Reaction To Zahn Part 1

[gjsterp]

We don't need to get 'In God We Trust' off our money, but we do need a revision.

'In God We Trust, Or Not.'

[Cenamark2]

So Paula thought a panel of 3 people telling us to shut up and make fun of us was good?

[s5b678]

Im glad Stephen stood up for us even if he disagrees with us. You have my respct for that.

[csnowutube]

I hate Hallmark cards.

[halflifeproductionz]

at what fucking university does she profess the subject of journalism? she probably advises at fox.

[Goirdy]

I agree with him with all of it. Atheist shouldn't have to take it, and we won't. I also would like to see "Under God" taken out of the pledge. I don't mind "In God We Trust" because I use a Debit card. I don't have to associate myself with it. but for me to have to say "Under God" in the pledge (to me) is like forcing me to believe in your religion.

To sum up, Atheists shouldn't have to sit in the back seat and take all the hate just because you think we should. Thank You Stephan Smith.

[TheBlackLagooner]

Any panel where Stephen A. Smith is the "voice of reason" is really saying something. WOW.

[bleedy13]

I fucking hate both those chicks

[saintpine]

I find these people really sickening.

[bohemianwriter1]

Ridiculus story?

She's in favor of persecution of atheist`

Immediatley she's shifting the theme, blames atheists for actually being adherent to the Constitution.

The blonde bitch should know a bit more about being discrination before she slanders out of her own ignorance, prejudice and belief in a fairy tale moron...

[littlerocken]

I promise I will pray for you..

[Kludge420]

And I will sacrifice a goat to Baal for you.

[NavaGator29]

And also I think that u guys are hypocrites. U lobby to get intelligent design taken out of school yet we have to send our kids to school and learn evolution. Our kids can't practice their religion before games and during times where they made need spiritual guidance so there basically forced to live godless or athiest. Why do we have 2b sensitive to yours while u secretly try to abolish ours. Believe in god and u won't have 2 worry about going 2 hell and then u won't mind god being on things

[TAER99]

You are obviously a moron. Do you not realise that hell was invented to strike fear in peoples minds in order to make them follow a faith? How wrong is that? Or do you have actual proof that hell exists? no? thought not. Power is control and one way to control a populace is to invent a religion. (Google John Frum) The vatican is proof of the riches gained from control through religion. If you open your mind a bit and question why things are the way they are you are able to get logical answers.

[bohemianwriter1]

Tel you onwe thing ID is nothing more than creationism in dusguise where they are trying to impose biblical delusion into science class. Wanna teach religion in school?

Put in an extra curriculum class where ALL religions would be represented. Otherwise, Christians are nothing more than they are bing accused of: Braindamged, prejudice and oppressive...

[NavaGator29]

I am a very liberal person but athiest are really starting to annoy me. Why do you care? Can anybody answer that. U say this is a great country and its always been that way. SO why will taking god off money make it better. If I didn't have religion I wouldn't care. I think that athiest are afraid of god and are annoyed at how many people believe in god. So you secretly hope to even the numbers out by censoring religion but the problem is no matter what u do there is always going to b religion

[TAER99]

Atheists like to know fact from fiction, thats all. What the hell is wrong with knowing answers to questions? Surely thats what makes the human race the stronger species? How about this... I have a dragon in my garage, (books on dragons have been written for centries) would you think I was deluded? If the answer is yes, then I think you are deluded for believing in talking snakes, giants and a flooding of the earth. Until proof of God is avaliable I'll be sceptical to his/hers existance. :)

[bohemianwriter1]

Evolution is a FACT. Relgion is not even a theroy, but a bunch of storyies spawned out of the Mi8ddle East by a bunch of bearded bonze age zealots.

Have you read your bible?

It's so full of violence, immorality, genocied and intolerance. And those were portrayed as the good guys. And half the New Testament was written by PAul, a murderer who's never met your "special" friend. You deserve ALL the mocklry that comes your way, and more...

And no, you are NOT liberal....

[TheMhayc]

The self-pity on the part of these three religious people is really striking.

[Elizaw00]

Good response to a really appalling piece on a supposedly reputable news program. Public schools allow individuals to pray but don't allow schools to force it or any particular religious prayers or observances. This is fair as it allows individuals to follow their beliefs but no imposing beliefs on others. The U.S. is not founded on Christianity but the freedom of intellect and speech. I'm glad he emailed them. I'm seriously disappointed in CNN on this one. "They need to shut up." *Facepalm"

[doomNgloom52]

"We have strong Christians, and Athiests are not strong." Give me a fucking break.....

