No wonder only 13% of the general population approve of Congress. Randy Forbes is a good example of the double-talk, forked tongue, greasy and slippery unscrupulous scalawags that is Congress.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. " Believe and practice what you want, but when our Gov't. is involved with our religious practices, it's illegal.
I don't know why people would bash on national day of prayer, it doesn't force anyone to pray. If people want a day of something for their beliefs take it to Congress. All these haters out there have nothing good to say but just bash their ideas on other even when proven wrong or illogical.
Thank you, FFRF. Most religious people don't believe in the thousands of Gods in human history. Does anybody today believe in Thor, Zeus, Mercury, Venus, Prometheous, Mars, Saturn, ...? Atheists just believe in one less god than the typical believer.
I do love how the anchor kept saying the government says "may" pray but the key point is that the government is even using "pray" or "prayer". The government cannot and should not speak of prayer in any manner period. The congressman here is obviously highly religious and is part of the christian colalition that tries to chip away at the separation of church and state at every opportunity to complete its take over of the united states government and make this a christian nation.
June 19, 1987 – Edwards v. Aguillard: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools whenever evolution is taught is unconstitutional. JUST AS IT SHOULD BE.
Haha...too bad, we have a national day of prayer. Haha.. America is a Christian nation. Nothing you athiest can do will EVER change our history. God bless America and God bless our troops.
@pantherkim Ha ha ha, ignoramus. You need a history lesson. Thomas Jefferson said that christianity is the most vile system that ever shone on man. There are other examples, but willful ignorance abounds within your nutbag communities. "Faith": 1) Willful ignorance that is fear inspired. 2) Emotional attachment to belief without evidence or in the face of evidence to the contrary.
@pantherkim Atheists aren't trying to change our history, they're pointing out how our history supports freedom from religion and not having religion forced down our throats by our government.
@pantherkim Go to college, take some American/Western History/Civ, Political/Social Science, and perhaps even Criminal Justice courses, and then come back and talk like an educated person.
I'm pretty sure along the way you'll learn some actual history, and perhaps more importantly the purpose, meaning, and importance of the Constitution. Maybe then, you'll see just how in error your comment is and you have a clearer view of the issue.
How laughable is this. Americans won't vote for a candidate that doesn't claim to be a christian, but get all upset at the idea that some want a national day of prayer.
Pray if you want, don't pray if you don't want. Is it really that hard?
@mutabrev The hypocrisy of the masses is pretty absurd. I do agree, believe what you want, pray or not if you want, but that's not really the point here. The point is that per our Constitution the government has no business endorsing in any way any specific religion or religious practice. Nor is it supposed to restrict them. It is intended to remain neutral on religious matters and deal only with the running of government and the enforcement of law and the Constitution.
Gaylor hits the nail on the head on all points...as usual this religious chooch is an ignorant moron who believes in fairy tales and feels they should be mandated by the govt. Like Gaylor said, if Nat'l Day of Prayer can be put into law then so should pray to Greek gods day, No Prayer Day, Allah prayer Day, Odin prayer day, Flying Spaghetti, Pink Unicorn etc.... come on people wake up to this nonsense!
National Day of acting like you're helping someone without actually doing anything at all, so you can feel better about yourself while your non-existent god does absolutely nothing since non-existent things can't do anything.
She notes that "we are not a theocracy," yet it is obvious that this is what they want. The unconstitutional governmental decision to set a day aside for prayer is pandering to those whose feel they must proselytize to please their angry sky daddy.
The Declaration of Independence isn't even a legal document recognized by the SCotUS. If they did recognize it then rebellion would be legal exercise within the US. Which would mean anything (short of a constitutional amendment) trying to abrogate that freedom would be unconstitutional. I can't think of a single nation on the planet that has for all intents and purposes legalized sedition & treason.
That is absolutely correct. The Declaration of independence is a political document address to the King of England. The US Constitution does not contain the word God or Creator and it IS a Legal document. Mr. Forbes misquoted the Declaration; it says "endowed by THEIR creator" not THE creator. The word GOD not surprisingly is missing. If they intended to use the word God why didn't they?
That woman is speaking propaganda and hypocrisy in saying there is a difference in a national day of prayer, and the president having a dinner recognizing Ramadan. If she thinks it's not right to impose a national day of prayer on the nation, then how can she say the President, who is the leader of the nation, having an organized banquet for a specific religious ritual, is hypocrisy and misleading.
The difference there is the enactment through law. Article I of the Bill of Rights states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
The President is free to stand in front of a microphone and worship Ba'al if he chooses, or organize a banquet for Druids on the Summer Solstice. That's not illegal. It only becomes illegal with respect to our constitution when a law is enacted to promote a religion or even religious belief in general.
That guy really lost it for me when he essentially said that creator means "God". The word "Creator" in our declaration of independence (which BTW is an ideological document and not legally binding whatsoever) is an extremely open ended term. My creator was the universe and the earth, no deities involved and definitely no prayer necessary.
These fundies can wax lyrical all they want, but what it really boils down to is what part of "seperation of church and state" do they have a problem understanding?
xccmx, that's actually a good idea. Hell, Jefferson said something about us needing more revolution like France, so we should at least alter July 4th to be a day of questioning authority, instead of bowing to it and wearing flag t-shirts.
It's alright to call us heathens, to preach in their pulpits that people like us want to persecute them, destroy their religion, and lord over their lives when they do the exact. Same. Thing. The exact same thing to us. These same people get offended at even a slight criticism or critique of religion in any form of public media.
We need a bunch of bastards that are as loud, pushy, and ugly as the religious right. People like Dawkins and Hitchens are right on the money in my opinion. We need to call these people out more on their bullshit.
Notice how she argues clearly with facts and reason. Notice how he chooses to instead slander her to draw attention away from the fact that he's wrong.
