DON'T SCAPEGOAT ATHEISTS
[Published in three Texas Newspapers] By Howard Thompson
Editor: The Texas Atheist newsletter
Copyright 1999 by Howard Thompson ----------------------------------------------------------
God & Prayer, God & Prayer that's all you hear after the Columbine school killings. If we just reversed the 1963 O'Hair Supreme Court decision, then God & Prayer could return to public schools and violence would vanish.
Atheist Madalyn O'Hair, so the story goes, drove God & Prayer from schools, and violence rushes in where atheism banishes God & Prayer. Satanic atheists are thus to blame for violence in schools. We can fix everything if we combat atheism and force God & Prayer on students as we did in the good-old-days.
This popular myth scratches all the conservative Christian itches. It is so popular that it has become what Communists called a Big Lie, for mere facts cannot shake faith in it. Let's give it a try anyhow.
Madalyn O'Hair was an atheist. She was so foul, abusive and dishonest most atheists rejected her. It was Unitarian Edward Schempp who started the "Abington School District v. Schempp" case of the 1963 Supreme Court decision. Madalyn joined in later on the cheap and held press conferences to take credit. Everyone then happily blamed atheists for kicking God & Prayer out of schools.
The Supreme Court has the authority to say what the U.S. Constitution means. They voted to end prayer in public schools as a proper interpretation of the Constitution and its amendments. Why blame atheists for the vote of believing Court Justices?
In the Constitutional Convention of 1787, our believing founders established a government with authority from "We the People," not God. It was the first Western government to NOT claim authority from God. The Bill of Rights with the First Amendment "establishment of religion" clause quickly followed. Why blame atheists for the Constitution and Bill of Rights defended in the Supreme Court decision?
Prayer has not even really been banned from schools. Private prayer has always been protected in law and court decisions. What is prohibited is government organized or planed religious observances. Anyone who says that God & Prayer are banned from public schools is ignorant or lying.
Heck, public school prayer was not even the norm before 1963. A 1959 study shows only 33.6% of school districts reporting regular prayers (Richard B. Dierenfield, "Religion in American Public Schools," pp. 49-58, 1962). How can atheists be blamed for killing a golden age of school prayer that never existed?
The conservative Christian myth of God & Prayer banned from schools as the cause of violence also fails rationally. Jesus/God is supposedly all-powerful and everywhere. How, then, can mere humans expel God from schools?
Christianity's God vs Satan theology requires evil humans to blame for evil in the world. Christianity must have bad-guys for Christians to be the good-guys. The Big Lie linking Madalyn O'Hair, the 1963 Supreme Court decision, atheism and school violence is really a conservative Christian myth that scapegoats atheism.
The Big Lie of evil atheism works well for Christianity. Atheism is the most despised philosophy. Atheists are denied equality in laws, courts, employment and public life. Best of all for Christianity, atheism is virtually powerless, so there is zero risk from bullying atheists.
Believe Christianity's Big Lie about atheism if you want, but realize the facts refute it.
Howard Thompson is editor of The Texas Atheist newsletter. You may contact him at gofreemind@aol.com.