Jason | Flockr | Wikimedia Commons | Text added by Dan

From an actual Craigslist post in Greer, South Carolina

“Yes, it is as the title says, come to our moving sale to help two godless liberals get the funds to move to California. What do we have? Books, naturally; some other random stuff that has value but we don’t want to haul across country in our small, fuel efficient car. You’ll be helping to make SC a little more red.

Yard sale is FRIDAY MAY 10 starting at 8am and SATURDAY May 11. If it rains on Saturday, like the forecast says, we will also have the moving sale on Sunday, because [we're] atheists, remember? Preaching and proselytizing welcome, however it will cost you 10 cents a word to attempt to convert us. Mormons pay double. Mention Richard Dawkins and disavow the Holy Spirit will get you 10% off our already low prices.”

Moving sale
114 S Howell St
Greer, SC 29650

Sale Friday May 10 8am-noon
Saturday May 11 7am til 2pm
If rain saturday, Sunday 9am to 2pm.”

(h/t to Scott M.)

From patheos.com

Blue Ridge Christian Academy. Sounds like it could be an institution of the Roanoke Valley, eh?

But it’s not. The parochial school is in Landrum, S.C., which is just south of the North Carolina border, about 20 miles northwest of Spartanburg.

Apparently they teach an interesting brand of  science there. You can get a flavor from the images on the left, a perfect score on a 4th-grade science test administered in March.

(Note: I copied them from patheos.com, which copied them from Reddit; Snopes says this may be a hoax is now rating it as “true;” a creationism blog is the one that identified the school; h/t to reader Scott M).

Pay careful attention to the questions, and the “correct” answers. The school’s website says:

“Science lessons are creation-based, student-centered and hands-on. Topics covered in the elementary grades lay the foundation for the sciences taught in middle and high school. Students are exposed to the natural resources surrounding us as well as the best of other resources and publications.”

Note the photo below, in which the answer “God!!!!” gets four exclamation points, but the answer “Bible!!!” (which is a work of man) gets only three. Both are correct, naturally.

And then answer this question: Read more »

Created by Dan

The Post of the Day — April 30, 2013

Note from Dan: Raymond Flory is leaving town, to relocate far from Roanoke, right around the same time that Al Bedrosian makes another run at public office, this time for the Hollins seat for Roanoke County supervisor. Below is Flory’s parting shot at the semi-perennial candidate, which came in as a comment posted Monday.

“It warms my heart to see that after so many years of wandering blindly in the wilderness, that a great arbiter of culture and morality “Brother Al” Bedrosian is back in the spotlight to grace us lost sheep with his profound guidance.

It might predate Mr. Casey’s arrival in Roanoke, but around the turn of the century Mr. Bedrosian was in the news for whacking a toddler that was misbehaving. Notwithstanding the fact that the incident did not take place in WalMart where this is common, it was newsworthy because the child was not his. Not recognizing that Mr. Bedrosian is one of those rare people who never has to say “I don’t know”, the parent took exception to this.

A few years later Mr. Bedrosian wrote an editorial in the Roanoke Times where he stated that since the culture of the United States is rooted in Christianity, the United States should be a Christian theocracy where being an infidel would be a crime. Read more »

Listen to this gibberish from Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama, as he tries to use the Bible as a justification against immigration, after he gets schooled by a pastor during a Congressional hearing. What’s that business about the First Amendment and religion, anyway? That Congress shall make no law that respects the establishment of religion?

That’s the Rev. Jack Schaap below, in a creepy and bizarre sermon/demonstration from the pulpit of First Baptist Church in Hammond, Ind. He’s pleaded guilty to taking a 17-year-old across state lines for sex, and faces 10 years in prison when he’s sentenced March 20.

Sick, sick, sick.

MarcusObal | Wikimedia Commons

Note from Dan: This comment came deep in the Thursday column thread from VVarlock, a longtime regular of the this blog and ardent atheist who lists in Missouri.

“Sane and reasonable people –

Much of my firebombing is not directed at you. If you are a christian who is not trying to force your beliefs upon the rest of us, then it really doesn’t bother me that you believe in a system I do not.

If your christianity does not try to restrict the rights of others, or spread hate and violence, then it can only be harming yourself and I will treat you like an adult and let you do to yourself as you would.

As Sandi points out, I do not believe in hell and I know many of you do not believe in the hell that is eternal fire and torment. I know many of you also do not think that there is only one way. I know many of you support dialogue between the faiths (and even non-believers).

If the god I describe is not your god, then I am not addressing you with my over the top flaming. Read more »

God, with angels, reveals himself to Abraham | Giovanni Battista Tiepolo | Wikimedia Commons

Guest Post

By Dave Gresham

For almost 70 years, the Palestinians and Jews have been fighting with each other. It’s the latest installment of arguments that began 4,000 years ago.

Did God give the land of Palestine to certain people, or not?

If God did not, then who put lies in God’s mouth in order to steal?

And if God did, then what was promised?