Hmmmm. Sound's like it's time to start a homegrown atheist idealist terrorist organization to strike at the nation's religious community. A day of prayer will only make it easier to kill more.
@nutty01 Would not do that no. However that is most defiantly the way that I feel. If you believe that there is an invisible man watching and listing to everything everyone does at the same time, who created the universe and the earth in 6 days, talked to Moses up on a hill far away from anyone else and gave him a will to live by, you are stupid. To have faith and believe in something in this way is NO DIFFERENT THAN A CULT, if you believe in god you are in a CULT.
I thought Annie Laurie Gaylor's soft looks and sound may be good. Theists are often scared out of their wits by anything atheist but there is nothing threatening in her appearance.
A national day of non-religion would be nice, but this prayer day would naturally include all religions. Free spaghetti and meatballs to those interested in the one true faith, FSM.
You know, that smarmy looking jackass is just about to open his mouth, and, as I type this with the video paused, I can already hear his tired, fallacious arguments. And I bet, yet again, the person on the side of reason will get shouted down.
@eatingperson I agree. I appreciate what the FFRF does, but Gaylor isn't the best speaker. She's quite intelligent in her writings, but thinking fast on her feet isn't her strong suit. It would have been far better to have Christopher Hitchens tearing into that idiot.
@Revyloution I agree. Even though she made way more sense than Forbes, her delivery was so light that Forbes would have been perceived as crushing her even if he just strung random words together. Her organization needs someone with a lot more energy to be making their points.
Stupid asses. If your god has a plan then why would you ask him to change it through prayer? And, if your god does change his plan for you then he certainly didn't have a plan worthy of a god huh?
And, yes...this clown interviewing doesn't understand the separation of church & state anymore than this Randy Forbes moron. "Creator" in the constitution is misrepresented by another lying christian. Big surprise huh?
Fucking christians keep your dog shit religion out of my government !!!
To use Randy Forbes same logic, we could just as easily create a "national day of NO prayer" and tell Christians they don't have to abstain from prayer. It's just a one day, voluntary abstention.
Obama should have only proclaimed a "National Day of Prayer" in which he encouraged everyone to pray to a god they don't believe in. At least that would be uniform for everyone, and expose the underlying atheism that everyone has, regarding religions they don't believe in.
Let's get together and get a "National Day of Blasphemy" bill that encourages all Americans to denounce any deity that they believe in. I could only imagine the uproar we'd get from those nutters.
I grow tired of Christians repeatedly claiming we want to remove religion completely from society, when we are simply saying keep religion out of government.
Forbes is a disingenuous little shit. It's precisely because religion has no real chance in the 'marketplace of ideas' that it has to strong arm its way into the lives of people via the government. Religion cannot stand on its own and never has been able to. It's always been accompanied by force whether it be via government, military, or threats of torture in an afterlife.
More obvious violations of the constitutions. It selfish because the American laws do not prohibit the religious from practicing their faith in any way, yet the Christian majority is trying to push their ideology as state law. It's self-centred and it appears that when it comes up in the news, the anchors are not addressing the real issue.
This isn't about restricting freedom to pray, it's about protecting the minority from being swept into ideologies that they oppose
They really ought to get a historian expery on Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine in the studio, to put these religious wackjobs and their imprudent, uneducated views of American founders' history in their right place. Enough of these religious people going uncontested by experts in the subjects they use to support theocracy. The founders were very specific on this point, the division of church & state was their -first- priority, for Christ sake (pun)!
Another authoritarian, red-herring throwing religious asshole (not a dipshit because he's religious; it's incidental, not causal) Obviously these people wouldn't mind a theocracy.
Religious people are imprudently arguing for their religion, by the words of Deists. If anyone cares to read the founder' intention with the word "Creator" in the establishment of a republic, they will know exactly what is meant; that rights are not imbued by opinion or majority.
@tommyk77 I had read some reports on Blairs sponsorship on the creation of new faith schools as well. I do not understand why folks allow this as Most parts of the UK are highly secular are they not?
@Mahoivlich People in the UK are generally apathetic towards religion, but the general public persists with the idea that going to church means you have great morals. That idea is changing though. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, has come out as an atheist in the middle of the election campaign and he has been jumping up the opinion polls.
Sadly though, the conservatives are doing even better
@tommyk77@tommyk77@tommyk77 maybe the recent discussion about sexual abuse in church will be a catalyst to weaken this perceived "moral barrier" a bit! ;)
btw, the people in the former east-germany were >80% atheists.. (ranking 1st place in atheism worldwide) which was not due to religious repression(!)
it still annoys me to see people trying to place religious memes into society or even (mis)use them in politics to persuade naive people..
@ToniPony True. The frustrating thing though regarding your point about the catholic church cover-up is that people still have a defensive knee-jerk reaction when Christopher Hitchens suggests Joe Ratsinger be put to trial, purely because he is a religious leader
Are they trying to establish a state religion on the U.S. that the first step Everyday I feel americans get closer to the islamist ideology pushed by the right wing of the country and they are the ones who speak against islam is so confusing I dont understand why would the U.S. want to follow that path
@TheWhiteRabbit1990 Perhaps I misunderstood you, i thought you might be suggesting that the national day of prayer is equivalent to "atheist days" like Darwins or Sagan's birthday.
Sucks to be American. Freedom from religion is a fundamental right even in theocracies like Iran and Saudi Arabia. These fundie christians need to be reigned in.
@OccamsView i heard otherwise in Arabia. that they have a state religion. your comment seems backward. in the US we are generally free to practice what we want. not those other countries
This fucking douche just doesn't get it. It's not about pushing religion away, it's just keeping it away from government! There's a big fucking difference! Pray and do whatever you want, it just can't be government endorsed! A national day of prayer is purely for the religious, you find me an atheist who prays and I'll rescind that. Rep. Fail.
