Just like the fundamentalist and evangelical Christians, we atheists have to endure a lot of idiocy from self-righteous, idiots who call themselves atheists and make the rest of us look bad.
Fox News’ Brit Hume reports on one of these folks,
An effort to boost Christmas Tree recycling in Chicago has come under fire by atheists, who say it unfairly benefits Christians. Authorities planned to hand out a year’s worth of blue recycling bags in exchange for one used tree, but atheist activist Rob Sherman says the program is inherently unfair to those without Christmas trees.
Officials told him he could bring someone else’s tree but Sherman complained that “Atheists shouldn’t have to go begging from home to home for a Christian who will sponsor them.” The city will now offer the blue bags to anyone who visits a tree recycling location and brings a large bag of any recyclable material.
Ugh. Many of these atheists seem to exist pretty much to complain how much this or that public expression of religion is oppressing them.
Consider another horrible example of discrimination. Sherman takes credit for Wisconsin’s decision to remove “Happy Easter” displays from that state’s rest areas,
This past weekend, I drove through Wisconsin, primarily on Interstates 39 and 90. At several of the Interstate rest areas where I stopped, numerous signs and decorations had been erected which said, “Happy Easter.” Other signs, as many as one hundred per building, promoted Easter by depicting bunnies and eggs in a manner consistant with Easter decorations. I wasn’t happy about it. Can’t a guy go to the bathroom at a government facility without the government cramming the Christian religion down his throat?
Today, I contacted the Wisconsin Governor’s Office to express my concern about this state/church separation matter. I was referred to the Highway Department, which referred me to the Engineer in Charge of Roadside Facilities and Maintenance. The engineer took my call.
. . .
The engineer said that the rest stops are maintained by a sheltered workshop (an organization that provides work for mentally handicapped individuals), and that he understood my perspective. He said that he’d make some contacts and get back to me with a response and a decision by Thursday of this week.
Five minutes later, he called back. He said that he told management at the sheltered workshop that they could put up signs promoting the Spring season and Spring scenes, but that the Easter signs had to go.
Sherman is clearly proof of his own position — would a just God really tolerate such silliness?
When he’s not crusading against Christmas tree recycling programs or Happy Easter signs, Sherman worries about a number of issues, including the lack of legally enforceable clothing size standards.
Source:
Lost in Translation. Brit Hume, Fox News, December 29, 2004.