Howard

It is really quite laughable (to me anyway) how American Christians wail and moan over their belief that the federal courts have “kicked God out of the public arena.�? An immediate question that comes to mind is: How in the world can a group of mere mortals dictate where the Creator of the Universe can and can’t go. I mean, it’s his universe isn’t it?

When I ask these question of Christians, one answer I invariably get is: God doesn’t go where he isn’t wanted. But that answer doesn’t hold water because, by and large, God is wanted in the public square by a vast number, if not a solid majority, of Americans - their version of God anyway. And invoking the legal system doesn’t work either because no true God would allow man-made laws and court rulings to override his will… would he?

A similar absurdity is also involved in the posting of the Ten Commandments. We keep hearing that God wants the Ten Cs prominently placed in all American public schools and buildings. But we hear this from people, not from God. One would think that if God wanted the Ten Cs posted everywhere he could burn them into the walls of all the buildings, kind of like he did on the tablets in the movie of the same name. Not only would that be uber-cool, but it would go a long way in convincing people about both the existence and desires of the deity.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems rather incongruous that an all-powerful being could be told where he can and can’t go, and what he can and can’t do, by a handful of elderly people in black robes.

Ojuice5001

Well, don't think that atheists are the only ones who believe, on some level, that the gods have to be mentioned in order to be present. IMO, that's really what this saying is about. My fellow pagans refer to it derisively as the "Tinkerbell theory."

This confusion is somewhat insidious, and I think it's necessary for theists to eradicate it. (This does not mean denying that humans talking about the gods makes some difference. Obviously it does.) For instance, I think Yahweh's greatest rivals are a (almost) totally non-revealed pantheon called the post-Enlightenment gods, but some people find it strange to contemplate gods that affect the world constantly without ever revealing themselves. To segue back into the Supreme Court saying outlined in the original post, at one point I took this kind of rhetoric on Christians' part to mean that Yahweh was losing to the post-Enlightenment gods, because his followers had such a problem with things like the SC. (But I always recognized that the really important institution is not the government, but the media.) But now I think that Yahweh has been regaining a lot of power for over two decades, even though his name still isn't praised in the schools and his followers (and probably he) still have a problem with it. His influence on the public arena works through the Christian religion, of course, but also through other channels. Especially conservative politics.

Ab_Normal

The only thing that has been kicked out of areas paid for and supported by tax dollars are references to one deity. Throw in more than one deity, or enough secular stuff to balance it out, and *voila* they can have all the god or gods in government buildings they want. And private property owners can build or post anything they want, as long as it passes local building standards and codes. Oh, and kids can pray in school, they just can't be led in prayer by adults employed by the school system, or broadcast their prayers over the PA.

But because they have to have some consideration for the law and the beliefs of others, *bing* they're oh-so-oppressed. Where's my teeny-tiny violin?

breathilizer

Hey, what ever happened to that smiley?

Ojuice5001

It's still there. You just have to click on the little "more" at the lower left-hand corner of the smilies, and you'll be taken to the rest of the smilies we have.

:boohoo: See?