If muslims got together and demanded a national day of praying Mecca, then the 700 club, Fox News, Rush Limbo and the Tea Party will be marching in Washington and probably incite riots. Heck, if Obama made an announcement tomorrow giving an exectutive order to allow a national day of prayer, the Republican party of "No" will do what they do best like ever since day one of Obama being in office. HELL NO YOU CAN'T!
Sounds like a pointless law to me, law's are tools to protect the people from what we deem as crimes. or perhaps as deterrents to crimes (eg. loitering), this law is nothing more than interference in citizens lives, something a law should not do.
I believe the bible says something about prayer. You know, in the new testament. Something about "praying in private".
Matt 6:6
It would behoove christians to read the footnotes on this verse in their ungodly-sized bibles. The bibical jesus had some strong feelings toward vain and repetious prayers said in public.
So, concerning the "free market of ideas" rep. Forbes mentioned so many time, I guess he wouldn't mind then if the federal government had a national atheist day where all Americans are encouraged to consider how silly all the bronze age superstitions are. Of course, no one would be forced to participate, its just another idea out there for people to think about. Lets be honest for a change shall we. the religious would scream bloody murder if someone tried this on them.
Could anyone explain to me why the government, in the USA, is advocating, actively, a religious exercise, in order to unite its people under its control? It shows little deviation from the goals of George Orwell's 1984's Hate Week, in addition to violating the principle of secularism.
You cannot accomplish the goal of not telling people what rituals to perform without stopping to oblige them to perform them at all.
@handplanty Our population are overwhelmingly religious, the arrogant "oh everyone believes like i do" religiosity, so overwhelmingly that tyranny of the majority is more considered "common sense"
and those people, by appealing to it in their neighbors, are the ones that get elected, and over time here we are.
It's sickening, Thomas Jefferson would be saddened to say the least.
@Floridanon407 Coming from a secular nation, Holland, that's very frightening, not to mention the current condition of the Board of Education of your state of Texas. Isn't the similarity between 1984's approach to "sexcrime" and the abstinence-only education ironic? ^^ But with 20% Muslim and 15% (or 20%, depending on which survey you trust) agnostic, one wonders who your Christian leaders are trying to represent, and why.
@alizee2010 Sex - excuse me, I'm a 16-year old virgin, you might know more about this than I do - in the novel, supposedly relieves one of the pursuit of hapiness because it has already been achieved. It is replaced by marching in the streets and love for Big Brother, hence the metaphor "It's just sex gone sour". Sexcrime is in itself a substitution for the government with one's own pleasure, and is thus resistance against the establishment.
@alizee2010 I don't know very much about abstinence education besides the fact that it's never worked out. It figure it to resemble this strategy, and thus I don't know whether it's got anything to do with control over the people rather than clean divine marriage, whatever that means in a country that watcher Who Wants to Marry a Millionare or The Bachelor. It's fun, though, to think that it does.
@handplanty Yes, our founders (while the vast majority of them were VERY fanatically christian) set up a government that was entirely secular.
Since then both sides have been trying to erode one part of our nation or another, and both sides seek to use education/indoctrination to do so, as demonstrated by texas and the other sides imposing their economic dogmas.
It's a VERY Orwellian type of "newspeak" all around, and in short, our leaders represent who gets them the most votes these days.
Christians are such snakes. It's obvious they want this 'day of prayer' to force people to pray. They want to force people to be deluded like them. It's a disgrace!
Why do the religious insist on forcing religion into the government and thereby forcing it on all citizens, no matter what their beliefs? Why cant they be happy with personal prayers and prayers in churches and in their homes? Are they so insecure about their beliefs that they cant tolerate people who are of a different mind? Perhaps Christians would like to bring back the Inquisition.
She was coached too much to stay 'on message' instead of discrediting all this congressman's strawman projections onto her. Don't let the other guy frame the debate but also don't let him 'frame you' into the devil
The Declaration of Independence is no national credo. The language in the Declaration of Independence was not intended to make a religious assertion but to deny that rights were granted by the King of England. Natural rights trump the devine rights of kings.
At the time the Declaration of Independence was written there was no United States of America or its Constitution. So the Declaration could not possibly be unconstitutional even if it served no secular purpose - which it obviously does.
The point here is that the United States government and its constitution strictly forbids any prosthelytization, promotion, or enforcement of religion, whatsoever. The values the country was founded on were focused on encouraging any and all races and religions to live here without discrimination or persecution.
Also, the First Amendment makes the separation of church all too clear for subjugation to interpretation. Keep YOUR religion out of MY face and OUR government.
I have read one of gaylors writtings and like Forbes said she looses her argument she contradicts herself many times.
MrChuy708 3 months ago
No wonder only 13% of the general population approve of Congress. Randy Forbes is a good example of the double-talk, forked tongue, greasy and slippery unscrupulous scalawags that is Congress.
cobalt100 5 months ago
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"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. " Believe and practice what you want, but when our Gov't. is involved with our religious practices, it's illegal.
Blueflesh4 8 months ago
I don't know why people would bash on national day of prayer, it doesn't force anyone to pray. If people want a day of something for their beliefs take it to Congress. All these haters out there have nothing good to say but just bash their ideas on other even when proven wrong or illogical.
samuellis 11 months ago
Thank you, FFRF. Most religious people don't believe in the thousands of Gods in human history. Does anybody today believe in Thor, Zeus, Mercury, Venus, Prometheous, Mars, Saturn, ...? Atheists just believe in one less god than the typical believer.
SuperGodless666 1 year ago
She needs to just turn off her TV
Man the more I hear from her the more I'm so glad I have GOD
WOW Randy your GOOD stand up for God THANKS
LadonnaJohn316 1 year ago
@LadonnaJohn316 Maybe you should just turn off YOUR TV when she appears? What's good for the goose is good for the gander.