These questions have never been answered to the satisfaction of everyone involved, and the dialogue between the parties always turns into violence.

With that in mind, the key to solving the problem in Palestine is to consider the illnesses of most of the people involved (since they claim to understand God better than others and think they are God’s favorite). By illnesses, I mean the religions that most of the people involved are following, which are Judaism and Islam, and also Christianity, which has generally supported the Jews recently.

Because all three groups have elevated written words to be the voice of God, instead of trusting the innate authority of love and the golden rule, it may be possible to use information from those ancient texts to fix the problem.

Therefore, the following remedy for the situation in Palestine will be based on scripture and common sense. This is regardless of what may be the actual historical truth, long since lost in time, if it was ever known by them in the first place. In the interest of comprehension for the layman, this account will be as simple and abbreviated as possible.

We begin with Abraham. He is a physical and/or spiritual patriarch to the people of all three mental illnesses previously mentioned. Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. The Palestinians trace their lineage from Ishmael, son of Abraham. The Jews trace their lineage from Judah, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.

God made promises to Abraham that he would bless him by making nations of his offspring, and also that all nations of the world would be blessed thru him. Many years later, God made similar promises to Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, who he renamed Israel. These promises were both physical and spiritual in nature. Read more »

Paul Hoyt, Justin True and Doug Fowley in front of the Blue Ridge Coalition of Reason’s billboard on Electric Road at Lynchburg Turnpike in Salem. It was put up Dec. 16 and defaced about a week before Christmas.

Today we have yet another example of the law of unintended consequences. This is the process in which certain people don’t think certain things all the way through. Usually the opposite of what they desire ensues.

It concerns a Roanoke resident, Justin True. He’s 32, an ex-Marine, a full-time student and a self-employed lumber grader. He’s married, is the father of two and he’s an avowed atheist. Back in September he founded the small group,  Southern Virginia Atheists.

The term “small” is probably an exaggeration. Itty bitty teeny weeny was more like it when True called their first meeting. Six people showed up. He also garnered a little attention appearing before the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors, and perhaps in some other forums.

In that process True learned it can be lonely being an atheist in a western Virginia city where there’s almost a church on every street corner. He could see that almost every day, as messages from other nonbelievers trickled into his email account.

“That’s one of the very first things I saw” in emails from other nonbelievers, True told me. “They were like, ‘I can’t believe you guys are here! I’m so glad I found you guys.’” He was glad they found him, too.

The group grew slowly — a person here, a person there. They headed into early December with about 33 members.

Then last month an umbrella group for nonbelievers, the Blue Ridge Coalition of Reason, rented some billboard space from Lamar, an outdoor advertising company, to exercise their First Amendment rights. The signs cost $3,500, and were paid for by the Washington, D.C. based United Coalition of Reason. They will be up until Jan. 16. Read more »

Photo by Justin True | Crop and spray paint added by Dan

Your daily Letter to the Columnist — Dec. 21, 2012

Note from Dan: Justin True says the entire sign was torn down Thursday night.

Vandals used spray paint to deface one of the four Blue Ridge Coalition of Reason billboards in the Roanoke area. The billboard on Virginia Route 419 at 1420 Lynchburg Turnpike, in Salem, facing east, originally read, “Don’t believe in God? Join the club.” But the word “Don’t” has been blacked out.

This billboard, along with the other three, was placed by the Blue Ridge Coalition of Reason (Blue Ridge CoR) with $3,500.00 in funding from the United Coalition of Reason (UnitedCoR), headquartered in Washington, D.C. The ad has only been up since Tuesday and was first announced Wednesday morning.

“This unfortunate incident shows just how necessary our message is. Prejudice against people who don’t believe in a god remains very real in America,” said Paul Hoyt, coordinator of Blue Ridge CoR.

United CoR has informed the billboard owner, Lamar Outdoor, of the vandalism and is arranging to have the billboard replaced. But it is leaving it to the discretion of Lamar to file a police report. Read more »

Cadets at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., bow in prayer during a graduation ceremony. | AP Photo

Note from Dan: The following was penned by Justin True, an ex-Marine and member of the Southern Virginia Atheists.

By Justin True

Last week West Point senior cadet Blake Page dropped out of the military academy because he’s an atheist and he was sick of overbearing religious pressure brought upon cadets there. The Army military academy in New York’s Hudson Valley is not alone in that ignoble tradition; it’s arguably worse at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.,  and it likely happens at the Navel Academy in Annapolis, Md., as well.

And then I read this article — about why former Sen. Bob Kerry was reluctant to say, “God Bless America” in any official capacity.

That struck a chord with me. The issue of having true freedom in our country is being pushed by all facets of religion and its leaders. The fact that they aren’t the majority, and they have to stand up and shout like the rest of us to be heard is upsetting and a delusional war being fought on every societal front.

After reading the second article linked above, it astounds me that the very people who fight for our freedoms and rights seem to not truly hold them at all. If we are to truly have religious freedom, and if we are truly a secular government, a public servant or soldier should not have to fight such religious pressure and resign from anything. Read more »