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ORIGINAL: Edwynn

You were successfully snookered by the reporter's title of "Atheists Score Major Win," when the word "atheist(s)" was only given as an adjunct to the broader humanist faction in the article. This sort of chicanery is SOP for the media, and their (accurate, as it turns out) P.T. Barnum assessment of their audience.

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ORIGINAL: Marc2b

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I find the decision quite interesting.

The decision is appalling. It makes it easier for the fundies to try and get the theory of evolution (and other scientific theories) out of science classes and replaced with their creationism/intelligent design claptrap.

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The judge based his decision on the Constitutional point that Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.

Reality is not a religion. Fiction is a necessary component of any, and every, religion.

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Non-religious people now have a religion, and are now entitled to everything that goes along with that.

I'll believe that when I can open up a tax exempt "church" of Atheism.

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If you really want religious freedom, then you must be willing to accept it for every religion, not just yours.

That, unfortunately, goes against the whole idea of religion which is that your particular brand of nonsense is the only "true" religion.

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ORIGINAL: Gauge
Odd then that an Atheist brought this to Federal court, no?

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ORIGINAL: Gauge
Actually, the suit was brought by this organization: http://americanhumanist.org/

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The essence of religion in its substantial definition is procedural and it is based in belief. All beliefs are not fiction. It requires a belief and in addition that belief must be part of a persons self governance, or put into action to bear the label 'religion', and therefore applies to anyone who can think, not the spaghetti monster propaganda that became a fad a few years ago.

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That said atheism is a religion

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Taking that one step further, people in this country have never had the right to "exercise" their religion, only pray for the day they could.

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic

Agnostics might get a pass, but ultimately, atheism is just as faith-based as any deistic ideology.

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ORIGINAL: Gauge

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Oh dear god.

Would you care to elaborate or shall I just use my vivid imagination?

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ORIGINAL: Edwynn

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The essence of religion in its substantial definition is procedural and it is based in belief. All beliefs are not fiction. It requires a belief and in addition that belief must be part of a persons self governance, or put into action to bear the label 'religion', and therefore applies to anyone who can think, not the spaghetti monster propaganda that became a fad a few years ago.

Religion is based on a belief in a god (and a devil, in most cases). Someone having a belief in an ideal or in a new business proposition does not make that ideal or proposition a 'religion,' though the zealotry can sometimes match that of a religion.

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That said atheism is a religion

Oh please. Have you ever been in a business meeting? A sales meeting? Atheism has a long way to go to catch up to the Jim Joneses in that milieu, much less religion. When I looked it up many years ago, 'atheism' was divided into three groups: the agnostics, who said "we have no idea," the 'passive atheists' who said "there is no proof," and the positive atheists who said "there is no god, period."

Only one out of the three could be, however implausibly, and even then only by religionists, as a "religion.

Sorry, you can't foist your own world-view definitions on everybody else, even if only in service to your weakness in your own 'faith.' Even though 'lack-of-faith faith' would be a better description for most Western and ME religions., since many of them feel the need for government enforcement of same, disguised as 'freedom' of religion.

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Taking that one step further, people in this country have never had the right to "exercise" their religion, only pray for the day they could.

What Twilight Zone religion or country are you talking about? Most of the situation for over 1,600 years in Europe and 400 years in the American continent made it effectively impossible to avoid the stinking religion. Read a history book sometime! The Pilgrims came to the Americas to escape the religious persecution of not being allowed to 'exercise' their own brand of religious persecution.

They came to these shores for the religious freedom to burn witches alive and drown 12 yr. old girls.

The faithful were invited to watch, and were always faithful in that regard.

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How are they going to do that?

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So, people aren't free to believe if they want to?

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Based on this decision, I am fairly certain that you could do just that.

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ORIGINAL: ThatDaveGuy69

Atheism is a religion the same way that bald is a hair color.

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ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

Some sense of irony will be required on the part of the reader -- not included in post.

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ORIGINAL: Marc2b

By claiming that evolution - which many fundie groups equate with atheism and/or humanism (here is just one example) - is a religious notion and therefore falls under the First Amendment prohibition against religion being taught in the public schools. Oh, they don't have any problem with their religion being taught as fact but, until they have the power to force that on society, they're willing to stick it to the godless liberals with their own court rulings. At the very least they hope to force "equal time" for their nonsense. They have already tried it.

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In my church, instead of Sunday morning mass we will have Friday Night Pink Floyd jam sessions.

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Actually, it appears that the Pope, of all people, is starting to say that evolution and creationism make sense together. Evolution is being taught as science is it not?

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I am so there. I'll bring my bass rig.

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ORIGINAL: Gauge

Actually, it appears that the Pope, of all people, is starting to say that evolution and creationism make sense together. Evolution is being taught as science is it not?

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ORIGINAL: Gauge

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ORIGINAL: Marc2b

By claiming that evolution - which many fundie groups equate with atheism and/or humanism (here is just one example) - is a religious notion and therefore falls under the First Amendment prohibition against religion being taught in the public schools. Oh, they don't have any problem with their religion being taught as fact but, until they have the power to force that on society, they're willing to stick it to the godless liberals with their own court rulings. At the very least they hope to force "equal time" for their nonsense. They have already tried it.

Actually, it appears that the Pope, of all people, is starting to say that evolution and creationism make sense together. Evolution is being taught as science is it not?

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In my church, instead of Sunday morning mass we will have Friday Night Pink Floyd jam sessions.

I am so there. I'll bring my bass rig.

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ORIGINAL: Marc2b

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Actually, it appears that the Pope, of all people, is starting to say that evolution and creationism make sense together. Evolution is being taught as science is it not?

The Catholics and other "light" versions of religion (in other words, people who go through the motions more out of tradition than any real conviction) don't worry me too much. The threat against science comes from the fundamentalist sects who refuse to tolerate anything the contradicts their dogma. They may be a minority but they have numbers enough to really muck things up with their idiocy. They continually attempt to insert their dogma - Biblical literacy - into the public schools as the first step in re-ordering society into their idea of what a proper Christian society should be like.

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I am so there. I'll bring my bass rig.

And for communion, no more dry wafer and measly sip of wine - communion in my church will be The Passing of the Doobie. Followed by The Passing of the Mountain Dew.

By the way, I am fully aware of how much my use of the word "doobie" dates me.

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ORIGINAL: TheHeretic
Agnostics might get a pass, but ultimately, atheism is just as faith-based as any deistic ideology.

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ORIGINAL: http://www.wnd.com/2005/08/31895/#iB1lQXAPUtKsQ1XF.99
The Supreme Court has said a religion need not be based on a belief in the existence of a supreme being. In the 1961 case of Torcaso v. Watkins, the court described “secular humanism” as a religion.

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ORIGINAL: DesideriScuri

I wonder how many "religious holidays" they have...