Oh yeah, she has the freedom to speak her mind too! Must suck for you.
GermanChocolateCake 11 months ago
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greendude27 3 months ago
@LadonnaJohn316 WHy don't you go jerk off to the bible dumbass!!
greendude27 3 months ago
She needs to just turn off her TV
Man the more I hear from her the more I'm so glad I have GOD
LadonnaJohn316 1 year ago
She needs to just turn off her TV
LadonnaJohn316 1 year ago
I do love how the anchor kept saying the government says "may" pray but the key point is that the government is even using "pray" or "prayer". The government cannot and should not speak of prayer in any manner period. The congressman here is obviously highly religious and is part of the christian colalition that tries to chip away at the separation of church and state at every opportunity to complete its take over of the united states government and make this a christian nation.
djkoch65 1 year ago
June 19, 1987 – Edwards v. Aguillard: The Supreme Court of the United States rules that a Louisiana law requiring that creation science be taught in public schools whenever evolution is taught is unconstitutional. JUST AS IT SHOULD BE.
EvolutionAFact 1 year ago
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EvolutionAFact 1 year ago
Haha...too bad, we have a national day of prayer. Haha.. America is a Christian nation. Nothing you athiest can do will EVER change our history. God bless America and God bless our troops.
pantherkim 1 year ago
@pantherkim Ha ha ha, ignoramus. You need a history lesson. Thomas Jefferson said that christianity is the most vile system that ever shone on man. There are other examples, but willful ignorance abounds within your nutbag communities. "Faith": 1) Willful ignorance that is fear inspired. 2) Emotional attachment to belief without evidence or in the face of evidence to the contrary.
richwfd2002 1 year ago 2
@pantherkim Atheists aren't trying to change our history, they're pointing out how our history supports freedom from religion and not having religion forced down our throats by our government.
2048scotty 1 year ago
@pantherkim Go to college, take some American/Western History/Civ, Political/Social Science, and perhaps even Criminal Justice courses, and then come back and talk like an educated person.
I'm pretty sure along the way you'll learn some actual history, and perhaps more importantly the purpose, meaning, and importance of the Constitution. Maybe then, you'll see just how in error your comment is and you have a clearer view of the issue.
GermanChocolateCake 11 months ago
Let 'em have the "National Day of Prayer". But only if they also have a "National 'There is Probably No God' Day".
paulsteer 1 year ago 2
How laughable is this. Americans won't vote for a candidate that doesn't claim to be a christian, but get all upset at the idea that some want a national day of prayer.
Pray if you want, don't pray if you don't want. Is it really that hard?
mutabrev 1 year ago
@mutabrev The hypocrisy of the masses is pretty absurd. I do agree, believe what you want, pray or not if you want, but that's not really the point here. The point is that per our Constitution the government has no business endorsing in any way any specific religion or religious practice. Nor is it supposed to restrict them. It is intended to remain neutral on religious matters and deal only with the running of government and the enforcement of law and the Constitution.
GermanChocolateCake 11 months ago
Gaylor hits the nail on the head on all points...as usual this religious chooch is an ignorant moron who believes in fairy tales and feels they should be mandated by the govt. Like Gaylor said, if Nat'l Day of Prayer can be put into law then so should pray to Greek gods day, No Prayer Day, Allah prayer Day, Odin prayer day, Flying Spaghetti, Pink Unicorn etc.... come on people wake up to this nonsense!
bourgkul 1 year ago 7
National Day of acting like you're helping someone without actually doing anything at all, so you can feel better about yourself while your non-existent god does absolutely nothing since non-existent things can't do anything.
Yay!!!
bodeezy 1 year ago 5
They'll call it "day of prayer" we'll call it "day of blasphemy".
Yesitis808 1 year ago
She notes that "we are not a theocracy," yet it is obvious that this is what they want. The unconstitutional governmental decision to set a day aside for prayer is pandering to those whose feel they must proselytize to please their angry sky daddy.
cylencce 1 year ago 3
She was too timid and didn't organize her thoughts well which is too bad because the facts are all on her side.
dlandon2000 1 year ago
I liked this, but her hair doesn't really help our cause. Makes her look like a crazy lady.
ScaryGuy255 1 year ago
National day of prayer? Souds like April Fools day. - Kristoffer the Atheist, Norway.
MultigamerLygre 1 year ago
This is nothing.
When Bush was Governor of Texas he declared a "Day of Jesus"
DillonDee1 1 year ago
We should designate a national day of ignoring god.
The President can 'encourage' people to turn away from God for a whole day, see how the christians feel about that.
enderwiggin42 1 year ago
I'll vote for National day for N-U-D-I-T-Y!!
caseyrainer 1 year ago
@caseyrainer If that happened, I would stay away from florida.
AtheistInsight 1 year ago
The Declaration of Independence isn't even a legal document recognized by the SCotUS. If they did recognize it then rebellion would be legal exercise within the US. Which would mean anything (short of a constitutional amendment) trying to abrogate that freedom would be unconstitutional. I can't think of a single nation on the planet that has for all intents and purposes legalized sedition & treason.
Smaug84 1 year ago
@Smaug84,
That is absolutely correct. The Declaration of independence is a political document address to the King of England. The US Constitution does not contain the word God or Creator and it IS a Legal document. Mr. Forbes misquoted the Declaration; it says "endowed by THEIR creator" not THE creator. The word GOD not surprisingly is missing. If they intended to use the word God why didn't they?
wtfoof 1 year ago 3
How about a national day of critical thought?
How about a proclamation that encourages US citizens to question their beliefs and the authority figures in their life?
HAHA no my friends. The government doesn't want you to think for yourself or so anything of your own accord. Just get ion line and follow orders.
need a reason to stay in line?