[SidOfOdin]

I major facepalm-ed. Steven A. Smith was the voice of reason in this argument. Really. God-fucking-damn.

[1adam1kuhn1]

i cant believe steven a smith was the voice of reason in that segment. wow..... these 4 make themselves look like idiots. haha

[HimmuraTube]

Great Vid dude.

[HimmuraTube]

Those two women are so damn ignorant.

[tzivyabelinfante]

It is apparent that believing in god is the number 1 qualification Americans need to have to have a great career. No brains, feelings or morals required.

[ntelekt1]

Also, its not that bitches "right" to have prayer in school...Unless she runs her own school. And she doesnt, hence, she is imposing HER beliefs!

[ntelekt1]

Notice the background image "What happened to Love Thy Neighbor"... Implying that Atheists are unable to do so (be nice and kind) because they dont believe in God or Jesus... Retarded

[ntelekt1]

Great vid Lee

[ntelekt1]

That chick says Atheist dont believe in anything, I guess "nothing" means "Atheists dont believe in my particular God or religious belief structure"

[iknohiphop]

First and foremost great video i think you get right to the point they are not qualified to talk about this subject but none the less hearing their perspective is interesting and it's important for these religious slaves to understand our atheist point of view...Personally by hearing the way Smith talk about the topic, I agree with some stuff he said and I think he's agnostic but doesn't want to come out and say it because of the way these slaves have slandered their image...

[SpazzyMcGee1336]

I LOL'ed when the conservative Jewish lady said discrimination was on the rise because of Muslims. How more ironic can you get!

[gulsbyjag]

Being Christian, good! Being Muslim, bad!

[Aydosh1991]

What an ignorant and misleading comment from the Jewish lady. Becoming less Christian or giving up on Christianity is not the reason that there are more Moslems in Europe, it is all to do with high emigration from mainly Islamic countries to Europe.

[yirphd]

She's obviously been reading the awful anti-Islamic book "America Alone" by Mark Steyn... a book with no footnotes written by a high school dropout!

[ltflermy]

Well done Lee! Subscribing! 5/5

[thabooger]

thats so halarious. freedom of religion doesnt mean freedom from religion. that means that since we live in america we are required to have religion sohved down our throats.

[tm11111111]

i realized something after a while that all groups(race, sex, religion, etc.) face discrimination in some degree in some time through history and country.

[sunnysgrewal]

So that fat jew at the end said that the reason why the country was so good was because of strong christians. Those strong christians use to lynch blacks and hang them from trees only 60 years ago. Those strong christians prevented people of colour from riding the damn bus. What a fat whore.

And that professor of journalism, i wonder how much she loves that god that what was given to her female ancestor when she was getting her ass torn by her slave master.

[chimaeraproductions]

Wait, Europe has lost God BUT has become more Islamic? Surely this is a double negative. Is she implying that Musilim's don't have or believe in a God? Had to stop the vid and post this, so not sure if you do pick up on this point. If not, it's one worth noticing.

Alex

[SickNick69]

Good job on this video. That panel was an absolute disgrace

[Nietzsche68]

But isnt honoring your God in school imposing your beliefs onto others that dont believe? Sounds like a contradiction to me!

[rocknrollcody]

These people dont care about atheists

[TripwireBeast]

Sadly, you are correct. :'(

Not very many people do.

[PontifexPotens]

Hats off, Mr. Thomas, well done analysis there. I still find it damned curious that CNN producers did not think of including an atheist in the panel. And how, I wonder, did Steven A Smith, of all people, end up on a panel on atheists and discrimination anyway?

[jumbowhite]

Well done Lee Wood.

[Freshmanrob]

+1 Subscriber! I like your work.

[NeoShark89]

"ATheist are weak and im happy that they are"

What the Hell. I am an atheist myself and have up to this point always found poeple of the jewish faith to be one of the more understanding groups of people, but she is just horrid.

[msgirl37]

Europe is less tolerent? Is she serious? There are many European contries that are way more free than we are. Why do European countries have less faith? Because most still have state sanctioned religon...no one finds faith by force. Seperation of chruch and state is GOOD for religion..not the other way around.

[TheMoralAtheist]

I found this panel to be quite ridiculous.Its quite telling when you hear one speaker say "This country was founded on christian beliefs".This was a blatant lie or the speaker is just uninformed about the constitution altogether,or the speaker just didnt care for intelligent debate and wanted to air her ignorance out loud.Either way it wasn't too intelligent of a conversation held by that panel.

