Via PZ – Representative Emanuel Cleaver (Democrat, Missouri) is an a-atheist.
Actually, I don’t believe that there is such thing as an atheist because no respectable atheist would walk around with something in his pocket that said ‘In God We Trust.’
Wot?
I have to walk around with those things in my pocket. I need them to pay the bus fare for instance.
I’ve never been given a choice about having that idiotic motto. It would be pointless to demand god-free money in your change or when you cash a check, because there isn’t any.
I don’t endorse the motto. I dislike it.
Anyway, if it worked that way, no bible-thumpers would ever use any post-biblical technology, because it’s all based on knowledge that the bible doesn’t mention or endorse.
I guess it’s OK for me to be an atheist as I’ve never committed this particular crime. Come to think of it, why have Christians got any money at all? Why haven’t they given it to the poor?
Everyone in the UK is a Darwinist, and that includes visiting Americans
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/Pages/current/current_10.aspx
I mean, really, what a shitferbrains
A comment at PZ’s has the best response. ‘There’s no real Christians because they wouldn’t have any money, having given it all to the poor’
Apparently thinking isn’t Cleaver’s first language.
There was this punk rocker GG Allin, known less for his music than for his out or control stage-shows and run ins with the cops; he wrote a manifesto from prison informing his followers that they should write “GG ALLIN” on all their money since people don’t throw money away and have to keep it and use it, so it was a free way of getting the message out. Perhaps money is, in a sense, the cheapest board that exists for propaganda because nobody is likely to discard something with utility even if they disagree with the sentiment on it.
That’s one of the most pristine examples of the No True Scotsman fallacy that I’ve ever encountered in the wild.
Isn’t putting the word God on money incredibly blasphemous?
By this wazzock’s logic, as a British republican (small ‘R’) and atheist (big ‘A’) I can’t exist because my national anthem is “God Save The Queen”.
What a wazzock.
I guess I’m an unrepresentable atheist.
<hangs head in shame>
I think that would make him an a-atheist-ist.
I, for one, am a respectable atheist. I never carry coins around, and I use a sharpie to black out “In God We Trust” on every bill I acquire.
The “logic” of this one (often heard in connection with Jessica Ahlquist) has always escaped me as well.
It makes me think of someone in the 1960’s south saying, “I don’t believe there’s such a thing as a Civil Rights activist. What respectable Civil Rights activist would live in a country where we have segregation?”.
I suppose he might only mean that there are no American atheists, since that motto doesn’t appear on our money or, I suspect, that of many other countries. Either that or… nah, it couldn’t be that he can’t see beyond the boundaries of his own God and country, could it? Tabarnak!
For that matter any Christian in the Roman Empire up until the time Christianity became the state religion would have been handling coins that likely claimed an emperor was divine or was high priest (pontifex maximus). Neither title which a Christian would have agreed with.
Unfortunately America is full of politicians who make moronic statements and don’t have the sense to be embarrassed about it. More unfortunately, neither do they need to be embarrassed because the are put in office by the submoronic public, which I’m sorry to say outnumber intelligent, sensible citizens capable of nuanced thinking. From what I read in B and W your country isn’t faring much better. At least you get to hear your idiocy in a pleasant accent.
Heh. And no respectable Christian would own a calendar, what, with all the pagan god names and all.
I’m a true atheist. I use plastic for everything.
… Granted, it annoys people a mite when I’m buying like one stamp. But it’s the principle of the thing, y’know.
Technically, however, as a Canadian, the atheist motivation only really applies when I’m in the US, and dealing with US money. In my own country, however, I have to do the plastic thing as well because there’s some queen-type-person on all the coins ‘n bills, and I’m also anti-monarchy.
… Also, I refuse to walk down streets named for royalty or for religious figures. Which, yes, in many Canadian cities, is kinda a pain.
(/Sure, it’s a bit of an inconvenience when a trip next door requires a stop in Florence…. But, again, y’know: principle.)
Even if it WAS true that no actual atheist would consent to use money with ‘God’ on it (clearly we’re just supposed to starve?)…
Has Cleaver really never heard of Sharpie? Or is he one of those loons that thinks that making something illegal (like defacing federal property e.g. money or abortion) means people don’t do it?
As someone using my real name to post things on the internet, I’d never endorse or admit to doing anything illegal, of course, but my scrupulous law abiding doesn’t extend to everyone.
I believe that writing on bank notes is illegal in the UK but that doesn’t seem to stop bankers doing it. There are a number of ten pound notes in circulation with the Queen saying “Republic Now!” and Darwin saying “That’s the way for things to evolve!”.
The ‘In God We Trust’ motto has never bothered me. Perhaps because I know that’s only the first half. The whole thing is,
“In god we trust, all others pay cash.” It’s not a statement of belief, it’s good old Yankee hardheadedness. As in, if you’re not god, don’t expect credit.