How about this arbitrary sky daddy that watches you masturbate?
Religion is a fucking joke.
AzureFlameElk 1 year ago 2
That woman is speaking propaganda and hypocrisy in saying there is a difference in a national day of prayer, and the president having a dinner recognizing Ramadan. If she thinks it's not right to impose a national day of prayer on the nation, then how can she say the President, who is the leader of the nation, having an organized banquet for a specific religious ritual, is hypocrisy and misleading.
ANGELBLU2042 1 year ago
@ANGELBLU2042 "is hypocrisy and misleading" is his platform on this.
ANGELBLU2042 1 year ago
@ANGELBLU2042 geez, my nails are too long and i can't type. I mean that what she said is hypocrisy and contradictory.
ANGELBLU2042 1 year ago
@ANGELBLU2042
The difference there is the enactment through law. Article I of the Bill of Rights states that "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion..."
The President is free to stand in front of a microphone and worship Ba'al if he chooses, or organize a banquet for Druids on the Summer Solstice. That's not illegal. It only becomes illegal with respect to our constitution when a law is enacted to promote a religion or even religious belief in general.
TastyTuber 1 year ago
"some judge came in and declared" Yeah baby. That's law.
jacobromu 1 year ago
That guy really lost it for me when he essentially said that creator means "God". The word "Creator" in our declaration of independence (which BTW is an ideological document and not legally binding whatsoever) is an extremely open ended term. My creator was the universe and the earth, no deities involved and definitely no prayer necessary.
Deioth 1 year ago
Congress shall make NO law . . . NO law
Lohitaksha 1 year ago
Religious people are so fucking selfish.
BrightEyesAtheist 1 year ago
She said "abrogated by Congress," "temerity," and "purview of government." He said "give people their hope" and "church."
She wins the actual argument, but he wins the common man's support.
NekoMouser 1 year ago
These fundies can wax lyrical all they want, but what it really boils down to is what part of "seperation of church and state" do they have a problem understanding?
DarkAngel182 1 year ago
Forbes is a lying prick.
wavymavy 1 year ago
i love how this dude tries to blend government with the "marketplace". i didn't realize the gov't had a capitalistic stake in promoting prayer.
cherrydog9 1 year ago
xccmx, that's actually a good idea. Hell, Jefferson said something about us needing more revolution like France, so we should at least alter July 4th to be a day of questioning authority, instead of bowing to it and wearing flag t-shirts.
theseanze 1 year ago
It's alright to call us heathens, to preach in their pulpits that people like us want to persecute them, destroy their religion, and lord over their lives when they do the exact. Same. Thing. The exact same thing to us. These same people get offended at even a slight criticism or critique of religion in any form of public media.
JayWhipp1e 1 year ago
We need a bunch of bastards that are as loud, pushy, and ugly as the religious right. People like Dawkins and Hitchens are right on the money in my opinion. We need to call these people out more on their bullshit.
JayWhipp1e 1 year ago
I remind these Christians of Matthew 6:5-7.
TheOtherSide100 1 year ago
Notice how she argues clearly with facts and reason. Notice how he chooses to instead slander her to draw attention away from the fact that he's wrong.
MistressLibertine 1 year ago 30
@MistressLibertine religious folk usually don't deal with facts and reason. These are foreign concepts to the simpleminded!
greendude27 3 months ago
National Rub A Rabbit's Foot Day!
tnunnster 1 year ago 4
National Wishful Thinking Day.
shunt19 1 year ago 5
Hmmmm. Sound's like it's time to start a homegrown atheist idealist terrorist organization to strike at the nation's religious community. A day of prayer will only make it easier to kill more.
EvolutionAFact 1 year ago
@EvolutionAFact YOU ARE A NUT! LOL!! this is a joke right...right?
nutty01 1 year ago
@nutty01 Would not do that no. However that is most defiantly the way that I feel. If you believe that there is an invisible man watching and listing to everything everyone does at the same time, who created the universe and the earth in 6 days, talked to Moses up on a hill far away from anyone else and gave him a will to live by, you are stupid. To have faith and believe in something in this way is NO DIFFERENT THAN A CULT, if you believe in god you are in a CULT.
EvolutionAFact 1 year ago
If you aren't familiar with Laurie Gaylor, look her up. She's been at this for decades. She's great.
notbendable 1 year ago
I thought Annie Laurie Gaylor's soft looks and sound may be good. Theists are often scared out of their wits by anything atheist but there is nothing threatening in her appearance.
miraenna 1 year ago
Pretty good moderator, I thought. Gaylor could have been a bit firmer, but all the right words were said.
DasMustafah 1 year ago
@DasMustafah i agree.
screenflicker1 1 year ago
When is the national day of non-prayer?
This day is when all American (Hell, the world!) is encouraged NOT to pray, a full day where you put your religion aside and live your life.
At the end of the day, with luck, some people will realise that you can go a time without God or your knees getting wornout.
kalamain 1 year ago
A national day of non-religion would be nice, but this prayer day would naturally include all religions. Free spaghetti and meatballs to those interested in the one true faith, FSM.
flashman2012 1 year ago 2
You know, that smarmy looking jackass is just about to open his mouth, and, as I type this with the video paused, I can already hear his tired, fallacious arguments. And I bet, yet again, the person on the side of reason will get shouted down.
magx01 1 year ago
That woman sounds and looks like she just rolled out of bed. What is this, a chat around the breakfast table? Where are her Cheerios?
Not that I don't agree with her stance. Forbes is a douche.
eatingperson 1 year ago
@eatingperson I agree. I appreciate what the FFRF does, but Gaylor isn't the best speaker. She's quite intelligent in her writings, but thinking fast on her feet isn't her strong suit. It would have been far better to have Christopher Hitchens tearing into that idiot.