[amaone]

"Don't impose on my rights to impose on you!" this woman is a fucking professor? i can't believe my fucking ears...

[amaone]

Bravo!! nice one on 4:00 mark

[Annausagi]

Europe is falling appart...? Strange, I live in Europe and I ain't seen nothing of that.

Ayeah, thank you so much for making these videos. ;)

[TimHamill]

Well Done :D

[owensphil]

1.You forgot to state your credentials.

[LeeWood]

This is youtube, you don't need credentials.

All you need is an opinion, a computer with

online access and a camera.

I'm just a secular Humanist that is an American who works in the TV business. That's what I got.

[dickerlool]

Hooray for you brother. Taking "In God we trust off the money" is a good idea. Who cares if it does not bother anybody. It says right here *THUMP*THUMP THUMP* in the constitution that there is to be a separation of church and state. We have all the reason we need, right in these 231 year old writings.

[dickerlool]

Sound familiar?

[LeeWood]

It doesn't sound like Satan lives.

[dickerlool]

Your logic for doing half the things you advocate, is as sound as the logic religious people have for doing their things.

Religious Person: We must do this and that because it says in the bible.

Atheist: We should do this and that because it says in the constitution.

Both like to create artificial problems.

[LeeWood]

So we are both right, or are we both wrong for

advocating our actions because of old documents?

In regards to my thoughts on removing In god We

Trust from currency, I just think that it doesn't accurately represent all American citizens' views. I'm an American and it doesn't reflect my view.

[Nelson22221]

Keep it up buddy. I admire what you do.

[muichimotsu]

We've kind of tried. American Atheists,  etc.

[SaudiPimp]

Thank you for defending our right to not believe! Can we somehow all come together and and start our own group to defend ourselves....

[tieInterceptor]

maybe we should start our own country,

[thefinalkut]

Thats basically the idea that started the concept for America, tieInterceptor.

Although the founding fathers were Deists, not Atheists at the time. But in those days, that was the closest to Atheism there was in the Western World.

The founding fathers knew that if Humans were to ever evolve, they would have to abandon archaic, outdated, false, dogmatic religons.

[tieInterceptor]

yeh, I know,

before darwin, beeing a deist was as close you could get to atheism, since there was no scientific explanation to the apparent "design" of life.

After Darwin's evolution by natural selection theory. One has to be an ingoramus to deny it.

[peazefrog]

Thank you for speaking for the rest of us that were also outraged by this joke of a debate.  CNN & Paula Zhan should be ashamed. Glad to know you wrote to them!

[sfields619]

good response. thanks for pointing out that they had no aethiest representative on the panel, which from a journalistic standpoint somewhat discredits Paula Zhan and CNN as a newsource. I find it interesting that with all that intellectual power of that panel the sports guy was the only open-minded critical thinker. i could tell that the blonde chick just talks out of her ass most of the time because none of her "cases in point" were verifiable.

[ritchiedotson]

Although I am a christian(a verry progressive liberal one)I am on the athiest side on this. First I think it was unprofessional and verry retarded to not have an athiest on their.

I hear all this wining about (the Above) I stop and think. Well to have your PUBLIC prayer and one nation under God in the pledge ANd I forgot to add in God we trust on currency. They are pushing there faith on athiests.

I hope i made sence.

[ritchiedotson]

When I said above I mean what the religious people on the above video said.

[ShutterBug717]

Thank you for this. And it doesn't surprise me anymore how many of them (as in religious peopl) are down right ignorant about so many things.

[marklethanarkle]

wow, leewood! this was a very evenhanded analysis of that cnn report. great job! keep up the good work. i'm already fed up with the way that the media addresses atheists, and i'm trying to do my part. atheists unite!!

[nwaa]

i watched the original and was appalled!

"atheists are weak , and that keeps us strong"- wow great morals downtreading weaker minorities (in her opinion)

also here in europe where atheism is more common i notice that LESS discrimination occurs towards me.

I also struggle to understand why only 1 wrote back

[DaveJonesBSNews]

Wow, thank (insert belief/lack of belief here) that the British media don't act like this.

[sciencedoggy]

Oh yes it DOES mean Freedom FROM religion.

These people are liars and charlatans.

[ISteveRgawdx]

I'm sorry our "1-3%" is so intimadating that we're attacking you

[DblOSmith]

Damn Karen Hunter is a snotty bitch. I hate her. Good video, foo. 5*

[bearpaw72]

Leewood, what would be more helpful to me is if you could elaborate on what these prisoners were convicted for.

