THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT GETS IT WRONG (AGAIN)

When U.S. District Court Judge Barbara Crabb (Wisconsin) ruled the Congressionally-mandated National Day of Prayer was unconstitutional, leaders of the Religious Right pulled their heads from the sand and let out a huge yelp.

They said things like:

"Since the days of our Founding Fathers, the government has protected and encouraged public prayer and other expressions of dependence on the Almighty..." (Shirley Dobson of Focus on the Family)

and

"It is unfortunate that this court failed to understand that a day set aside for prayer for the country represents a time-honored tradition..." (Jay Sekulow of Pat Robertson's Center for Law and Justice)

Actually, the court decision is not attacking our heritage, but is upholding it. Anyone who has read about our Founding Fathers, their views on religion, and their reasons for leaving god out of the Constitution should know better.
James Madison, who is considered to be the Father of the Constitution, thought presidential prayer proclamations nourished the idea of a national religion. Thomas Jefferson believed the decision to pray or not should be an individual choice.

And as for the National Day of Prayer being a time-honored tradition from the early days of our country, it was enacted by Congress less than 60 years ago.
Judge Crabb said that by enacting the National Day of Prayer statute, “the government has taken sides on a matter that must be left to individual conscience.... Recognizing the importance of prayer to many people does not mean that the government may enact a statute in support of it, any more than the government may encourage citizens to fast during the month of Ramadan, attend a synagogue, purify themselves in a sweat lodge or practice rune magic. In fact, it is because the nature of prayer is so personal and can have such a powerful effect on a community that the government may not use its authority to try to influence an individual’s decision whether and when to pray.”

(Source: The Wall of Separation blog, 4/16/10)

Help Earthquake Victims in Haiti

The news and photos from Haiti and the Dominican Republic are almost too terrible to imagine. Those of us who are atheists know that there is no god who is going to provide relief for those who are suffering there. Prayer will do no good. We must act to help those in need.
According to moveon.com, "Three million people have been affected by Tuesday's earthquake, and the Red Cross estimates as many as 50,000 may be dead. Survivors are digging through the rubble with their hands in a desperate attempt to rescue those who are trapped. With water and medical supplies in short supply, and the Haitian government paralyzed, international aid efforts in the next few days will be critical to prevent more human suffering."
According to screencrave.com, MTV is working with George Clooney to host a telethon to raise funds for the victims of the earthquake. The event, which has a tentative air date of January 22nd, will air on all MTV affiliated networks including BET and VH1.

As usual, beware of individuals and unsolicited emails claiming to be collecting funds for the relief efforts. You can find an article HERE about disaster relief scams.

The American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity-watchdog group, has a list of top-rated Haiti relief organizations HERE. This organization gives charities grades of A+ to F and recommends donating to those that receive an A or B grade based on the portion of their budget actually going to the program and other factors.

I have listed below those non-religious charities recommended by the American Institute of Philanthropy with A grades. (I didn't have time to research them all, but these seem to be non-religious. Please let me know if I am wrong.) We know that many religious charities do a great deal of good, but many of them come with religious "baggage."

Action Against Hunger (A)

American Red Cross (A-)

American Refugee Committee (A)

AmeriCares (A)

CARE (A)

Doctors Without Borders (A)

International Medical Corps (A+)

International Rescue Committee (A+)

Mercy Corps (A-)

Operation USA (A)

Oxfam America (A-)

Project Concern International (A)

Save the Children (A)

Skip the prayers. Make a donation.

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 4

TWAIN, MARK

(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)

American author,

journalist, humorist

(1835-1910)

Many quotations have been attributed to Twain that came from other sources. If you find I have wrongly attributed a quotation to Twain, please leave a comment or email me at mythoughtsarefree@gmail.com. Thank you.

• “Such is the human race. Often it does seem a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.” (Christian Science)

• “Temperate temperance is best. Intemperate temperance injures the cause of temperance, while temperate temperance helps it in its fight against intemperate intemperance. Fanatics will never learn that, though it be written in letters of gold across the sky.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “To eat is human, to digest divine.”

• “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.~ (Innocents Abroad)

• “Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.” (Mark Twain, a Biography)

• “Virtue has never been as respectable as money.” (Innocents Abroad)

• “Water taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody.”

• “We get our morals from books. I didn’t get mine from books, but I know that morals do come from books ---theoretically at least.” (Remarks at the Opening of the Mark Twain Library)

• “Whatever the Church damns is saved; whatever it opposes prospers ---like anti-slavery and evolution.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

• “What’s the use you learning to do right, when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same?” (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1885)

• “When angry, count four. When very angry, swear.” (Pudd’nhead Wilson, 1894)

• “Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.” (Mark Twain’s Notebook)

Read more about Mark Twain & his religious skepticism at the end of:

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 1

Find more quotations at the above post and these:

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 2

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 3

WISDOM OF MARK TWAIN - Part 5

IMAGINARY FRIEND

SAM HARRIS

on

HURRICANE KATRINA

and

PRAYER

        “It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Hurricane Katrina struck shared...belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while Katrina laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Do you have the courage to admit the obvious? These people died talking to an imaginary friend.” 

(Letter to a Christian Nation, p. 53)

I DON'T BELIEVE IN PRAYER BECAUSE.....

        Diane, at Diane's Addled Rambling blog, posted a wonderful heartfelt post about why she doesn't believe in prayer. I had been thinking of writing on this topic myself, but Diane said it all on her post of March 23, 2009.

        She said: "I often say I believe in tolerance over faith because in the end, not a one of us knows for sure."

        So click on the link to her post to read what else Diane had to say about prayer, religion, faith, and tolerance. And enjoy what some others have said about prayer below:

• "Pray, v. To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy."  --- Ambrose Bierce (The Devil's Dictionary, 1911)

• “Hands that help are nobler than lips that pray.” ---Robert G. Ingersoll

• "Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer." ---Author Unknown

• "Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." ---Mark Twain

• “It is safe to say that almost every person living in New Orleans at the moment Hurricane Katrina struck shared...belief in an omnipotent, omniscient, and compassionate God. But what was God doing while Katrina laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. These were people of faith. These were good men and women who had prayed throughout their lives. Do you have the courage to admit the obvious? These people died talking to an imaginary friend.” ---Sam Harris, (Letter to a Christian Nation)

• "It may be that ministers really think that their prayers do good, and it may be that frogs imagine that their croaking brings spring." ---Robert G. Ingersoll (Which Way? 1884)

• “Give a man a fish, and you'll feed him for a day; give him a religion, and he'll starve to death while praying for a fish.”  ---Author Unknown

• "Praying is begging for an unseen deity to alter the laws of nature for someone admittedly unworthy." — George Carlin

• "When we talk to God, we're praying.  When God talks to us, we're schizophrenic." — Lily Tomlin

• “This doctrine of the material efficacy of prayer reduces the Creator to a cosmic bellhop of a not very bright or reliable kind.”  ---Herbert J. Muller

• "Man is a marvelous curiosity... he thinks he is the Creator's pet... he even believes the Creator loves him; has a passion for him; sits up nights to admire him; yes and watches over him and keeps him out of trouble.  He prays to Him and thinks He listens.  Isn't it a quaint idea?" -—Mark Twain

• "When did I realize I was God?  Well, I was praying and I suddenly realized I was talking to myself." —- Peter O’Toole

• “The creator who could put a cancer in a believer's stomach is above being interfered with by prayers.” --- Bret Harte (as quoted by James A Haught, editor, 2000 Years of Disbelief)

• “Most of us spend the first six days of each week sowing wild oats, then we go to church on Sunday and pray for a crop failure.”  ---Fred Allen