Revyloution 1 year ago 3
@Revyloution I agree. Even though she made way more sense than Forbes, her delivery was so light that Forbes would have been perceived as crushing her even if he just strung random words together. Her organization needs someone with a lot more energy to be making their points.
eatingperson 1 year ago 2
Republicans are stupid.
rubberbaby00 1 year ago 3
Stupid asses. If your god has a plan then why would you ask him to change it through prayer? And, if your god does change his plan for you then he certainly didn't have a plan worthy of a god huh?
And, yes...this clown interviewing doesn't understand the separation of church & state anymore than this Randy Forbes moron. "Creator" in the constitution is misrepresented by another lying christian. Big surprise huh?
Fucking christians keep your dog shit religion out of my government !!!
bodeezy 1 year ago 3
To use Randy Forbes same logic, we could just as easily create a "national day of NO prayer" and tell Christians they don't have to abstain from prayer. It's just a one day, voluntary abstention.
fortmyersroyal 1 year ago 17
The SSA is sponsoring a national day of reason on the national day of prayer.... HELP AND SUPPORT REASON IN THE U.S.
ilovestinalots 1 year ago 2
The fucking interviewer needs to STFU
CranesNotSkyHooks 1 year ago
Obama should have only proclaimed a "National Day of Prayer" in which he encouraged everyone to pray to a god they don't believe in. At least that would be uniform for everyone, and expose the underlying atheism that everyone has, regarding religions they don't believe in.
rg0057 1 year ago 3
@rg0057
AHha, brilliant.
magx01 1 year ago
why is religion still around, seriously?!
BatmanASB 1 year ago 3
Hey Senator, wanna know something funny? The pledge was written by a socialist. Just lettin you know.
CommonSensation 1 year ago 2
The "marketplace of ideas" has no need for religion. Religion has no ideas relevant outside of the Bronze Age.
assgoblin2damax 1 year ago
Let's get together and get a "National Day of Blasphemy" bill that encourages all Americans to denounce any deity that they believe in. I could only imagine the uproar we'd get from those nutters.
xccmx 1 year ago 52
@xccmx
+1 Where do I vote?!
KaelHunter 1 year ago
@xccmx amen
sulljoh1 1 year ago
We should clone the founding fathers so they can refute everything these fundies say.
Dall5000 1 year ago 5
I grow tired of Christians repeatedly claiming we want to remove religion completely from society, when we are simply saying keep religion out of government.
xxxFaustusxxx 1 year ago 5
@xxxFaustusxxx And our faces.
OeditpusRex 1 year ago
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kyoung700 1 year ago
I pray, I believe in God, but this is completely unconstitutional. Give all the rights to gays and slowly take away the religious rights....!
scorpiojudo 1 year ago
Forbes is a disingenuous little shit. It's precisely because religion has no real chance in the 'marketplace of ideas' that it has to strong arm its way into the lives of people via the government. Religion cannot stand on its own and never has been able to. It's always been accompanied by force whether it be via government, military, or threats of torture in an afterlife.
undeadair 1 year ago 21
@undeadair,
An excellent observation undeadair, couldn't agree with you more
AcquiredKnowledge 1 year ago
☻/ This is Muhammad.
/▌ Copy and paste him
/ \ so his incarnations will take over youtube!
Ebuverthebicepcurler 1 year ago 4
This has been flagged as spam show
Ebuverthebicepcurler ☻/ This is Muhammad.
/▌ Copy and paste him
/ \ so his incarnations will take over youtube! , I like that.
EvolutionAFact 1 year ago
More obvious violations of the constitutions. It selfish because the American laws do not prohibit the religious from practicing their faith in any way, yet the Christian majority is trying to push their ideology as state law. It's self-centred and it appears that when it comes up in the news, the anchors are not addressing the real issue.
This isn't about restricting freedom to pray, it's about protecting the minority from being swept into ideologies that they oppose
tommyk77 1 year ago
They really ought to get a historian expery on Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Thomas Paine in the studio, to put these religious wackjobs and their imprudent, uneducated views of American founders' history in their right place. Enough of these religious people going uncontested by experts in the subjects they use to support theocracy. The founders were very specific on this point, the division of church & state was their -first- priority, for Christ sake (pun)!
abyssquick 1 year ago
Comment removed
rkulla 1 year ago
Another authoritarian, red-herring throwing religious asshole (not a dipshit because he's religious; it's incidental, not causal) Obviously these people wouldn't mind a theocracy.
Religious people are imprudently arguing for their religion, by the words of Deists. If anyone cares to read the founder' intention with the word "Creator" in the establishment of a republic, they will know exactly what is meant; that rights are not imbued by opinion or majority.
When did the USA get so stupid....?
abyssquick 1 year ago
@abyssquick When did you tear your education system to pieces? Count 30-40 years ahead from that.
hopeatikari 1 year ago
Wow, Gaylor really impressed me!
Sh1nyboots 1 year ago
ALG = heroin
godfree2canada 1 year ago
This was boring. Bring on Christopher Hitchens to own the atheist bitch, theist scumbag, and the black CNN anchor.
wontwice 1 year ago
@wontwice Why is the anchor's ethnicity relevant?
tommyk77 1 year ago
@tommyk77 it's not that relevant. I was just stating a fact.
wontwice 1 year ago
@wontwice Okay. I was just a little surprised you included that fact in a harsh criticism that contained negative words for the other two mentioned.
You can see my concern, I'm sure
tommyk77 1 year ago
@tommyk77 Your concerns are unfounded. There is nothing wrong with being a black...it's just I couldn't think of a pejorative term for him.
wontwice 1 year ago
@wontwice Oblivious could have been a good adjective. Oh well...
tommyk77 1 year ago
@wontwice if you ask nicely, maybe next time atheistmedia will put some pretty graphics or lights over the vid to entertain small minds like yours.