Or better yet, is there any way that you could narrow down the list to the most violent hardcore convicts? That's because I see no reason for some of them (barring mafiosi and Muslim extremists) to be a bunch of pussies and follow the advice of some wimp who lived over 2000 years ago.

[DblOSmith]

That's a good one. I'd like to know that too.

[PheenixTears420]

"I think they need to shut up." WTF?! So you support free speech but want atheists to shut up?! That makes a shit load of sense. Fucktard.

[PheenixTears420]

"Christian nation..." The founding fathers were DEISTS not CHRISTIANS!!! I am so sick of people thinking that the founding fathers were Christian!!

[wurfzertreter]

In Europe it is normal to be an Atheist.

We have partially let the relion shit already behind us.

[opmbb]

While you have a right to "want to have prayer in schools, ...", you don't actually have a right to have (mandated) prayer in schools. The precedent of allowing Christian influences in American governmental institutions and practices is absolutely unconstitutional.

[Dengar12000]

Atheists have a PR rep?

[JohnBach]

I personally don't want to live under a theocracy.

[BudgetMessiah]

I know what you're talking about, that finding god is usually mentioned as a "credit" towards release in such a hearing. I think it's more an emotional appeal than a legal one, and yes, I think you're certainly right about the validity of such an appeal being very questionable.

[TrenchantAtheist]

The Federal Bureau of Prisons reports 0.2% of prison populations are atheist or agnostic. The maximum margin of error here is 0.2%

So you're right, more people should do the math here...

[BudgetMessiah]

You know, it could be the case that atheists convert to some sort of religion while in prison. Lots of people become religious under those circumstances.

[TrenchantAtheist]

True, it is often not mentioned that we have such a bias towards religion in this country that we offer early-out deals to inmates who 'find god' behind bars. And since we know that rehabilitation, by and large, fails miserably (83% of convicts end up in jail after release), one could make the argument that churches are trying a little too hard in this popularity contest.

[BudgetMessiah]

I find it a little hard to believe that a condition for early release is to "find god" rather than to show that someone has reformed. In fact, I doubt that such a condition would actually exist given the first and fourteenth amendments. Also, you seem to be implying that recidivism rates are as high as they are due to the impact of religious efforts within the prison community, and again, I doubt you'll find evidence to support that.

[TrenchantAtheist]

It wasn't my intention to infer that recidivism was in any way negatively impacted by religion, but that it wasn't a factor which would prohibit their reincarceration altogether. Religiosity is often equated with virtuosity in the public discourse, and no one ever challenges it.

[TrenchantAtheist]

I'll admit I've never been in prison or been to any probation trials, so perhaps my reading on that is premature. However, I do think it is of interest that whenever such an event is depicted in the media, finding Allah or Jesus is always something mentioned by the attorney, as if it held merit for their character. If not a comment on the judicial system, this should say something about our views on the origins of ethical behavior.

[am87fl]

Great video and thanks for speaking up. Followers of various religions usually feel intimidated when their belief system is challenged. Atheism represents that challenge since it does not conform to their point of view. Their attack of atheists is merely a natural defensive response.

However, this is not an excuse for their ignorance and intolerance of other peoples' beliefs or lack thereof.

[flobear3]

Good job. This is the best response to the video I've seen yet.

[dadward]

Well done and well spoken.

[TheFallibleFiend]

This is a very good video. The "commentator" is really good. And that black male panelist, I think, really "get's it." BTW, I'm an atheist, but I'm opposed to a lot of things that other atheists favor. Very good video. I hope this sticks around for a while.

[sec2]

Thank you. Very much. When i actually watched the original video of this... i was offended horribly, and i felt honestly sorry for my country. You, Have my respect, Probably more than anyone else i have ever met.

[ImagineAZ]

Leewood,

Superb video. Atheists make up maybe 1% of prisoners, but they make up 94% of elite scientists. Hmmm...

I disagree that atheists are the most hated minority though. I question the origin and validity of that poll.

[elixirguitarist]

Try to think about why those scientist are materialistic evolutionist ImagineAZ, If you look closely at the evolution theory, you WILL see it is certainly not because of that. It is the fact that if you are taught long enough and forced to believe that something is true eventually you WILL believe it. Do not try and tell me that no scientist is unbaised thats bologna, EVERYONE has a belief system.

[BC305Hyperion]

Atheists make up .2% of all convicts.

[KingHeathen]

Nicely said so far...moving on to the next part.

[dondonsae]

thank you for this I agree with everything you've said. I was also surprised by the prison atheist/theist ratio.

[TXatheist]

Good way to discuss the CNN video point by point