merely one of many. We don't know all that, much less the origin of time, space and dimension. Yet there is only "our natural world."
Sure. Cavemen thought there was only this cave.
The holiday sign has the appeal of the government's alcohol warning at an art museum's wine tasting. While experiencing beauty, remember that alcohol "may be harmful to your health." And while viewing a manger and tree, remember that religion "hardens hearts and enslaves minds."
How funny. The world's religions have funded and inspired centuries of stories, music, imagination and art. Most of western society's great classical music compositions were commissioned by the Catholic church and other religious institutions that respect the magnificence of all that may exist. And the people who despise those religions express themselves in the public square with an ugly flat-earth bully sign.
Is this a group of artless buffoons?
For religious Americans, the FFRF's holiday sign is quite a gift. It is their antagonist showing up at an art display and demanding space to showcase being a warning sign.
Dear FFRF friends: this is the season of Hanukkah, Solstice, Christmas and Kwanzaa. It's the season of giving. Have atheists organized to commission something like the Sistine Chapel, which takes the mind, body and soul on a journey of wonder and awe?
If atheist passions have been expressed in beauty, the FFRF should use those expressions in their proselytizing crusades. Inspire, rather than incite. Do as the religionists you despise, and give society music and art. If the FFRF is going to speak for atheists, it should try to make them look good.
Maybe these in-your-face FFRF shenanigans are a joke. Maybe the club has a hidden agenda, in which it works to make religious people look good by antagonizing them.
Intentionally or not, the FFRF unifies and strengthens religion like the Fred Phelps anti-gay mob unifies support for gays.
Along with strengthening religious unity, the FFRF exercise of free speech enhances the cause of religious liberty. Not that the FFRF's holiday statement is one that champions liberty. It does not. Freedom requires that Americans honor the morality prescribed by the Ten Commandments, the Golden Rule and the Bill of Rights. Love or hate religion, it is religion that told us not to kill, religion that told us not to steal, religion that told us to do no harm and religion that told us to give.
Do all religious people obey these moral tenets? No. But religion has written them, published them and passed them down through the ages. If religion were obeyed, the world would be at peace. Religion tells us we must behave in order to remain free from authoritative control. To quote George Washington: "Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principles."
Though the FFRF's statement dismisses religion, all must defend this group's inclusion in the public square for liberty to thrive. The FFRF's holiday message represents nothing other than expression of a belief the organization promotes. In that sense, the FFRF is legally almost indistinguishable from any religious organization. It absolutely must be permitted to post whatever expression it sees fit in the public square.
Government must not make holiday display decisions based on the philosophical content of a message. Nor should it exclude on a basis the display is ugly, as beauty resides in the eye of the beholder.
Targets of the FFRF's jab should welcome more signs like this near Christmas trees, manger scenes and menorahs. Just like the "Imagine No Religion" message, this uninspiring, "only our natural world" sign enhances the holiday spirit. It challenges religion with an obvious lie, as few can believe "our natural world" is all that exists.
The sign contrasts the beauty of religion with the unimaginative, confrontational style of one proselytizing anti-religious group that claims to help atheists. Religionists should genuinely thank them.