;d
666norton420 1 year ago
Hmmm. Would Randy support a National Day of Non Prayer? Nope.
TalladegaTom 1 year ago
Comment removed
wontwice 1 year ago
Religion was separated from government because in every case where clergy become involved in politics, tyranny and crime follow.
Mahoivlich 1 year ago 3
@Mahoivlich Or in the case of the UK, churches get special privileges that could be spent on health, scientific research, infrastructure etc
tommyk77 1 year ago
@tommyk77 I had read some reports on Blairs sponsorship on the creation of new faith schools as well. I do not understand why folks allow this as Most parts of the UK are highly secular are they not?
Mahoivlich 1 year ago
@Mahoivlich People in the UK are generally apathetic towards religion, but the general public persists with the idea that going to church means you have great morals. That idea is changing though. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, has come out as an atheist in the middle of the election campaign and he has been jumping up the opinion polls.
Sadly though, the conservatives are doing even better
tommyk77 1 year ago
@tommyk77 @tommyk77 @tommyk77 maybe the recent discussion about sexual abuse in church will be a catalyst to weaken this perceived "moral barrier" a bit! ;)
btw, the people in the former east-germany were >80% atheists.. (ranking 1st place in atheism worldwide) which was not due to religious repression(!)
it still annoys me to see people trying to place religious memes into society or even (mis)use them in politics to persuade naive people..
ToniPony 1 year ago
@ToniPony True. The frustrating thing though regarding your point about the catholic church cover-up is that people still have a defensive knee-jerk reaction when Christopher Hitchens suggests Joe Ratsinger be put to trial, purely because he is a religious leader
tommyk77 1 year ago
Comment removed
rkulla 1 year ago 2
Are they trying to establish a state religion on the U.S. that the first step Everyday I feel americans get closer to the islamist ideology pushed by the right wing of the country and they are the ones who speak against islam is so confusing I dont understand why would the U.S. want to follow that path
Malphar 1 year ago
Why is there no National Day of Logic?
OeditpusRex 1 year ago 60
Comment removed
rkulla 1 year ago
@rkulla Yeah, but it wouldn't stand a chance of passing Congress. It's too Marxosociocommuatheofascist.
OeditpusRex 1 year ago
@OeditpusRex
Because we're talking about America.
DeadCellsPhantom 1 year ago
@OeditpusRex
Darwin day and Sagan day.
TheWhiteRabbit1990 1 year ago 50
@TheWhiteRabbit1990 Excellent idea. :)
OeditpusRex 1 year ago
@TheWhiteRabbit1990 Not officially government recognized and not religious comemorations.
michalchik 1 year ago
@michalchik
??? I don't get it.
TheWhiteRabbit1990 1 year ago
@TheWhiteRabbit1990 Perhaps I misunderstood you, i thought you might be suggesting that the national day of prayer is equivalent to "atheist days" like Darwins or Sagan's birthday.
michalchik 1 year ago
oh how I love the fictitious 'Marketplace of Ideas'
postalgbv 1 year ago
I like her hair.
Sabohaque 1 year ago 2
They're trying so hard to keep us stupid.
wickedlick 1 year ago
"Enturrin' idears inda da fru markkketplace of idears." Real articulate, Representative.
alizee2010 1 year ago
This woman is too nice... Someone needs to put that snarky fucking douche in his place!
theirishfrog 1 year ago
Randy Forbes is the reason why American is associated with stupidity, arrogance and tyranny.
alizee2010 1 year ago
Sucks to be American. Freedom from religion is a fundamental right even in theocracies like Iran and Saudi Arabia. These fundie christians need to be reigned in.
OccamsView 1 year ago
@OccamsView i heard otherwise in Arabia. that they have a state religion. your comment seems backward. in the US we are generally free to practice what we want. not those other countries
NegativeNick 1 year ago
5:00
The rock??
Shmuklidooha 1 year ago
I propose a national day of scientology in which people may reflect on the bad chakras that lord xenu has left them.
Would rep. Forbes defend this on the grounds that the word "may" makes it all nice and optional and not a state endorsement of L Ron Hubbard?
wilfredthebold 1 year ago
is this randy forbes guy for real? he reads the DOI and finds religious connections? wtf is this guy on? his arrogance is sickening.
rockbass 1 year ago
@rockbass High on political power maybe. that has tendency of corrupting people. oh and don't forget imaginary friends.
hopeatikari 1 year ago
This fucking douche just doesn't get it. It's not about pushing religion away, it's just keeping it away from government! There's a big fucking difference! Pray and do whatever you want, it just can't be government endorsed! A national day of prayer is purely for the religious, you find me an atheist who prays and I'll rescind that. Rep. Fail.
StanMarsh1 1 year ago
In the constitution it states that you can not have a National religion in the US. Their for it is unconstitutional to have a Nation Day of Prayer.
artha14 1 year ago
There shouldn't be any special days at all IMO, not even co-ordinated holidays or free on Saturday and Sunday.
Reproductivist 1 year ago
If muslims got together and demanded a national day of praying Mecca, then the 700 club, Fox News, Rush Limbo and the Tea Party will be marching in Washington and probably incite riots. Heck, if Obama made an announcement tomorrow giving an exectutive order to allow a national day of prayer, the Republican party of "No" will do what they do best like ever since day one of Obama being in office. HELL NO YOU CAN'T!
VCMates 1 year ago
Sounds like a pointless law to me, law's are tools to protect the people from what we deem as crimes. or perhaps as deterrents to crimes (eg. loitering), this law is nothing more than interference in citizens lives, something a law should not do.
supertrinko 1 year ago
I want a national day for appreciating cats.
Meiklelodians 1 year ago 22
@Meiklelodians
And you'd be entitled to :)
There's no separation of cats and state as far as I'm aware.
Sykotix1 1 year ago
@Meiklelodians mrrrrow?
DonQuixotedeKaw 1 year ago
@Meiklelodians 2 days, some of us have to [jealous] cats
BatmanASB 1 year ago
@Meiklelodians
That's everyday.
SirGriefALot 1 year ago
@Meiklelodians I want a national day for appreciating meeee!!! :)
frankdarabont 1 year ago
@Meiklelodians
pfft dogs!
BLUEC0RE 1 year ago
I believe the bible says something about prayer. You know, in the new testament. Something about "praying in private".
Matt 6:6
It would behoove christians to read the footnotes on this verse in their ungodly-sized bibles. The bibical jesus had some strong feelings toward vain and repetious prayers said in public.
snackynak 1 year ago
So, concerning the "free market of ideas" rep. Forbes mentioned so many time, I guess he wouldn't mind then if the federal government had a national atheist day where all Americans are encouraged to consider how silly all the bronze age superstitions are. Of course, no one would be forced to participate, its just another idea out there for people to think about. Lets be honest for a change shall we. the religious would scream bloody murder if someone tried this on them.
jambimon 1 year ago 2
Could anyone explain to me why the government, in the USA, is advocating, actively, a religious exercise, in order to unite its people under its control? It shows little deviation from the goals of George Orwell's 1984's Hate Week, in addition to violating the principle of secularism.
You cannot accomplish the goal of not telling people what rituals to perform without stopping to oblige them to perform them at all.
Anyone care to explain? Please?
handplanty 1 year ago
@handplanty Our population are overwhelmingly religious, the arrogant "oh everyone believes like i do" religiosity, so overwhelmingly that tyranny of the majority is more considered "common sense"
and those people, by appealing to it in their neighbors, are the ones that get elected, and over time here we are.
It's sickening, Thomas Jefferson would be saddened to say the least.
Floridanon407 1 year ago
@Floridanon407 Coming from a secular nation, Holland, that's very frightening, not to mention the current condition of the Board of Education of your state of Texas. Isn't the similarity between 1984's approach to "sexcrime" and the abstinence-only education ironic? ^^ But with 20% Muslim and 15% (or 20%, depending on which survey you trust) agnostic, one wonders who your Christian leaders are trying to represent, and why.
handplanty 1 year ago
@handplanty
Could you refresh me how sex crime was dealt with in the novel?
alizee2010 1 year ago
@alizee2010 Sex - excuse me, I'm a 16-year old virgin, you might know more about this than I do - in the novel, supposedly relieves one of the pursuit of hapiness because it has already been achieved. It is replaced by marching in the streets and love for Big Brother, hence the metaphor "It's just sex gone sour". Sexcrime is in itself a substitution for the government with one's own pleasure, and is thus resistance against the establishment.
handplanty 1 year ago
@alizee2010 I don't know very much about abstinence education besides the fact that it's never worked out. It figure it to resemble this strategy, and thus I don't know whether it's got anything to do with control over the people rather than clean divine marriage, whatever that means in a country that watcher Who Wants to Marry a Millionare or The Bachelor. It's fun, though, to think that it does.
handplanty 1 year ago
@handplanty Yes, our founders (while the vast majority of them were VERY fanatically christian) set up a government that was entirely secular.
Since then both sides have been trying to erode one part of our nation or another, and both sides seek to use education/indoctrination to do so, as demonstrated by texas and the other sides imposing their economic dogmas.
It's a VERY Orwellian type of "newspeak" all around, and in short, our leaders represent who gets them the most votes these days.
Floridanon407 1 year ago
What the fuck is a market place of ideas?
curlyq101 1 year ago 2
@curlyq101 It's Dominion-speak.
The language of theocratic indoctrination propaganda.
People who speak it, are openly seditious.
DonQuixotedeKaw 1 year ago
did the host of this show just get off his shift at TGI Fridays?
Judacoth 1 year ago
the biggest softball ever @ 3.10
up2trix 1 year ago
Annie is a classy cool headed lady as usual.
limpnail 1 year ago
Christians are such snakes. It's obvious they want this 'day of prayer' to force people to pray. They want to force people to be deluded like them. It's a disgrace!
AtheistOnTheEdge 1 year ago 3
Why do the religious insist on forcing religion into the government and thereby forcing it on all citizens, no matter what their beliefs? Why cant they be happy with personal prayers and prayers in churches and in their homes? Are they so insecure about their beliefs that they cant tolerate people who are of a different mind? Perhaps Christians would like to bring back the Inquisition.
lc237 1 year ago
@lc237
They all think zhat their particular denomination will prevail.
DeletedDelusion 1 year ago
She was coached too much to stay 'on message' instead of discrediting all this congressman's strawman projections onto her. Don't let the other guy frame the debate but also don't let him 'frame you' into the devil
Hopeful71 1 year ago
The Declaration of Independence is no national credo. The language in the Declaration of Independence was not intended to make a religious assertion but to deny that rights were granted by the King of England. Natural rights trump the devine rights of kings.
At the time the Declaration of Independence was written there was no United States of America or its Constitution. So the Declaration could not possibly be unconstitutional even if it served no secular purpose - which it obviously does.
claudiaquat 1 year ago
The point here is that the United States government and its constitution strictly forbids any prosthelytization, promotion, or enforcement of religion, whatsoever. The values the country was founded on were focused on encouraging any and all races and religions to live here without discrimination or persecution.
Also, the First Amendment makes the separation of church all too clear for subjugation to interpretation. Keep YOUR religion out of MY face and OUR government.
IFloridaMotocrossI 1 year ago 2
The phrase "marketplace of ideas" creeps me out.
daevczen 1 year ago 2